End church exemption from planning laws

sir – The decision to allow Bath Abbey to remove its benches (report, December 20) highlights an anomaly in the protection of churches. There is an “ecclesiastical exemption” from ordinary rules for listed buildings. This is given on the understanding that the Church will have protection in place equivalent to the secular planning system. The facts are far different.

For a secular listed building, an application will be advertised, details will be available on the local council website, objections will be publicly recorded and the decision will be taken openly, on the basis of published policies.

For a church – in many towns and villages the most important listed building – the system is different. The application for a faculty is poorly advertised, usually just in the porch of the church, where few see it. There is no planning website and details are not easily available. The first many parishioners hear about a proposal is when it is implemented.

Diocesan policies are often slanted strongly in favour of development – the Church’s systemic conflict of interest as both church operator and planning authority is obvious. The decision is not taken in public unless the matter goes to court.

The oversight of the consistory court is minimal and opaque, the judge having to seek advice from the diocesan committee that has already approved the application.

Other owners of listed buildings – such as Oxbridge colleges – have no similar exemption. The current system for churches should be abolished, and they should be brought into the secular system. Paul Walker

London W4