Luff backs call to ban chancel repair liability (From Evesham Journal)

Luff backs call to ban chancel repair liability

11:00am Thursday 26th July 2012 in Evesham

EVESHAM MP Peter Luff has backed villagers in Broadway who have been threatened with an archaic law that could see them forced to pay thousands of pounds for church repairs.

He has called on the Government to act now against the archaic law, which stems back to the reign of Henry VIII, known as Chancel Repair Liability.

This comes just a week after retired Broadway couple Bill and Cathy Whamond told the Journal how they had received a letter from the parochial church council via the Land Registry telling them they were one of about 30 homes responsible for funding future repairs to the 12th century St Eadburgha’s Church in Snowshill Road.

Mr Luff said: “The village of Broadway may be witnessing the first act in a drama that threatens to being chaos and conflict to communities.

“The only way out of this I can see is for the Charity Commission to agree that parochial church councils should be exempted from their obligation to charge or for a new law to abolish the liability altogether.

“The current Government is going to have to act to stop thousands of families from being faced with this out-ofdate and morally unjustifiable burden.”

Mr and Mrs Whamond were originally given until yesterday to provide a legal objection but this deadline has now been extended until August 25.

The couple said: “It is a Government problem and they should have done something about it.”

A meeting to discuss the issue will be held tomorrow at St Michael’s Church in Broadway.