Some news about our clock chimes...

Dear Members of the community,

 

You may be aware that the Parish Church clock chimes have been silent for most of the past year while building work was being undertaken. At one point during the year the chimes resumed, but we were made aware that the impact of doing so on some of those who lived in the locality of the church was detrimental to people’s sleep and health. While the chimes have been a part of Blandford Forum for a long time, we recognise that they are not universally loved. We are very aware that we are custodians of one of the treasures of the town, and want to respect it’s heritage, but we also want to listen to the needs of the whole community.

 

Therefore, Blandford Forum Parish Church PCC (the elected governance body) has decided to enable the clock chimes to be silenced overnight between the hours of 11pm and 7am. The chimes will remain striking throughout the daytime and this will not effect the ringing of the bells by bell ringers in any way. The clock chimes will resume striking from Thurs 9th March adopting the timings stated above. Some people may be disappointed with this decision but it’s important to note that the chimes aren’t being silenced for ever – just turned off for a few hours at night. We also noted that we didn’t get any complaints from anyone missing the night time chimes during the past year.

 

We received legal advice which informed us that the law regarding noise pollution from clock chimes through the night is increasingly on the side of those impacted by it, and so if there ever was to be to a legal dispute then it is likely that we would be forced to make these adjustments by the Environmental Agency anyway.

 

All in all, we believe the kindest and wisest thing to do is to preserve the clock chimes during the day, and introduce a mechanism that silences them through the night in order to love and care for those who live the closest to our church building.

 

As a church we want to be good news for the whole of the town, and this decision honours what we’ve inherited, but also loves and listens to those around us.

 

Thankyou for your understanding….

 

Chris Beaumont, Dave Griffiths & Heidi Roberts

Lead Minister & Church Wardens - BFPC