Brethren Planning Applications

Planning applications in the UK are dealt with  by local councils. This means if you are a planning office or local councillor that you are unlikely to be aware of a surge of planning applications across the UK by one specific group. It would also be unlikely that you are aware of the background of this group, or the tactics and PR used when they submit a planning application.

At Open & Candid we have looked at the scale of the planning applications being submitted by members of the 'cult'  known as the Exclusive Plymouth Brethren. 

Prolific Developers

The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren are one of the UK's most prolific developers. This small secretive 'cult' with 18,000 members in the UK, are no strangers to submitting planning applications and they are buying up land, building new Meeting Rooms and Shops at a phenomenal rate.

In the last 18 months we have found 17 planning applications for new meeting rooms to be built across the UK. Varying in size, each with a capacity of between 50 and 2,000 people. To put this into perspective the size of the brethren population in the UK is similar in numbers to the small Scottish towns of Penicuik and Grangemouth, the Welsh towns of Aberystwyth and Porthcawl or the English towns of Marlow, Penzance, Penrith, Petersfield, Stone, Hythe and Matlock.   It doesn't end with meeting rooms, the brethren have also submitted a number of planning application for private brethren member only shops called Campus & Co.

To put this into perspective it would equate to the town of Hythe in Kent receiving planning applications for 17 new churches in the last 18 months! According to findachurch.co.uk there are just 18 churches with in a radius of 3 miles of Hythe.

If you were a local planning officer, you would suspect that this 'cult' is growing at a rapid rate, however this is certainly not the case, in fact people can't just   join the Plymouth Brethren,  over 99% of their members are born into the 'cult'.  Despite of this, the reason given  for the planning applications, time after time, is  based on  growing membership numbers in that particular area.   

Since starting this investigation we have acquired data that shows a 9% increase in the brethren population in the UK over the last 9 years. This equates to approx. 15 more people in each community. This will likely be driven by increasing birth rate and a longer life expectancy.

Applications

Since the start of 2023, the following planning applications have been (or are due to be) processed for Meeting Rooms .

Lichfield

The Plymouth Brethren have set up a website to consult  with local residents prior to submitting a planning application. We suspect this may be down to many recent planning applications stirring up substantial local opposition. The size of the meeting room, would suggest the building of a large meeting room with a capacity for circa 800 - 1,000 people. The website provides some background information to the brethren and the planned build.

The information provided should have some caveats, for instance;

"As a public place of worship, the local community will also be able to visit the Gospel Hall. There will also be opportunities for the Hall to support local community activities."

The sign below can be found on most, if not all Brethren meeting rooms, this would suggest access will not be straightforward for the local community.  The final sentence is highly unlikely to mean that local community activities would take place in the hall, it is much more likely to mean that the  brethren members may choose or may not choose to support local community events.

Another area which would appear somewhat odd, when the brethren attend their meeting rooms in cars.
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"The site is also easily accessible by a range of public transport options. The Grange Lane bus stop lies under half a mile from the site and is just a 6-minute walk or 3-minute cycle away." 

According to ex-members, the brethren communities in this area are generally to the south in Sutton Coldfield or to the north in Stafford. Therefore the building of such a large meeting room in Lichfield  would likely mean members travelling from these communities.

Bournemouth

An application was made to build a new care home and meeting room  on farmland at West Moors, just to the north of Bournemouth. The developer was brethren member Nick Aris, Aris is also a trustee of the brethren meeting room charity Sandbourne Gospel Hall Trust.  In the financial year ending 5th April 2022, the Sandbourne  Gospel Hall Trust donated two meeting rooms to another brethren meeting room charity, the Bournemouth Gospel Hall Trust.  The first  meeting room located on St Mary's Road, is just 2.6 miles away from the farmland site at West Moors and was valued at £300,000.  The second meeting room located on Ringwood Road, Ferndown, 3.8 miles away from the West Moors site, it was valued at £450,000. 

The West Moors application attracted a great deal of opposition and it has been widely reported in the media, including the BBC.  The application was refused on the 25th April 2024. 

​The application was  for a care home to accommodate 60 members of the brethren, alongside a meeting room with a capacity of 50.  The sheer number of objections from local residents is quite astounding.

