CHURCHES in Britain are being urged not to pay new-style water charges, after four water companies imposed business-rate charging for rainwater run-off. The move could cost churches millions of pounds (News, 9 May).
One church body, the Independent Methodist Connexion, is advising its 189 churches not to pay the new charges. “I want to ensure that our churches are aware of this and that we act together on it,” the administrative secretary of the Connexion, David Hughes, said last week.
Mr Hughes has published the advice on his website: “Do not agree the charge. . . As there was no charge under the old system of calculation, the water companies are, in effect, introducing a new charge for such premises.”
His action is part of a growing interdenominational campaign to persuade water companies to reverse the policy. Representatives from the Methodist and United Re-formed Churches and the Church of England met the Government’s water regulator, OFWAT, earlier this month, under the auspices of the Churches Main Committee, now called the Church Legislation Advisory Service.
Martin Dales, a General Synod member, who has tabled a private member’s motion on the subject, was present at the meeting. He said that the Churches had told OFWAT that the water companies were using direct debits to collect the new charges, even though the churches were appealing against them. The water companies were also charging for the rainwater that fell on graveyards, despite the Government’s guidance in 1999-2000 that such areas should be exempt.
“We gave them lots of information they were not aware of, and they said they would have to go away and investigate it. It was a full and frank discussion of the issues,” said Mr Dales.
Fergus Urquhart, a trustee for the URC North Thames area, who was also present at the meeting, said that it “had made headway”.
An online petition asking for Churches to be treated as charities by the water companies had received 1770 signatures by Wednesday. It closes on 7 July. The water companies have said that churches would have to prove that rainwater falling on their buildings soaked into their land and did not run into the sewers, if they wanted to avoid the charges.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ChurchWaterBills/ |
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