From Professor Kerry Downes, Mr Chris Dyson, Dr Mark
Girouard, and others
Sir, - Your article "Demolish new building, protest says" (
News, 23 June) fails to communicate that it is Chancery
counsel's advice that (a) the breaches of statute in Spitalfields
churchyard invalidate the permissions for development; (b) that the
erection of the new building is a breach of Section 3 of the
Disused Burial Grounds Act 1884, and a criminal offence; and (c)
that there is a plain breach of the public-open-space trust created
by the 1949 Deed, and a breach of the statutory trust created by
Section 10 of the Open Spaces Act 1906.
None of this has even been responded to, let alone rebutted by,
Tower Hamlets council or the diocese of London, although they
reported that they had taken legal advice from leading counsel in
response to the complaint. All the while, building work has
continued. Page 83 of The Churchyards Handbook says:
"there is a statutory prohibition against building on disused
burial grounds generally," and it cites in the footnote Section 3
of the 1884 Act (cited in the Spitalfields pre-action letter).
There are happier - and legal - sites for Spitalfields nursery
school.
What English Heritage thinks (the case officer is now Tower
Hamlets Conservation Officer), or whether nameless spokesmen say
that planning permissions or faculties have been granted, is
irrelevant till the statutory prohibitions and the breach of the
public open space trust have been addressed.
The diocese of London and the local council are marking their
own homework, which, it seems, they haven't done in the first
place: diocese and council proposed the development; diocese and
council gave permissions for it; and diocese and council are the
developers.
Are we and our supporters just little people to be ignored, who
shouldn't expect legal protection?
Kerry Downes, Chris Dyson, Mark Girouard, Philip Vracas,
Christine Whaite
Spitalfields Open Space
11 Princelet Street
London E1 6QH