The estimated  size of the brethren community in the Bournemouth/Poole area is circa 200 to 300 people and they currently have between 5 or 6 meeting rooms.  We would not be surprised if Mr Aris were to appeal this planning decision.

Aberdeen

Aberdeenshire council have approved the planning application for a new meeting room in Ellon, Aberdeenshire.  The site is situated between the back of the  Tesco and the local recycling centre. The capacity of the meeting room is for circa 90 people.

The application was submitted by brethren member Tim White on behalf of the Jesmond Gospel Trust, which is the charity that runs the meeting rooms in the Aberdeen area. The majority of the Aberdeen brethren community which numbers approximately 125, are located 10 miles to the south of Ellon, with a small meeting room at Belhevie and a much larger one (capacity 800+) at Balmedie. There is also a brethren school just to the south of Balmedie.  The location for the new meeting room is therefore some what surprising.

It is also of note that just prior to the planning application being approved, that members of the brethren charity, The Rapid Relief Team, met with the Ellon MSP Gillian Martin.  One of the two representatives from the Rapid Relief Team was the son of Tim White. 

Shrewsbury

On the outskirts of Shrewsbury, in the village of Ford, a  planning application has been approved to convert a bowling green to a new brethren meeting room, car park and a house. This was despite an impassioned plea to keep the 90 year old bowling green, which has served 15,000 members in its lifetime.

According to the original application, it was submitted by the Holyhead Road  Trust.  This is actually the Holyhead Road  Gospel Hall Trust.  The trust operates the meeting rooms in the Shrewsbury area. The main brethren Shrewsbury meeting room, along with the brethren members only Campus & Co store,  is situated near Bicton just 3 miles away from the site in Ford.  There is another meeting room located 8 miles away at Weeping Cross.    The brethren in Shrewsbury  will have at 3  meeting rooms for a community, that the brethren stated in 2018 comprised circa 150 members or will they?

We  found that there is a further brethren gospel hall trust situated in Shrewsbury called the Severn Gospel Hall Trust. The Severn Gospel Hall Trust benefited from the Holyhead Road Gospel Hall Trust gifting them  3 meeting rooms in 2018 /2019. These properties are located in Shrewsbury at the Mount, one in Whitecroft and a further one in the Bowbrook area (just 3 miles from the site at Ford).  

Therefore the Bowling Green site at Ford, will become the 6th meeting room for the brethren members in Shrewsbury. It is of note that between the Bicton, Bowbrook and the new Ford site there is likely capacity for well over 600 members, in an area  of circa 4 square miles.

Rainham

The brethren meeting room at Otterden Quay Lane/Canterbury Lane is different from the previous applications. This is because the brethren have sought planning permission to convert the site into 22 new homes.  The Otterden Quay Lane meeting room was  built in 1997, it is adjacent to Actionpoint Packaging, a company owned by the Pollard family, a brethren family who appear to be in a financial position where some of the brethren doctrine of separation is not practised. 

The Long Reach Gospel Hall Trust runs the brethren meeting rooms in Rainham and Gillingham.  It is the applicant and is believed that they have acquired a new site at Orchard House, Rainham to build a new meeting room subject to planning permission. According to their accounts the trust has spent almost £150,00 on legal fees in the last financial year reported. 

In the notes from a Medway Council  planning meeting in Feb 2023, it states:

"The application documents advise that owing to the church congregation increasing in size and outgrowing the size of its existing facilities, the applicant started the search for new premises in 2020. The membership of the congregation grew from 220, in 1997 when the existing church was constructed, to 460 in 2022. It is projected that the congregation will grow to 550 members by 2030, and as such it is demonstrable that the church is growing beyond the limits of the site."

Through our research and discussions with ex-brethren members we believe the current membership in this community to be much less than 200, even as low as 150. 

Hull

Planning permission was granted in 2023 for a new small brethren meeting room on the outskirts of South Cave, East Yorkshire. This was pretty much in the middle of a field in the green belt.

The site had parking for 12 cars and the meeting room could hold up to 50 members. The location doesn't lend itself to public transport or access by foot. 

It is of much wonder, if the "pie day" ever happened. It is understood this is basically a marquee in the car park and it would be highly unlikely to include access to the meeting room.

