In February 2012 the chancellor granted a faculty for the dismantling of a youth centre site in Christ Church gardens and the development of a single-storey school and community building in its place. The works were undertaken and in August 2014 the applicant, a community group known as Spitalfields Open Space, applied for a restoration order and an interim injunction preventing the occupation of the building. It was the applicant's case that the grant of the faculty and the erection of the building were unlawful as contrary to section 3 of the Disused Burial Grounds Act 1884. The applicant asserted that this breach of statute had been drawn to the court's attention at the time of the faculty proceedings in 2011/2012 but that those objections were disregarded. The governing body of Christ Church Primary School, the diocesan board for schools and the local authority were all joined as parties to the proceedings. In August 2014 the chancellor refused the interim injunction on the ground that the application was designed to prevent a school from being used or occupied at the beginning of the new academic year.

The chancellor reviewed the original faculty file and directed that the proceedings be stayed on the ground that the objections based on the Disused Burial Grounds Act 1884 had not been raised as part of the faculty proceedings, despite the chair of the applicant body having written letters of objection in the case and having been given the opportunity of becoming a party opponent at that time. The chancellor was satisfied that the points now raised by the applicant could and should have been raised as part of the original faculty proceedings. No appeal was raised at that time and the current application was no more than an attempt to re-litigate settled issues long out of time. The application was a blatant abuse of the process of the court. [RA]