NEW COVENTRY cathedral

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27273, 13 February 1954, Page 2

NEW COVENTRY cathedral

Permit Refused By City Council

(Special Correspondent N7t>a, LONDON, FebrSi? Coventry may not have ll publicised modernistic cathedrasome years. The Coventry City fcr has informed the reconstruction mittee that it does not cotSd time opportune for work taS,"’ the building because it would * ® material and labour from, which the council consider?^o^ t ' , urgent. rs ®«rs The Coventry correspondent of "r Times” says presumably the decision need not be the last » s on the subject and that the fZ? struction committee could annlv ?’ the Works Ministry for a licence V it seems likely that if the conimiH 1 presses its application to the iwister, it no longer will be abl!i draw on the council’s goodwill in any event the date for beeiniS! work is certain to be delayed “The council’s decision came as surprise to all those who have working for the new cathedral-S that caught the interest of the w! The argument advanced in £ council was that to embark on E new cathedral would divert labour material that Coventry urgently nS for other work, but as it hapnen< U cathedral labour will consist of sfo? masons, who are not needed fur hois ing, and the material will not be brick “Until now the committee has W working to a time-table that wS have allowed the digging of some par of the foundations to begin in - month’s time and the work as a whole Could then have been started six months later. The time-table for S work will now probably turn upon the committee’s reading of their chances of getting a licence from the Minister of Works without the approval of the local authority.”