"The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church host “Pie Days” at their Meeting Halls whereby the Halls are open to non-Brethren and copies of the Bible are distributed as well as food and beverages. The local Brethren Community that will worship at the proposed Meeting Hall would be happy to host a Pie Day should there be any interest in one from the local non-Brethren community. In addition, a notice board outside the Hall will provide contact details for the local Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and locals will be welcome to attend Gospel preaching at the Hall should they wish to do so by arrangement."

It is of interest to note how many planning applications have been submitted by the brethren Hazell family in South Cave, who also have a property adjacent to the new meeting room. 

Wetherby

The Wetherby Road Gospel Trust submit a planning application to turn an old osteopaths clinic on York Road into a new meeting room in 2023. However this has recently been withdrawn. 

Middlesbrough

A controversial planning application was submitted in 2023 to turn a residential property into a new brethren meeting room. The application made by the Nunthorpe Gospel Trust was to convert a house in the village of Seamer into a meeting room. The property was located behind two substantial homes, owned by senior brethren members Simon Evershed and Antony James (James, pictured here when Rishi Sunak visited his  business in Stokesley). James also has a planning application currently to extend his own property.

The meeting room application has attracted 39 objections  from local residents, with 27 supporting comments, the vast majority, of which, are from members of the Plymouth Brethren. The distance from Seamer to the main meeting room in Nunthorpe is 10 mins by car.

Again we see the growth of the local brethren community as a reason provided to back up the need for a new meeting room. Estimates are that the size of the brethren community is circa 150 in total.

"Within the Middlesbrough area, there are 3 small Gospel Halls and one large main Hall. As a result of the growth of membership in the area, there is a need for another small Gospel Hall, capable of accommodating circa 40 people. This number represents the maximum congregation size that would normally exist within the organisation."

The statement also then raises questions around the main Middlesbrough meeting room, which itself has been surrounded by controversy.  The Nunthorpe Gospel Trust have planning permission to build seven detached houses on the site of their meeting room at Gypsy Lane, Nunthorpe. In 2019 they denied they were looking to sell the site and they were just ensuring that a previously approved planning decision was kept up to date. Then in 2020,  the gospel trust were in negotiations to buy land  also in Nunthorpe, so they could relocate the main meeting room. The decision of the council to sell the land was reverted back to the full council  around concerns the land was being sold without a robust tender process and that the community were only benefitting from a "chicken feed" pay out.  The full council confirmed the sale and the land was purchased by the Nunthorpe Gospel Trust.

Local Conservative Councillor & Journalist Mieka Smiles was one of the few councillors who questioned both the sale and the benefit it would provide for the local community.

The decision of the meeting room in Seamer is yet to be decided, though considering the number of planning applications surrounded in controversy in this area, it is no surprise when you realise this area crosses into the  even more controversial South Teeside Development Corporation!

Romsey

The Romsey planning application is similar to Middlesbrough.  The application is to convert a two bedroom bungalow into a meeting room. The property was purchased in 2022 for £475,000.

Test Valley Borough Council have approved the change of use from a residential property to a meeting room.  Despite an objection from Romsey Town  Council, with Councillor Ian Culley saying: “I think the impact on the neighbours could be significant with a 6am start each Sunday. Also, it will cause the loss of a dwelling.”

The planning statement  includes “due to the changing demographic of the members and the evolution from rural employment to urban based employment". It is of note, that our sources claim this would appear to be the opposite with the brethren gradually moving north from Southampton, from urban to more rural locations.

Thornbury

The Thornbury application is strange in the fact it is literally a 3 minute drive away from the main brethren meeting room on Hortham Lane, which itself was only built in the last 15 years. It also highlights that the lack of scrutiny by the local media when reporting the brethren planning applications.

The application was reported  in the Gloucestershire Gazette in December 2023. The report includes a paragraph supporting the application from a neighbour that lives opposite the proposed site.  A cursory check of companies house would quickly flag up that the neighbour is Gareth Herbert a member of the brethren and a former director of Novus Trading Ltd. A current director of Novus is Richard Smith, who is the Uncle of the planning applicant Glenn Smith.  The reports also fails to pick up that the site was purchased for almost £1.2 million.

