The vicar and churchwardens petitioned for a faculty permitting the erection of a prefabricated storage shed in an unused corner of the churchyard. The shed was for the use of a local Scout Group, which used the church hall for meetings, and it was proposed that an appropriate licence agreement be entered into for the use of the shed. The churchyard had never been used for burials. The chancellor observed that the land was consecrated and that the proposed building was separate from the church and would be for entirely secular use. He discussed the increasingly flexible approach that the consistory court has taken to the secular use of church buildings and land in recent decades. The chancellor held that, as a matter of fact and degree, it was not appropriate for part of church land to be permanently given over to a secular storage building as that would be failing to give sufficient recognition to the consecrated nature of the land. He said that different considerations would apply to a temporary building and granted a faculty permitting the erection of a temporary building. This would emphasise the fact that consecration is not temporary and that the secular use is subordinate to the permanent status of the land. The chancellor was prepared to grant a faculty for a period of five years, with both the faculty and the licence to contain a condition that the hut would be removed at the end of this period. He invited submissions from the petitioners as to the length of this period. The chancellor anticipated that the period may well be extended in due course but emphasised the importance of the fact that the faculty was not a permanent one. [RA]
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