St Mary's Walthamstow has been given permission to host more private events, helping the church keep its outreach and community programmes going.
Waltham Forest Council's licensing committee today (11 September) granted the church a licence to serve alcohol and show films from midday until 10.30pm, and to move its closing time from 4pm to 11pm.
The licence covers all seven days of the week, but the church told the committee that events would not happen every day. In its application, St Mary's described its schedule as "irregular".
Why the church applied
Venues can apply for 15 temporary event notices (TENs) a year, which let them operate beyond their usual hours for special events such as film screenings or functions where alcohol is served. Church representatives said St Mary's regularly reached that limit each year, and that a full licence would give it the flexibility to host fundraising and outreach events.
Over the past year the church has hosted two live recordings of BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time, several Christmas performances by the Norrsang Swedish choir, a number of Forest Choir concerts, a craft fair, and a screening of the Walthamstow documentary Power Station followed by a discussion with the filmmakers.
St Mary's, Walthamstow's oldest building, costs around £250,000 a year to run and operates as an independent charity under the Church of England. The church says the licence will let it host more events, cover its "very high" overheads and raise much-needed funds.
Neighbours' concerns
Representatives told the committee the church had never received a "substantial complaint" about noise or litter. Three objectors who live in the neighbouring Monoux Almshouse attended the meeting to set out their views against the application.
Resident Mary Fahey was the only person to submit a formal objection, though she said she did so on behalf of many residents who felt the same way. She said she had been "shocked" by the application, but was reassured when the church said it would not hold such events every day because of its worship commitments.
Objectors are "not party-poopers", she said, but wanted some acknowledgement that there could be "fallout" from letting people drink. She said the area already suffered from antisocial behaviour, though this was not linked to the church.
In her formal objection she raised concerns that events could affect residents' "privacy and peace of mind", but later acknowledged they were "quite lowkey" in nature. She told the committee that a petition backing a three-day licence rather than a seven-day one had gathered 200 signatures from local people, but it did not go before the committee because of a reported clerical error.
Conditions and recommendations
To address concerns about litter, St Mary's said it would accept a condition legally requiring it to collect rubbish after events. Volunteers already pick up litter left in the church by passers-by.
To ease neighbours' worries, the council added a condition banning attendees from drinking alcohol outside after 9pm.
Councillors also made non-binding recommendations that the church limit smokers to eight at a time, keep the smoking area at least 20 metres from any homes, and share its schedule of events with almshouse residents once a month.
