Green light for ramped access to town’s church

Council planners approve scheme for ‘accessible’ entrance to St Edward’s

PLANS for a new accessible entry to a listed Leek church have been approved.

Planners at Staffordshire Moorlands District Council have given the go ahead to form an accessible entry into the south porch main entrance, comprising creating ramped access and two additional steps at St Edward’s Church, in Church Street.

The application involves ramped flagstone pavement entrance in place of steps.

A decision report by case officer, Arne Swithenbank, said: “There is a degree of construction involved in forming the raised ramp structure. Being within the Leek Area development boundary, the construction work involved would be acceptable in principle.

“The main issue is the design appearance and impact on the heritage significance of the several heritage assets including Listed church; separately Listed Lych gate entrance and walls and railings; nearby Scheduled Ancient Monument (also a Listed structure), and the Leek Conservation Area.

“The extent to which the existing pavement structure may need to be regarded as being Listed, either as an attached structure or curtilage structure needs to be considered. In order to examine the question the official list entry details set by Historic England have been consulted.

“In considering whether to grant planning permission there is a statutory duty placed on the Local Planning Authority to consider the impact of the proposal on the special architectural and historic interest of the Listed Building affected, and its setting and ‘have special regard to the desirability of preserving the building or its setting or any features of special architectural or historic interest which it possesses.’

“As regards the Conservation Area places a statutory duty on the LPA in assessing planning applications in respect to any land or buildings in a Conservation Area to pay special attention to the desirability of preserving or enhancing the character or appearance of that area.

“Noting the Conservation Officer’s advice that the harm to heritage is ‘slight’ it is concluded therefore that the harm is ‘less than substantial’ in the meaning of the National Planning Policy Framework. In turn the public benefit of the scheme can be well understood in terms of mobility access to the church.

“Whilst there would be a visible change to the nearby setting with the raising of the path and addition of a hand rail, the effect – chiefly owing to the hand rail – can again reasonably be judged less than substantial and acceptable given the public benefit.

“The church agent commented it is not viable to make the West Doors the main entrance of the church, as the room at the bottom of the tower is (in normal times) used for activities such as children’s liturgies, which take place at the same time as the main service and would be disturbed by people entering and exiting the building (which does occasionally need to happen during a service).

“The meeting space cannot easily be replicated elsewhere in the building as it currently stands, so the west doors are only really currently used for pall-bearers bringing through coffins when the room is not in use, the South Porch should be retained as the right and proper ‘principal’ entrance of the building, having traditionally always been so and given its position facing toward the town centre.

“To direct visitors around to the tower base would seem counterintuitive when the South Porch is so imposing, and could potentially cause confusion.

“A good number of the congregation are now elderly and have difficulty with the steps into the porch. Along with this, not having to segregate less able-bodied visitors would present a substantial public benefit to mitigate what we would see as a minor impact of the proposals.

“There would be very little if any loss of historic fabric.

“In consideration the application is recommended for approval subject to conditions.”