A TWO-year dispute over a crumbling church wall which has closed part of Dulverton’s heritage walk shows no sign of being quickly resolved, a town councillor said this week.

Since the closure of All Saints’ churchyard in 2007, Dulverton Town Council has been responsible for the eight foot wall running alongside a public footpath leading to the Old School House.

The state of the wall led to the footpath’s closure in 2013 and ever since argument has raged between the town council and various authorities including Exmoor National Park Authority over what to do with the Grade Two structure.

In the meantime, according to a council report, the wall is deteriorating badly, “cracking has become much larger and in some cases reaches down to footpath ground level”.

“The council’s proposal is to reduce the height of the supporting wall and grade the earth behind the structure,” said district and town Cllr Nick Thwaites.

“We think this is the best solution and cost-effective in terms of conservation and money.”

He said that, until recently, other organisations, including Dulverton Parochial Council, agreed with the scheme, which would probably cost £40-50,000.

But now Exmoor National Park Authority and two individual objectors were pressing for the church wall to be rebuilt to its original height, which would involve the removal of earth sometimes down to ground level.

This, claimed Cllr Thwaites, could cost around £100,000, which would equate to two years Council Tax income for the town council, which had already spent £5,000 on reports and surveys.

Ivan Gunn, who is managing the project for the council, said he believed that the wall was now dangerous and could collapse at any moment: “There is worry in the town about it,” he said.

He said that West Somerset Council’s building control officer had asked for the footpath – which links the town to the moor – to be closed in 2013 after serious cracks had appeared.

Discussions between the church authorities, Exmoor National Park and Dulverton Town Council resulted in a proposal to reduce the height of the wall and grade the earth behind it.

“Dulverton Council had produced three reports and when a member of the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) asked for another the council refused to spend more public money,” Mr Dunn said. “The council then made a presentation to the DAC which agreed not to object to the council’s solution.

“The next step was to get a faculty which would allow work to start but then two members of the Diocesan Advisory Committee disagreed with the DAC’s decision.

“Now Exmoor National Park have written a letter to the chancellor of the diocese (a lawyer), changing their long-standing advice to Dulverton Council and All Saints and has offered to commission another report. We are horrified that the National Park changed its mind.

“The chancellor has now designated expert witnesses to produce certificated reports which are likely to be up to £2,000 each.

“Hopefully a compromise solution can be reached. In the meantime, we are still talking and still waiting, but what is certain is that the wall will not be repaired until 2016 at the earliest.

“Ideally we would like a meeting with an independent chairman in an independent location.”

Sarah Bryan, Head of Conservation and Access at Exmoor National Park Authority, said: “Two years ago a number of options were presented by the Town Council and we confirmed that one of those was probably the least damaging.

“However, since then Nick Wall, senior conservation officer with the South West Heritage Trust and Member of the Diocesan Advisory Committee, has commissioned an alternative report which suggests a less damaging and probably much cheaper approach.

“The park authority drew the town council’s attention to this and is now working closely with them to try and find a compromise solution which conserves the character and historic fabric of the town, will keep liabilities and maintenance costs to a minimum and enable the footpath to be opened as soon as possible.