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Water-bill row accelerates
by Bill Bowder
THE Churches Main Committee was scheduled to meet the Government’s water regulator, Ofwat, yesterday, in a bid to clear up confusion over churches that are charged as businesses, not as charities, by water companies (News, 20 March), . A spokeswoman for the Committee said last week: “We are very determined to get a clear statement from Ofwat.” The Committee was seeking evidence of what was happening.A Downing Street petition (http:// petitions.pm.gov.uk/ChurchWaterBills), asking that churches should be treated as charities by the water companies, was started by David Boddy, a teacher in the diocese of York. By this week, more than 600 signatories had added their names. The list will close on 7 July. A member of the General Synod, Martin Dales, who hopes to move a private motion on the subject at the July sessions, welcomed the meeting with Ofwat. Mr Dales wants Synod to ask the Government to require Ofwat to put pressure on water companies to treat churches as charities, which would be in line with government recommendations. Naming Yorkshire Water as one of the companies concerned, Mr Dales said: “People are sitting around swapping stories of 1300-per-cent increases in the cost of their bills, and that is out of order. Yorkshire Water, with its huge profits, should be making an effort to exempt charities like churches.” A spokeswoman for Ofwat said the meeting this week was not about charging churches as charities. They had been subsidised by other water-consumers for decades, and the meeting was to clear up any misunderstanding. The new rates have already delayed the Revd Paul Mothersdale, Rector of Thornton Dale, also in the diocese of York, who wants to put a lavatory into his 14th-century church. He fears Yorkshire Water could charge him £2000. A spokeswoman for the company said it had followed Ofwat guidelines. “Yorkshire Water does not provide any charitable institution with discounted water bills, and is not required to do so. Any waiver of charges is at the discretion of the company.” But Mr Mothersdale would pay only the £383 fee to connect the lavatory to the sewer, she said. |
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