Agenda item

Question from Councillor Roland Spencer

Holy Trinity Church at Lambley has had a Closed Church Yard since 1890. This means that this Council has a statutory duty to maintain the grounds. Could the Leader of the Council tell me who made the decision to stop this maintenance?

Answer from Councillor John Clarke, Leader of the Council

A closed churchyard is a churchyard belonging to a church of the Church of England which has been formally closed by an Order in Council made under the Burial Act.

Officers have contacted the Ministry of Justice, which has provided documentation to confirm that the closure of Holy Trinity Church at Lambley was postponed until 31 March 1897. So the Order did not take effect and the churchyard did not formally close until then.

When a churchyard is closed, responsibility for its maintenance falls on the Parochial Church Council. The Parochial Church Council is therefore required to keep the churchyard in decent order and its walls and fences in good repair. The responsibility for closed churchyards does not automatically pass to the district council – this only happens if a statutory process is followed.

That process starts with the Parochial Church Council serving 3 months’ notice on the Parish Council requiring it to take over maintenance of the closed churchyard. If the Parish Council does not wish to take on the responsibility for maintenance, it can pass it on by giving notice to the district council. But this notice must be served on the district council within the 3 month notice period given by the Parochial Church Council. If notice is not served on the district council during this 3 month period, responsibility for maintenance stops with the Parish Council.

Parks and Streetcare and Legal Services have been unable to find any  evidence that the formal statutory process to transfer responsibility of this closed Churchyard to the Borough Council has, at any time, ever taken place. In addition, the Parish Council has not provided any records or evidence

So, despite the fact that it would appear that responsibility for maintaining the churchyard has never passed to Gedling Borough Council, the Parks and Street Care Team currently mow the grass and carry out some weed killing when required and have done so for a number of years.

No decision has been made to stop doing what we’ve always done but the issue of maintenance arose when the Council was asked to undertake some significant tree works. Given the massive cuts in our funding, it’s hard enough to look after our own land so we can’t be in the business of looking after other peoples’ land for free.

In terms of a way forward, I want to emphasise that we haven’t stopped or haven’t reduced what we’ve always done. However, we do need to agree a satisfactory long-term arrangement with the Parish Council which would include either a contribution to Gedling’s maintenance costs or the Parish finding an alternative provider. I appreciate that’s not good news for the Parish but we are not in a position to maintain land that we have no responsibility for. 

In response to a supplementary question Councillor John Clarke assured Councillor Spencer that a meeting could be arranged to discuss the matter.