Council & Church Cross Swords

Tracks of the day
The Old Rugged Cross - Sandi Patti.
Speak of the Devil - Ozzy Osbourne.

There isn't much apart from this sign to tell you that you're outside a church. Dudley Wood Methodists wanted to put a freestanding wooden cross outside to inform people that the building is an active church.

Cut to Dudley Council where the planning department say that a cross is classed as an advertisement and have insisted on the church forking out £75 to erect an advertisement. I'm not sure how much it cost to erect the original cross on Calvary but if Dudley Council's planning chiefs had been around at the time, there might never have been a Christian Church anywhere, let alone in Dudley Wood.



The problem arose when the original Dudley Wood Methodist Church fell into disrepair. The church couldn't afford the repairs and sold the site. It was bulldozed and a private housing development took its place. Meanwhile church services carried on in the nearby church hall. It isn't clear to most people that the church still exists, which is why they want to put a wooden cross outside.

According to Dudley Council spokesman Phil Parker,

"Crosses are defined as advertisements in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. It is national legislation laid down in law and not a judgment made by Dudley Council," he said. "We do not set the £75 advertisement cost, it is set by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister."

Oh dear and here was I thinking that it was just Dudley Council making a pig's ear of things again. I suggest that Dudley Wood Methodists tell Phil Parker that the cross is not an advertisement, it's for public executions and that he's number one on the list.