Rita Wall reports on church, conservationist and community co-operation to save a listed building

Future of Leeds church focus of united effort
CHURCH authorities, conservationists and local parishioners are working together to ensure that the sale of a listed Victorian Catholic church in Leeds does not result in any damage to its fabric.
Mount St Mary's church, Richmond Hill, Leeds, was built by local, mostly Irish, Catholics at the end of the last century. It closed last year because of dwindling attendances. The Dublin-based Oblates of Mary Immaculate, administrators of the church, decided reluctantly to put it up for sale.
"We had seen the congregation fall from 7,000 to 120 people," said Fr Tony Quinlan, provincial treasurer of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. It was estimated that the church would need £1.5 million for continued upkeep. "We could not justify this expense," Fr Quinlan said.
The OMIs are anxious that despite the sale the church will continue to serve the community. Working with the Charity Commissioners who will oversee the sale of the church, the order is confident that the best decision for the future use of the church will be reached.
There are already several proposals for the church, including a bid from a Yorkshire property developer to open a private nursing home there, and a plan from the Leeds Civic Trust, backed by a local community group, St Mary's Development Trust, to turn the church into a community resource area with office space and an Irish heritage centre. Both these proposals retain a worship area at the church.
Conservation group Save Britain's Heritage are also watching the sale of the Mount St Mary's which has grade two listed building status. "We will be seeing that if it is to be converted it will be put to a sympathetic use and that the internal fabric of the church will be maintained," said Marianne Watson Smythe, secretary of the group.
Leeds City Council has supported community and conservationists interest in the church. "We are committed to retaining the character of the church," said Peter Vaughan, environmental design officer at the council. "It has been the case that Victorian churches have been under appreciated in the past," said a spokeswoman for the Department of Environment's conservation group, English Heritage, which is responsible for the care of churches. "We are concerned that whoever takes charge of this Victorian church will ensure that the repair and upkeep of the building is a priority, she said.
It is expected that the sale of the church will be finalised in the next year. The money received from the sale will be kept in trust and used to finance places of Catholic worship in England and Wales.
• Chairman of the 1930s Society, which is concerned with the care of twentieth century buildings, defended the work of church architect N. F. Cachemaille-Day against a barrage of recent criticisms this week. Attacks on his work point to the fragility of church walls at St Mary's in Ealing, west London.
"It is quite natural that a building contains cracks after 40 years," said Gavin Stamp, chairman of the 1930s society."