The petitioner sought the reservation of a double-depth gravespace for the use of his four children next to a plot informally reserved for himself and his wife and a plot in which his father was buried. The minister and parochial church council (PCC) acknowledged the prior informal reservation but did not support the new reservation as the limited space available in the churchyard meant that they would not support any future reservations and they did not want to provide a precedent of allowing a reservation from those residing outside the parish. The petitioner's family lived in the adjoining parish which had no space for burials.

The chancellor observed that the informal arrangement with a previous incumbent to reserve a plot for the petitioner and his wife was of no legal effect as no faculty had been obtained, and so could be revoked by the PCC at any stage. The chancellor considered section 6(2) of the Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure 1976 and the judgment in Re West Pennard Churchyard [1992] 1 WLR 33 and concluded that he had no power to grant a faculty for the new reservation without the consent of the incumbent. He nevertheless gave permission for the petitioner to amend the petition to include an application for a faculty regularising the position in relation to the informal reservation for the petitioner and his wife, as the PCC had acknowledged the petitioner's moral claim and entered the informal arrangement in the parish records. [RA]