Churches RSS feed for the Churches tag
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News
Helen Draycott Advertiser 3 Feb 11
A pioneering new initiative aimed at making Walsall town centre a safer place for people going out at night is set to be launched.
Street pastors – volunteers recruited through churches – will be pounding the pavements from the end of March in a bid to reduce Walsall borough’s already falling anti-social behaviour levels even further…
News
Express & Star 25 Jan 11
A new mosque will be built in Walsall after a Muslim group won an appeal despite hundreds of objections.
The controversial plans by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association (AMA) to convert a disused warehouse in Vicarage Place were thrown out by Walsall Council in December 2009, despite officers recommending approval…
News
Bloxidge Tallygraph 12 Dec 10
A popular community church in Little Bloxwich constructed some forty-two years ago as a temporary building looks set to be replaced by a smart, modern, purpose-designed structure if sufficient funds can be raised.
The Holy Ascension Community Project is focusing on a positive future for the small C of E mission church, which is part of Bloxwich Team Parish, and aims to deliver not only a higher quality place of worship, but a new and useful community facility where there is presently none. This will, it is hoped, become a resource that will bring people of the neighbourhood together, cater to their needs and achieve the fellowship of a caring community. But first, an estimated £750,000 needs to be found to fund construction…
News
Adam Lumley The YamYam 31 Oct 10
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the Right Honourable Eric Pickles MP, has told Walsall Council that it is not necessary for him to become involved in an application to bulldoze the former Mellish Road Methodist Church.
The Grade II listed building was sold to an unnamed consortium of local businessmen in 1992 after the church suffered structural damage following attempts by Walsall Council to fill in abandoned limestone workings. Since then, the building has remained empty, has suffered further structural decay and was the target of a mysterious arson attack in 2008. Walsall Council had issued several Emergency Repair Notices which the owners ignored which finally led to the council to threaten the consortium with unspecified legal action in 2009.
No action was taken and the building, left to decay, is no longer viable. The church is not the only listed heritage site in the borough of Walsall allowed to fall into disrepair. The Bell Inn in Willenhall, thought to be the oldest pub in the borough, had at least two fires when it was left derelict for more than three-and-a-half years. The pub was bought by members of Willenhall Heritage Trust in September who still face the challenge of an estimated £200,000 repair bill. The town’s iconic Shannons Mill suffered a mysterious arson attack in 2007 that rendered it irreparable and was flattened. The locally listed former Jabez Cliff saddle-making building in Lower Forster Street (part of Lichfield Street conservation area) is likely to be demolished to make way for housing or an hotel.
In welcoming the decision by Eric Pickles regarding the Mellish Road Church, Deputy leader of Walsall Council and cabinet member for regeneration, Councillor Adrian Andrew, said: “It’s disappointing that we haven’t been able to save the building due to the neglect of the owners, but I am very pleased that this final hurdle has been cleared so they can press ahead with the demolition.
“We have been pressing hard for a long time on behalf of local residents and we will now be doing whatever we can to encourage the owners to get the work completed as soon as possible. After carrying out a full assessment it was clear that there was no viable option for saving the building, and demolition was the only solution.
“I’m pleased that both the Secretary of State and English Heritage have backed the council’s decision to clear the site. I’m sure local residents will be pleased to see this long running nuisance resolved.”
Local residents of the Hatherton Community Group wanted to see the former church converted into a community centre and expressed an interest in buying both the building and the land. However, the decision by the Secretary of State to allow demolition now gives the anonymous owners the green light for redevelopment.
Comment
The Mushroom 4 Nov 10
For years, the residents of the Butts in Walsall tried to get Walsall council to do something about the appalling state of the Mellish Road Methodist Church.
Community meetings were held, proposals that the council buy it from the private owners and turn it into a community centre came and went.
Enforcement orders to bring the listed building up to standard were granted by the planning committee but were never acted on.
In the meantime it just decayed. Then…
News
B'ham Post 5 Oct 10
A 62-year-old man has told a court he felt “like a lamb to the slaughter” when he was allegedly sexually abused as a young boy in the West Midlands by a Roman Catholic priest.
The alleged victim told a jury at Birmingham Crown Court he was abused by James Robinson in Walsall from the age of 11 until his late teens…
Comment
BrownhillsBob 11 Sep 10
Way back in September, 2009, I tentatively covered the story of the somewhat brutal, insensitive and sudden application of the no-ornamentation rule within the churchyard of St James’s Church, the parish church of Brownhills.
If you can’t remember the original furore, please do read my original post and come back here. The report at the time from the Walsall Advertiser is still available online.
The reason I bring this up again now is that last weekend, in the pursuit of a little research, I had cause to visit St James, something I do very rarely. I was shocked at the condition of the churchyard…
Comment
The Stymaster Pig Blog 31 Aug 10
Tuesday’s Express and Star has a front-page story detailing that the Mellish Rd Methodist Church is now almost certain to be demolished as English Heritage have now removed their objection to the grade 2 listed building being demolished.
Apparently, this is, according to council leader Mike Bird: “Positive news for Walsall because that site has been an eyesore for a long time now”.
That the site has been an eyesore cannot be denied. What also cannot be denied is that the building has deliberately been allowed to deteriorate…
News blog
Pheasey News and Views 6 Jul 10
Beacon Church has a new Vicar coming from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Rev David Weller will start in January 2011.
As a teenager David grew up in Birmingham and his father was a Vicar in West Heath – near the old BL works at Longbridge. David attended George Dixon School in Edgbaston, before going to Cardiff University. David became a Christian at the age of 17…
Comment
The Plastic Hippo 1 Jul 10
Buried deep in the woeful Walsall council web site is a report entitled “Resident Consultation Activity Findings”. The results of this survey gives a snapshot of how residents regard the borough and what needs to be done to improve our quality of life. You can find it in the folder that also contains details of councillor expenses, senior council officer salaries, the level of profit being amassed by private companies through “outsourcing” deals and probably the launch codes for intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Surveys are wonderful things that can be used by those who control the purse strings to vindicate their sometimes eccentric behaviour and give our ruling elite the opportunity to tell us how much we love them. Walsall council is particularly adept at interpreting “consultations” to justify their misbegotten schemes of municipal vandalism and frequently quote the voice of the people when they decide to do something stupid. However, the picture painted by the Resident Consultation Activity Findings has been locked away in the attic to gather dust in perpetuity…