English Heritage has given a £1 million grant to aid cathedrals struggling to find fund for repairs.

|PIC1| The Dean of Southwark, the Very Reverend Colin Slee has expressed his concern that cuts in English Heritage’s budget could have serious consequences for the maintenance of Britain’s cathedrals.

Slees concern comes just as the General Synod of the Church of England is preparing to ask the government for extra financial support to maintain the cathedrals.

English Heritage’s grant has been commended by Slee (who is also spokesman for the Association of English Cathedrals) as a sign of their continuing commitment to the preservation of English cathedrals.

Slee also pointed out that the amount of funds of available had been cut, due to the Government’s failure to keep contributions to English Heritage parallel to inflation.

Slee spoke of the situation saying that: “Unfortunately historic buildings continue to deteriorate at the same pace as has always existed. We are anxious to avoid a new back-log building up if further reductions took place.”

|TOP|In 2004 a survey revealed that cathedrals contribute £91 million directly to the benefit of their local communities, the figure rises to £150 million when indirect income is considered.

A total of £400,000 will be allocated to Salisbury, Coventry, Hereford and Lincoln cathedrals. Durham cathedral will receive £61,000, whilst £58,000 will go to Carlisle cathedral, to aid with a £97,000 project to repair their 14th century east façade.

In 2000 part of the statue of St Peter on the east front dropped of, revealing the damage at Carlisle cathedral.

The Very Reverend Mark Boyling, Dean of Carlisle in a show of gratitude for the grant said: “Approval of this grant is a great relief. It means we can take a set of plans off the drawing board and put the work into practice. The cathedral means a great deal to local residents and to the city of Carlisle.”

|AD|Every year £11 million is spent on repairs and maintenance by the Church of England. However the grants given to the church have declined over time from £3 million to today’s £1 million.

In 2002 English Heritage conducted a survey which discovered that £39 million of urgent high-level work had yet to be done.

In response English Heritage will be launching a campaign this summer named ‘inspired’, the aim of which is to raise awareness of the needs of church buildings and the importance they have for the environment.

The Chief Executive, Simon Thurley expressed his hopes that the campaign would “galvanise the country into action to secure a future for all our historic church buildings”.

He continued saying: “In many ways, our parish churches and chapels are suffering from a similar backlog of repairs as our cathedrals were in 1991.”

This grant is the 16th since English Heritage launched the scheme following the findings of their survey. They have no given up to £41.8 million for the preservation of church buildings.

Last month the Bishop of London, the Right Reverend Richard Chartres spoke of the need of a government cash injection, otherwise there was a risk that hundreds of churches would be forced to close.

Recently plans to preserve St Peter’s church in West Liss (a Grade II listed building) were revised due to controversy surrounding the positioning of an annexe over graves.

The new plans have solved the problem, and will result in the selling of the building to the International Presbyterian Church, instead of turning it into houses or offices.