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Save Our Parsonages campaign vindicated by Wells decision

by
06 June 2014

iStock

From Mr Anthony Jennings

Sir, - You report ("Wells joy as decision to move Bishop is reversed", News, 9 May) that the committee appointed by the Archbishops' Council did not agree with those who criticised the purchase of the Old Rectory at Croscombe as "representing poor value for money", saying: "we accept the Commissioners' assertion that it represents an attractive investment asset."

Why, then, was it sold in the first place? Money was lost by repurchasing it at a higher price. And, if Georgian rectories are acknowledged to be such attractive assets, why has it for so long been the policy of the Church to sell them? Does this mean that the church institutions now accept what Save Our Parsonages has been saying for so many years, that "redundant" rectories and vicarages are indeed "attractive investment assets", and what they have been doing has been wrong?

Our advice is routinely ignored, and yet it follows from what the committee has said itself that they should never be sold, but kept as valuable capital assets and let out for valuable income.

ANTHONY JENNINGS
Director
Save Our Parsonages
Flat Z, 12-18 Bloomsbury Street
London WC1B 3QA

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