In a petition for the augmentation of kitchen and toilet facilities and the removal of aisle pews in this Grade II* listed church the Registry received a number of objections from local residents. Those objections included a public petition objecting to the re-ordering containing 38 signatures. The Registry contacted as many signatories as could be identified from the petition, offering them the opportunity to become parties opponent in the proceedings. Only two responses were received, one asking that his views be taken into account and one indicating that she had not objected to the works and asking for her name to be removed from the public petition. In granting the faculty, the chancellor took the opportunity to express significant caution about the weight to be attached to objections raised by way of public petition. She observed that the court can never be certain of the basis upon which a signature has been appended to a petition or what information has been provided to the signatory. She stated that public petitions can rarely, if ever, hold great evidential value and will usually, at best, demonstrate no more than a general sense of some public concern or dissatisfaction. [RA]