A GROUP of campaigners failed in an
attempt to prevent a community centre in the gardens of Christ
Church, Spitalfields, from being occupied by a school (News, 28 June
2013). The group, Spitalfields Open Space ("the applicants"),
was set up by local people to campaign for the demolition of the
community hall used by Christ Church Primary School. In August last
year, they applied to the Consistory Court of the diocese of London
for a restoration order under the provisions of the Care of
Churches and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1991.
In February 2012, the Chancellor of the diocese of
London, his Honour the Worshipful Judge Seed QC, granted a faculty
for the dismantling of a youth-centre site in the gardens of the
church, for the development of a single-storey
school and community building in its place, and for it to be used
as a school during school hours in accordance with a licence
agreement that the London Borough of Tower Hamlets had with the
governors of the school and the PCC of Christ Church.
The applicants said that the grant of the faculty and
the erection of the building were unlawful, in that they were in
contravention of the Disused Burial Grounds Act 1833. They
asserted that they had drawn attention to that breach of statute
when the faculty was granted in 2012, but it had been
disregarded.
In light of that assertion,
Chancellor Seed sent for the original faculty file, and, having
gone through all the original material, said that the points of
objection to the faculty did not include one based on the Disused
Burial Grounds Act. None of the objections provided grounds for
refusing permission for a replacement building, which by that
time already had planning permission from the London Borough of
Tower Hamlets, as well as the support of English Heritage, and the
DAC.
The Chancellor said that all the points that were now
raised by the applicants could and should have been raised in
response to the original petition for the faculty. No appeal was
mounted after the faculty was granted, and the Chancellor said
that, in his judgment, "this application is nothing more than an
attempt to re-litigate settled issues long out of time."
The applicants were ordered to pay the governors of
Christ Church School, the Vicar and churchwardens of Christ
Church, the London Diocesan Board for Schools, and the London
Borough of Tower Hamlets any costs that they had incurred.