Douzaine plans church maintenance fact-find visit

The visit was arranged with the Vale Church Management Board as part of the douzaine's on-going process of understanding better how the church is managed, what the problems are and how the board ensures best-possible value for money on behalf of ratepayers.

"We're grateful to the management board for this invitation," said Senior Constable Richard Leale, "because while the Douzaine has to apply to the Royal Court for the money requested by the management board for church upkeep and maintenance, we're not especially hands-on with the issues they have to wrestle with."

The visit would enable members to see for themselves the problems associated with maintaining such an historic building – a Christian community appears to have been on the site from about 600AD – and what the management board does to contain costs where it can.

Good job
"We know the management board has done a good job over the years and the church is a much-loved and important part of the parish," said Mr Leale. "Covid has also interrupted the flow and timing of works and we need to understand the consequences of that, how it affects the board's budget and, by association, the total parish budget, which is raised in March through the remède."

Under long-established douzaine rules, members are responsible for the vision, direction, transparency and engagement of parish affairs and Mr Leale said the Vale took that obligation seriously on behalf of parishioners and ratepayers. 

"We spend a lot of time scrutinising expenditure for which the douzaine is directly responsible and where we have what might be termed partnership arrangements with separate parish bodies, like the Vale Church Management Board and the Cemetery Committee, we welcome us all working towards a partnership approach where they discharge their duties and responsibilities in the most cost-effective and efficient manner on behalf of parishioners."