A KITCHEN caused controversy at yesterday’s St Sampson’s parish meeting. Rector the Rev. Jim Sykes constructed a temporary kitchen in an attic room at the parish rectory when he moved in.

However, it was recently discovered when he sought permission to construct a fire escape that he should have got permission from the parish for the kitchen.

‘This is something that rectors do when they come in to rectories; they reorganise the interior in any way they like but there may be permissions that have to be sought because rectories are owned by the parish,’ he said.

‘Therefore each rector needs to liaise with the church authorities and parish authorities.

‘When I came into the rectory Canon Marc Trickey, who was Dean of Guernsey at the time, said I didn’t need to ask the parish for permission.

‘Now the question of having a fire escape has come up. When we looked into that we realised that, irrespective of a kitchen in the attic or not, we now have to do something about that.’

Installing the fire escape could put the house at risk of being taken off the open market.

‘We only found out this information this week,’ said junior constable Peter Gillson.

‘The matter has been deferred until we can find out more about it.

‘He will have to apply to the IDC and building control to find out if he can get the appropriate approvals. Then he will have to speak to Housing to see if installing a fire escape would risk the house being de-listed.’

The meeting also heard that the project to rebuild the Admiral Lord de Saumarez monument at Delancey Park had been dropped because the funds could not be raised.

‘I am very sad,’ said dean of the douzaine John Foster.

‘It’s total apathy. Everyone at the parish meetings was all for it but unfortunately we couldn’t raise the funds. All that was raised was two large donations, one of which had to be returned, and some smaller donations.

‘It all came to £128,000. We will write to the people who donated money and tell them that we can return their money to them, put it towards another project or give it to charity.’

Parishioners also voted against the levy of £229,132 for the collection and disposal of household waste.

Most felt that St Sampson’s was paying too much compared to other parishes.

‘The parish didn’t like the fee so we’re going to negotiate with the contractor and come back in a month,’ said Mr Gillson.

The parish voted several amounts to be levied for 2004 including £750 for repairs to the rectory and £60,000 to redevelop the douzaine room, including the erection of a wall to prevent the building being damaged by slippage.