We find again that despite an objection from the local parish council, the application has been approved.  We have flagged previously the close connections that the Plymouth Brethren community have forged with South Gloucestershire council. It was therefore no surprise to see the following comments reported by the Gazette.

"South Gloucestershire are well aware of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and the need for smaller halls to serve sub groups of the congregation on the basis of providing local and reducing overall trips and shortening accessibility distances.
"The use of the site for a small church hall will meet a specific local need which will reduce overall trips, and deliver a valuable community use. 
"The PBCC community is well established in the area and the network of smaller halls to meeting local households delivers sustainable objectives."

We were also not surprised to find that the planning statement and many documents were not available on the South Gloucestershire Council website.

Site of existing meeting room and site of additional meeting room

Sutton Coldfield

The Sutton Coldfield planning application has since been withdrawn. The brethren don't just withdraw from their own members, they often withdraw planning applications. The proposal was to knock down Ivy Cottage, on the corner of  Whitehouse Common Road and Tamworth Road. Instead the property is now listed for sale on ​Rightmove for  offers in excess of £1 million.

We suspect that the combination of being located on a busy junction, with the issues that could have had on the application and  the proposed new build at Lichfield, were the likely reasons for withdrawal.  The owner of the property is Jim Clarke, an elder of the Plymouth Brethren and owner of one of the largest brethren member companies Allpack, a packaging company based in nearby Cannock.

Chesterfield

The Chesterfield application caught our attention as this is one of the smallest brethren communities (if not the smallest) in England.  The approved application was to extend the car park at the main meeting rooms to hold 95 cars  for their 600 members. Our calculation is that this community has  at most 100 members!   The planning office stated
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 “Plymouth Brethren have 600-plus members who go there and they do not want to cause problems for people in the area. They do not all live locally.
“When they have a service there that car park is full and there is double-parking and this will be an alternative to parking on the street.”

In April 2024, the meeting room in Chesterfield was used for a 3 day meeting.  It is likely this would be the only occasion when the car park would be utilised anywhere near capacity.

Newtown

This planning application has attracted a lot of media attention, this is due to a road being built over a number of graves at the Bethany Chapel, Kerry,  near Newtown.  

Planning permission was granted in June 2022, to enable change of use to car parking & vehicular access. Once the work commenced it was clearly obvious the access road had been built over graves, causing distress to families  of those   buried in the graveyard.

One observation, it would appear that the location of this meeting room, is somewhat off the beaten track for local brethren members.  If this has not been a former chapel, it would have been hard to justify the need for a brethren meeting room in this area.

Swindon

In February 2023, an application for a new meeting room on a green field site in Blunsdon was refused.  A controversial application that had many objections. At the planning meeting there were a number of discrepancies highlighted particularly around the size of the meeting room and the number of car parking spaces.  
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The brethren claimed this was a  meeting room that would hold 400, yet the size of the meeting rooms and the number of car parking spaces requested would suggest a room that would hold 800-1200 members. Despite the fact that the brethren already have a number of meeting rooms in Swindon and that we don't believe local membership is greater than 200 members.

Sevenoaks

In an application similar to Newtown,  Brethren charity, The Cheviot Trust 1976 were granted planning consent for a new meeting room  on the site of an old Mission Church on the outskirts of Halstead.

Until 2023 the Cheviot Trust  1976 charity was a small trust with donations coming from much larger brethren meeting room charities the Albacore Gospel Trust and The Manor Gospel Trust. In 2023 though  their accounts show an influx of gifted property and property purchased on their behalf to the value of £3.8 million.  This includes the old Mission Church purchased for £416,000 by the Manor Gospel Trust.   

We previously reported on the remarkable £14 million of donations received by The Manor Gospel Trust in the year to April 2022. Including donations of £9.7million from the trustees, the trustees include Anthony Hazell of Unispace/Sante PPE contract fame.

Analysis of the total assets now held by the Manor, Albacore and Cheviot meeting room charity trusts  show a total of £32.3 million ​and a rather nice property portfolio.

Coventry

Another rather controversial planning application for a new meeting room in the village of Bubbenhall. It met with widespread objections and appears to have been withdrawn just prior to the planning meeting, where it was facing a potential refusal in November 2023.

Again a number of other brethren meeting rooms are situated nearby, with the main Coventry meeting room in Baginton, only 6 minutes drive away.

