More on the Church Car Park.

The Church Car Park outside St Mary's, Eaton Socon, which hit the headlines with the Church wanting the Council Taxpayer to pay for their car park, has been resurfaced. This has been paid for by the Town Council using a large grant from Tesco.

The Church must me laughing at the Council taxpayer having got one over the Town Council who will have to maintain this church car park. I still maintain this is a car park for the Church. As can be seen by these photos it is the church sign which is the only prominent sign. There is no Town Council sign informing users that it is a Town Council car park for the use of all the residents. Nor is their a sign informing people the car park was mainly paid for by Tesco. The only sign up was the St Mary's Church Noticeboard which makes the car park look like a car park for the church. Also I found no Council notices so anyone can park at this car park for free as long as they like as there are no restrictions. Plus there is no notice up about responsibility. So the Town Council takes responsibility for any damage to cars parked there? No sign up to say otherwise.

Is the church that poor that it couldn't afford this car park? In their accounts for 2009 the Parochial Church Council had enough money to fund these improvements. There were £17,825 in unrestricted funds at the year end (31/12/09). What is interesting in all this is how much the Church relies on the Taxpayer for some of it's funding through Gift Aid.

So the taxpayer has to stump up to keep the Church going through Gift Aid, the maintenance of the closed churchyard and now the car park. Good deal for the church. Bad deal for the council taxpayer.