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Church leaders take a stand over barmy bureaucracy
Church leaders are taking a stand against 'barmy' laws forcing them to put up no smoking signs.
Father John Williams, the Rector of West Wittering, Birdham and Itchenor, has added his own finishing touches to each of the signs.
Above them he has written: 'Despite a three-centuries-old tradition that there is no smoking in churches, modern brainless bureaucracy requires us to deface this ancient building with the following notice'.
And at St Joseph's Church, in West Street, Havant, parish priest Tom Grufferty will put up a no smoking sign in Latin, saying 'Luminarium Nullus', in protest against what he thinks are 'health and safety laws gone ballistic'.
Father Williams said: 'I have been involved in churches since the age of six or seven and now I am 65.
'And I have never, ever, seen anyone smoke.
'It is absolutely ridiculous.
'For so many years people have not smoked in churches and there has never been no smoking signs, so what's changed now?'
Places of worship are not exempt from the ban on smoking in public places, which comes into force today, (Sunday July 1) so churches have been warned by councils that they must put up the signs or face fines of up to 1,000.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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