[Bell Historians] Re: St John's Church Hanley

[Peter Rivet]

In reply to the comment by Giles Blundell - in fact it's the other way
round.  Ecclesiastical exemption means that the Church of England, the Roman
Catholic Church and a few other denominations which are considered to have
adequate procedures in place for dealing with alterations to places of
worship don't need to apply for Listed Building Consent.  This means that
the local planning authority doesn't have to get involved in fonts, bells
and other things that require a Faculty.  But churches still have to apply
for planning permission for external works, including alterations,
extensions and access ramps.

Once a church is no longer in use as such it's subject to both kinds of
control, if as in this case it's a Listed Building.  What view the local
planning authority - in this case, Stoke-on-Trent City Council - takes of
the possible removal of the bells is up to them.  The bells are certainly a
fixture, but they are very unlikely to appear in the listing description (I
haven't yet checked English Heritage's web site) because they aren't really
relevant to the reasons for building being listed.  But if they were put in
as a war memorial, no doubt local people will be interested.

Peter Rivet

  
           
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ringingworld.co.uk/pipermail/bell-historians/attachments/20070314/9d52c00a/attachment.html>