Anger at (pounds) 5m cut in church repair funds; Congregations
Juliette GarsideScotland's congregations could find themselves struggling to restore their churches following moves to slash the amount of public money available to repair them.
In recent years, particularly since the Church of Scotland dropped its objection to taking the lottery pound, churches have been more successful than any other type of listed building at applying for grants. Last year, the two public agencies that fund listed-building repairs in Scotland gave around (pounds) 10 million to churches - the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) provided (pounds) 7m, and Historic Scotland (pounds) 2.9m - around one-third of its total repairs budget for the year.
But now the two agencies have come together to create a joint fund of (pounds) 5m a year - half of what was previously distributed. This fund will hand out grants of a maximum of (pounds) 200,000 per organisation, and only for urgent repairs.
As application forms for the new fund began landing on desks last week, the reaction from church conservation workers was one of dismay. They fear the new rules will limit congregations from doing anything more ambitious than fixing a leaking roof or repairing broken windows.
The Very Rev Doctor Griff Dines, provost of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow, said the transformation of his church from an endangered building into a multimedia, multicultural worship and arts centre would not have been possible under the new rules.
St Mary's took 20 years to first restore and then revamp, during which time Historic Scotland gave (pounds) 1m and the lottery (pounds) 340,000.
Dines said: "It was quite difficult to deal with two public agencies at once, so initially we were pleased that they were going to be taking a joint approach. What is dismaying are the terms and conditions of it. It would have been impossible for us to have achieved the restoration of St Mary's under these conditions.
"The current scheme is simply to make churches wind and watertight. It's to prop them up. Investing in heritage means enhancing it, not just propping it up. If on the back of this they have actually cut what's available that makes it even worse."
The final phase of the total (pounds) 3.5m project at St Mary's involved creating an arts and community centre, landscaping, interior decorating and providing disabled access. Dines said the project was funded because it fitted in with the HLF's philosophy of giving money to projects which benefit the community.
Others are concerned the (pounds) 200,000 limit could make restoration more lengthy and more expensive.
Ken Crilley, development director for the archdiocese of Glasgow, said: "For churches that need a lot of repair work undertaken, it will take a lot longer to complete the restoration.
"You might just have to do the roof one year and approach them again for the walls or the rot later on."
With restoration having to take place in phases, a situation could arise where scaffolding is put up to repair the roof, taken down again while more funds are sought, and when new money is secured re- erected for the second phase, such as window repairs.
At the Church of Scotland, a spokesman welcomed the new scheme as having reduced red tape. But he added: "The overall picture is bleaker because the total figure available is less. We are worried to the extent that we feel the government has not put enough money into heritage."
Both Historic Scotland and HLF said they would make exceptions where churches needed to undertake large scale repairs or wanted to do more than routine maintenance.
But they were clear that the purpose of the new fund is to reduce the amount spent on listed buildings in ecclesiastical use, and make more available to other deserving causes such as conservation areas and industrial relics.
HLF manager for Scotland Colin McLean said: "There's no point trying to hide the fact that we're trying to reduce the total amount we spend on churches. Churches have had a huge amount spent on them by us.
"For (pounds) 200,000 there's a lot you can do in terms of urgent repairs, but it is a fairly strict scheme. We're not going to do landscaping or interior improving unless they've been through our urgent repairs scheme or proved that the fabric is fine. "
But the move has been welcomed by others in the heritage sector, who saw churches as grabbing more than their fair share of the public money available for listed buildings. Terry Levinthal, director of the Scottish Civic Trust, which is paid by Historic Scotland to compile a list of buildings at risk, approved of the new rules.
He said: "There has been a concern over the past few years that listed buildings in ecclesiastical use have been getting a disproportionate slice of the grants budget available for each year. Against the fact that there is so little money in general that gets put into this you can begin to see where the problems lie."
Levinthal would like to see Historic Scotland's repairs budget, which has traditionally hovered around (pounds) 12m, doubled. At the present rate, he says it would take 70 years to secure all the buildings on his at risk list, by which time there would be a whole new batch of endangered edifices.
"What we would really like to see is the overall budget increasing significantly so that there are no losers," he said.
Copyright 2002 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.
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