A conclusion has yet to be reached by the Church of England on its plans to allow women to become bishops after talks among leaders fell through last week.

The latest delay in drawing up legislation comes after one of the most senior female clerics in the Church, the Very Rev Vivienne Faull, the Dean of Leicester, said that she would have felt unable to become a bishop under the plans that had been proposed, reports The Telegraph.

A report by a group chaired by the Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Rev Christopher Hill, outlined the proposed plans that suggested transferring the responsibility for traditionalist parishes to bishops sympathetic to their views.

The Church of England was already scheduled to start drawing up legislation earlier in the year that would enable women to become bishops but delayed the process after deciding it needed more time to debate the full implications of such a move, strongly opposed by many conservatives in the Church.