Outlawed council prayers continue

OLDHAM Council will continue saying prayers at the start of meetings - despite a legal ruling outlawing the traditional practice.

A test-case bid to outlaw prayers before local council meetings was won by the National Secular Society and an atheist councillor in Devon.

But Oldham Council says it is business as usual, since Bideford Town Council has been given leave to appeal the ruling. The law stands until the appeal is lost

Bideford was challenged on having religious prayers on meeting agendas. Mr Justice Ouseley, sitting in London, ruled: “The saying of prayers as part of the formal meeting of a council is not lawful under section 111 of the Local Government Act 1972, and there is no statutory power permitting the practice to continue.”

The legal challenge was launched in July 2010, after the society was contacted by Clive Bone, a non-believer who was then a Bideford councillor. Mr Bone later left the council because it refused to change its prayer policy.

Society lawyers argued that council members who were not religious were being indirectly discriminated against. The case was not won on human rights grounds, but on a technical point concerning local government legislation.

Simon Calvert, of the Christian Institute described the ruling as “bizarre”. “We are pleased the court has said the saying of prayers at meetings does not breach human rights laws,” he said. “but it is bizarre that they should be declared unlawful because of the 1972 Local Government Act.”