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Re St Mary the Virgin, Dedham

Chelmsford Consistory Court: Hopkins Ch, 23 May 2022 [2022] ECC Chd 2 Heating –2030 carbon neutrality target

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2023

David Willink
David Willink*
Affiliation:
Deputy Chancellor of the Dioceses of Salisbury, Saint Albans and Rochester
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Type
Case Notes
Information
Ecclesiastical Law Journal , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , January 2023 , pp. 119 - 120
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Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2023

The oil-fired heating system in this Grade I-listed church had come to the end of its life, and the petitioners sought a faculty for the installation of replacement gas-fired boilers. The DAC was disappointed that the parish had not opted for the more environmentally friendly option of under-pew heating, which it believed would take full account of the General Synod's 2030 carbon neutrality target. Likewise, the court was concerned that the petitioners had given insufficient consideration to the impact of the net zero target and the CBC guidance on ways of moving from fossil fuel heating systems, and also that insufficient regard had been given to the DAC's preferred option. In the light of the petitioners’ responses to specific questions, the court concluded that:

  1. (a) The petitioners had considered, with some care, the implications of their proposal for the carbon neutral agenda; and

  2. (b) On the basis of the available material, there were proper grounds for concluding that the gas heating system proposed by the petitioners was the more appropriate system in the circumstances.

The court accepted that an under-pew heating system would not be satisfactory, because there would be issues in running the necessary cabling, and potential cracking and damage to pews caused by the heat emitting from fixtures under the pews.

The court considered re St Thomas & St Luke, Dudley [2021] ECC Wor 2 and re St Peter's, Walsall [2021] ECC Lic 4; had it been necessary to do so, it would have considered the environmental implications of the proposal whether or not the petitioners had done so. However, given the conclusions set out above, the approach to be adopted was inconsequential.

The court noted the hope that, in future, it may be possible to convert the gas-powered system to use hydrogen. In the meantime, a faculty would be granted, subject to conditions including, so far as was practicable, the use of gas supplied under a green tariff (the additional cost of doing so being a quid pro quo for being permitted to install a gas boiler) and the off-setting of carbon emissions created by any non-renewable gas. [Naomi Gyane]