The Leisure and Technical Services Manager introduced the report by giving a background to closed churches and the Council’s responsibility to health and safety of the facilities.  He advised that risk assessments were reviewed annually, and in 2019 a conditions survey was carried out by an independent company on 21 closed churchyards and 10 war memorials.  The Leisure and Technical Services Manager drew attention to the results of the survey and highlighted the eight areas that were looked at as set out in the report.  He explained that 12 of the churchyards were deemed to have priority one works relating to safety issues.  The Leisure and Technical Services Manager explained the process of reviewing the surveys with officers and liaising with the Diocese. 

In reference to the financing of the works, the Leisure and Technical Services Manager said there was an annual memorial budget of approximately £32k and at the start of the works there was a reserve of just under £66k. There was a budget for works to trees within churchyards of £63k although the trees were not included in the surveys.  An additional £80k was provided by the Improvement and Resilience Fund and £9.5k granted by the Western Area Committee for specific works.  The Leisure and Technical Services Manager said that whilst the works to the church wall at St. Michael’s Church, Sittingbourne were included in the survey, this was funded by a separate funding stream.

The Leisure and Technical Services Manager said that just over £74k had been spent to date and all priority one works were now complete in addition to other works.  He said that works to two war memorials had cost just over £26k and an order for some additional war memorial works costing £14.5k had been placed.

As concerns had been expressed relating to the ongoing liabilities falling to local authorities, the Leisure and Technical Services Manager drew attention to paragraph 5.1 in the report which explained that, at the Council’s request, Gordon Henderson MP had written to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Local Government and Building Safety and in his response it was confirmed that there were no proposed changes to the policy that required local authorities to take on responsibilities for churchyards.

The Leisure and Technical Services Manager said the priority two works, which were yet to start, were estimated to cost £217k and priority three works £126.5k. 

Finally, the Leisure and Technical Services Manager said the Special Projects Officer had been leading on this project but that role was ending on 1 July 2023.

In response, Members asked questions and raised points including:

·         Councils’ responsibilities for closed churchyards and War Memorials was unfair, out of date and unsustainable;

·         suggested the Committee wrote to the Minister asking for the Government to agree for funding to be set on a fairer and more sustainable, shared basis with churches;

·         suggested working with churches for additional funding;

·         suggested including how much funding was needed in the letter to the Minster; and

·         noted that only Gordon Henderson had responded, the pressure should be kept on both MP’s for the Swale area.

The Chair suggested the letter to the Minister should be sent via the MP’s.

The Head of Environment and Leisure said priority one works carried the highest health and safety risk so needed action first and priorities two and three needed attention but could be done over a longer period.  He confirmed that the Council engaged heavily with churches. 

The Head of Environment and Leisure agreed to write to both the Minister and the MP’s with the Committee’s request to consider a fairer system of funding and responsibility.

POST MEETING NOTE:

The Chair was contacted by MP Helen Whatley after the meeting who advised she had not received the original letter seeking assistance to lobby the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Local Government and Building Safety.

Resolved:

(1)  That the works continue to be prioritised based on risk rating utilising remaining agreed budgets.

(2)  That all major works outside of remaining agreed budgets be presented to the appropriate committee for consideration.