No grants for churches (From Stroud News and Journal)

No grants for churches

A CONTROVERSIAL decision not to give any grants to churches has been made by Stroud District Council.

Any church asking the council for money will find the collection bowl empty this year.

The decision has been made on the basis that churches are only of value to a small number of people.

"We decided that we wouldn't give anything to churches because they don't benefit the wider community," Cllr Graham Littleton told the SNJ.

And he added: "The Church of England might be well established but if we were to support individual churches we would only be giving money to select people.

"If it was a church hall that was to be used by everyone it might be different."

Cllr Littleton said the council only had a finite amount of cash it could offer as grants and churches had not been made a priority this time round.

He acknowledged it was a political hot potato saying: "Never mix politics and religion."

Cllr Nigel Studdert-Kennedy said it was a very difficult issue and there had been strong feeling about it on both sides of the fence.

He pointed out it would be difficult to refuse a grant to one church if money had been given to another and implied that those who were not practising Christians would rather see their taxes spent elsewhere.