The Chancellor of the Diocese of London calls opposition towards plans by St Augustine ‘ludicrous and ill-informed’

A judge has given the go-ahead for a mobile phone antennae to be installed in a church in Kilburn and branded opposition to the plan as “ludicrous and ill-informed.”

Despite fierce opposition, the Church of England’s Consistory Court judge gave the controversial plans for nine antennae to be installed at the Grade I listed church of St Augustine in Kilburn Park Road, the go ahead today.

Judge Nigel Seed QC, the Chancellor of the Diocese of London, said the scheme will provide a much needed boost to church funds and the opposition bore the hallmarks of an orchestrated and ill-informed local campaign.

He said in his decision that the church had very limited income with which to maintain “an important Grade I listed building.”

Rejecting fears that emissions from the antennae will impact on local residents in nearby homes and schools, he said : “There was nothing to distinguish this application from 11 others I have granted over the last two years, two of them in the City of Westminster, where the City Council had raised no objections or queries.

“I point this out to put some of the ludicrous and ill-informed correspondence with which the registry was bombarded in this case into context as complaint is made about the proximity of this installation to schools and residential units”.

He added that the emails and other correspondence “bore all the hallmarks of having been orchestrated as part of some ill informed local campaign”.

He also, despite objection from Westminster City Council, gave the go-ahead for replacement of existing lead covered oak louvres with glass reinforced plastic louvres.

In March 2012, the Parochial Church Council (PCC) resolved to enter into negotiations with the proposed licensee, New Edge Telecommunications (NET) Limited, but the works required final approval from the Consistory Court.