Holy row brewing over church loo

Wednesday 09 November 2016

Plans to put in a toilet and better disabled access at St Lawrence Church are creating a bit of a stink.

Planners might not have blocked it but one parishioner has now started a petition to try and put a stop to the £150,000 extension saying it "will permanently damage the historic integrity, character, and appearance" of the Church.

Sylvia Wood's petition that you can see here and which she plans to deliver to the Bishop of Dover, the Rector of St Lawrence and the parish constable, has almost 200 supporters so far including Warwick Rodwell, an ecclesiastical specialist who looks after Westminster Abbey who has branded the plans "an act of unbelievable heritage vandalism".

Mrs Wood said: “I have lived in St Lawrence all my life and I’ve loved the church since I was a little.  My family have been here for 200 years, I was married there, my daughter was married there.

"I’ve always lived in St Lawrence, that’s why I have such great interest in the church and I feel that the planning decision went completely against the advice of many of the most important architectural and archaeological specialists in the UK and many people over here.

"The thing about St Lawrence church it that it dates back to the 1100’s and it is one of the most important Norman church buildings in Jersey and in the UK and there is a very important cannon door which is going to be covered up forevermore which is terribly important to the history of Jersey and churches in Jersey and what they are proposing to do is build an extension that houses a loo, and apart from the cost, I think it is completely wrong."

But St Lawrence Church Warden and Lay reader Peter Noble thinks they've all got the wrong end of the stick.

He said: "Funnily enough this is where the whole thing has been misconstrued. The extension itself will cover up the cannon door from the outside of the building but once you go into the extension, you will still be able to see the cannon door and inside the church you’ll be able to see the cannon door.

"The existing cannon door is blocked up at the moment, it’s been filled in with granite which was done between 50 and 100 years ago."

Mr Noble said: "The café is something that happens purely on a Wednesday morning from 10:00 until 13:00 and it’s allowing parishioners of all religons and those of no faith whatsoever to come in and have a cup of tea or coffee and some cake and have a bit of fellowship. It's the only time the café is open but even with weddings, funerals and church services, people won’t come because they haven’t got a toilet.

"It’s something we have given a considerable amount of time to, the extension will be done in granite to match the existing granite and the window in that extension will match the window in the church elevation above it.

Mrs Wood thinks people should use the facilities at the parish hall next door instead. 

She said: "I’m not against a loo, and I’m not against community meeting in the slightest, all that’s wonderful but they are turning half the church into a café and putting a full blown kitchen in and of course if you fill people full of coffee it's with the obvious effect and the parish hall has all those facilities there."

But Mr Noble argues the facilities at the parish hall don't have direct access because they are only open during business hours and there's a keypad lock on the door. 

He says the plans have had Parish assembly approval, ecclesiastical court approval and planning approval and says the parish have agreed to stump up more than half the cost of the build.

Mrs Wood said: "I’m just hoping the people who I have sent the petition to it will take note of the unpopularity of it Islandwide of what they are going to do to one of our very important and beloved Jersey landmarks.

"It’s got amazing history and is a very important ecclesiastical building."

Mr Noble said: “I would honestly say that if you go through the history of the parish church it has been extended and added to over the centuries to provide for the needs of the community and this is another case of that. One could say that we are following history.”