UPDATE: 4 October 2024
We have heard this week that our application for Planning Permission to mount a cross on the tower has been refused.
The full details of their decision can be found on the Planning Portal at: 24/01157/FUL | Install a stainless steel cross with backlighting and a glass nimbus on the west face of the tower | Church Of St James The Less Daimonds Lane Teignmouth Devon TQ14 9HX (teignbridge.gov.uk).
We will now take a breath to let the decision sink in and while we prayerfully consider what our next step should be. We do have the option to Appeal the decision but have six months to submit that, if we decide that we want to pursue that option.
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UPDATE: 9 September 2024
We have now submitted the faculty petition to the Exeter Diocese Consistory Court. A further public notice period of a month will now follow starting on Sunday 15 September 2024, after which the Chancellor will rule on our petition.
Cross Design document(2.6 MB) (opens in new window)
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UPDATE: 17 July 2024
The applications to the diocese for a faculty and to Teignbridge District Council for Planning Permission has now been submitted and is under consideration.
The applications to Teignbridge District Council are currently open for Public Consultation. Please click or tap here to view or comment on the applications (opens in new window).
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Many, or even most, established Teignmothians are well aware that St James' with its unusual (and possibly unique) octagonal nave is one of the two Parish Churches that serve the community of Teignmouth. However, for many others it is just a large grey building with an ancient looking redstone tower. In a very small, unrepresentative, and far from scientific survey, not one person identified the building as a Christian church!
When it was originally built, over 800 years ago, it was in the "normal" style of church buildings of the time: cruciform in plan and looking as churches did at the time. Over the centuries, times have changed and many of those buildings that are not so obviously churches now have a tendency to declare their purpose by mounting a cross on their outside walls. The cross, as the central symbol of Christianity, is a declaration of their faith.
St James' PCC have recognised this and, under the leadership of the Rev'd Carol Green, have resolved to mount a cross on the tower as a declaration of our faith and mission in Christ.
The PCC engaged Le Page Architects of Plymouth to draft a number of options from which the PCC selected the design shown below.
An initial consultation with Historic England and Teignbridge District Council raised a number of objections, but these have been addressed in the final design which was approved by St James' PCC at their meeting in March 2024.
On our behalf Le Page Architects will now source a fabricator to make the stainless steel and green glass cross (which will be backlit against the tower wall) whilst we wait for our applications to Teignbridge District Council for the relevant planning permissions, and to the Diocese of Exeter for a faculty, to be processed.