7:00pm Wednesday 17th March 2010
By Stephen Bailey
A PRIEST is appealing for security lights to deter clubbers from urinating on Bournemouth’s most famous church.
Revd Dr Ian Terry and his parishioners have to endure people using 166-year-old St Peters and its graveyard as a public toilet.
The church is only a few steps away from nightspots including The Mary Shelley, Toko, Bliss, Lava Ignite, and the now closed down Crank.
People buried there include Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, the feminist and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, and the founder of Bournemouth, Lewis Tregonwell.
Revd Terry said: “If somebody was to give us a gift of some more external lighting, that would deter some people.
“You never want people to be abusing the building in this way.
“It’s almost impossible to stop people going into the church gardens, even if we wanted them to.
“Although it’s private land, it’s land that is publicly available to walk through.
“There are public rights of way through our church yards.”
St Peter’s is the base for the Nightclub Chaplaincy, which does outreach work amongst clubbers, and its grounds are also used for a soup kitchen.
Cllr Dave Smith said: “The church does a lot to help the night-time economy and the community.
“So it’s appalling that people feel it necessary to urinate against the mother church of Bournemouth.”
One Christian, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “The church is the most wonderful building in Bournemouth.
“I do not understand why fellow townspeople so disgustingly disrespect it.
“It is an offence on Christianity and British culture.”
Last May, a homeless man told the Echo how he had been set upon in St Peter’s churchyard at around 11.30pm by up to 10 men, and left with a broken collarbone.
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