Cambridge

Plans have been submitted by the Radegund Gospel Hall Trust to convert a former pub in Stow Cum Quy in Cambridgeshire into a new meeting room. The Wheatsheaf has been closed since 2019.  The now common reason being sighted by the brethren is due to the growth of families in the area and it is likely to be used by 10 local families. They also make a great play that there was once a Methodist church located on the site.

According to Cambridgeshire Live, several objections were raised by pub groups across the county, saying that the Wheatsheaf was a vital community facility and could still be a viable business. The Cambridge and District Campaign for Real Ale branch said that when it was put on the market in April 2022, there were challenges in the hospitality business that made buying and running a pub less appealing, but could still be run successfully under the right owners.

The pub was advertised at a guide price of £495,000 plus VAT prior to being sold.

The  details behind the application statement are quite substantial. Including the following:

"At a time when church attendance in the established Church of England is in decline, many smaller and more informal denominations are experiencing growth. The Plymouth Brethren Christian Churches around Cambridgeshire is one such denomination which has experienced numerical growth. Within the Cambridgeshire area, this denomination currently has approximately 230 members."

 "The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church share many of the same core doctrines/beliefs as many more well-known Christian denominations. The denomination began in 1820 in Page 12 January 2024 Plymouth (as their name suggests), when a group of Christians disillusioned with the established Anglican church began meeting together to study the Bible and share the Lord’s supper (communion). The group, which adopted the name ‘The Plymouth Brethren’, have frequently been misunderstood because they choose not to engage in political arenas or with the media"

"The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church is a small, but international, Christian denomination which follows an informal style of worship, based in small local groups. In the area around Cambridgeshire this group has been growing and has been seeking to update and reorganise its meeting halls to meet the needs of its growing church members. The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church group around Cambridgeshire currently comprise approximately 230 members, from approximately 80 households. These families meet in small locally based groups at small meeting halls in the surrounding area. The Plymouth Brethren aim for a pattern of Christian worship which meets in small groups of no more than 30-35 persons (ideally) to enable all members of the congregation to take an active part in Sunday services. As such, their buildings tend to be small and unadorned. This flows from the emphasis on their strong family values and the importance of providing a space where all individuals can take part in the gathered worship (rather than in more mainstream churches, where a service of worship is led from the front by a minister of religion). The Plymouth Brethren have no ordained ministers of religion and no set format for their services – with those attending contributing to services, as appropriate. Accordingly, it is the aim to keep local gatherings to between 30-40 people, so that all those present can play an active part in the service: larger congregations can make it difficult for all members to take part, undermining the aims of their Sunday worship gatherings."

"The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church currently have meeting halls as follows in the Cambridgeshire area:
• Cox’s Drive, Fulbourn (38 members/ 12 families)
• Button End, Harston (32 members/ 12 families)
• Railway Street, Cherry Hinton (35 members/ 12 families)
• Shelford Road, Cambridge (42 members/ 14 families)
• Chapel Road, Weston Green (41 members / 13 families)
• Caius Farm, Shelford Bottom (40 members/ 14 families on a Sunday – this Hall also doubles up as a place to host larger gatherings including neighbouring Plymouth Brethren communities, and so all the Cambridge area Plymouth brethren Christian Church members can meet together)."
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The statement goes into great detail of where the families are located and the travel times involved. 

​The planning committee reached a quick decision and planning permission was granted in March 2024. 

Shops

It is not just meeting rooms that the brethren are developing. The brethren operate their  members only shops that come under the banner of Campus & Co. There are a  number of these where we have identified planning applications over the last 2 -3 years. These include Kinross, Peterhead, Reading, Ware, Gloucester, Thetford, Kings Lynn and Horndean. We would be surprised if there we not many more.

Final Thoughts

The sheer amount and scale of the operation behind the brethren planning applications is substantial.  We have just looked at Meeting Rooms & Shops. Individual members are also prolific in their submission of planning applications for their own personal properties. These applications often involve the demolition of current £1 million+ properties and the rebuilding of new large homes.

Our investigation highlights failings in the UK planning application process and confirms that the extremely wealthy Plymouth Brethren members continue to grow their assets and know how to navigate the system.