Bethel Chapel will not be listed by English Heretics. It sits facing Penny Lane. Remember this is the city that incredibly knocked down the Cavern Club in Mathew Street, and then renamed itself Beatles City. English Heretics used the previous application to list as an assessment without visiting. The listing was supported by the c20 Society, The old Twentieth Century Society, thanks to the local North West Group, and Florence Gerstens SAVE OUR CITY campaign.
A FOURTH attempt is being made to demolish one of the few remaining Welsh churches in Liverpool.
The Bethel Chapel, in Allerton, has been too big for its congregation for years – with space for 750, it is the largest remaining free church in the city.
But previous plans to create a smaller purpose-built place of worship on the same site have stalled on three occasions.
The last set of plans, including building 48 one and two-bedroom apartments, won planning permission but did not go ahead after a dispute with developers.
The Rev Dr David Ben Rees said the hard decision to demolish the main church, which dates back to 1926, had been taken because it could seat 750 people, but the congregation now only numbered 150. Demolishing the building would also avoid the need to spend between £60,000 and £70,000 repairing the church.
He said the church was still pondering what to do with the site once the church was demolished.
He said: “There will be a big gap for some time once the church is demolished. A lot of people have suggested flats for the elderly, but there is nothing certain at this moment in time. I will be very sorry to see it go. I have been preaching for 40 years in that church.”
He said attempts to get another institution to take over the church as a performance venue had proved fruitless.
If permission is granted to bulldoze the church, it will be pulled down in the summer.
The new chapel will cost around £500,000 and will see the congregation move away from the site temporarily for 18 months.
IF IT WAS ALL THAT SIMPLE http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3076478
Church sued for £600k
3 November, 2006
Property developers take a church in Wales to court after it pulls out of scheme
A church in Wales is involved in an unholy row with two property developers after being accused of reneging on a building scheme.
Property developers Samuel Beilin and William Kearns say they have lost more than £600,000 after the Welsh church encouraged them to spend money on a scheme to develop the Bethel Chapel.
It is alleged that after spending four years funding planning permissions and development schemes, encouraged by the Properties Board of the Calvanistic Methodist Church of Wales, they received a letter pulling out of the scheme.
The church, also known as the Presbyterian Church of Wales, plans to sell the site to another developer and is likely to win planning permission after the work put in by the developers.
Mr Beilin, Mr Kearns, and TRB Estates (Liverpool) say they have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on the scheme, and that the church pulled out of the project knowing it was likely the planning application would be granted.
Now the three are suing for “proprietary estoppel”, and are claiming damages for the loss of opportunity to develop the chapel, loss of profit, and for the expenses they have incurred.
They value their claim at more than £600,000, and are also suing Dr Benjamin Rees, of Bethel Chapel in Heathfield Road, Liverpool.
They had originally entered into arrangements with the church in April 2002, when the church asked them to develop the site. As a result they say they expected to be the developers of the scheme, and that the church encouraged them in this expectation.
Read more:
http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3076478#ixzz0ntrc72K4
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