Simon Jenkins' observations on the valuable role of churches in local communities (Comment, 22 April) are spot-on. In the early 1990s I was working on a church project in a deprived inner-city area. The project had both social and spiritual dimensions. When we applied for council funding, I was invited to present our case. Being aware of the multicultural nature of the committee, I began stressing the social value of our project. But the committee pressed me on the spiritual aspects. When I queried this, they gave a simple explanation: people who believe in something and have spiritual support are less likely to get depressed, become ill and dependent, and cost the council money. We got the grant.
Fr Ed Hone
Durham
• Simon Jenkins offers a salutary message (Comment, 15 April) for a society where taking risks with ancient monuments is seen as a serious cultural mistake. Architects or developers are not allowed to muse over new ways of using old buildings, so we get the theme park we deserve. Why can't we consider putting a roof over Rochester Castle and using this space for the modern needs of society? So, while we are stuck with just what Jenkins describes, we can always travel to the continent to wonder at modern interventions to old buildings which do not alter the original fabric and add new interpretations to such old sites. The real message is that the status quo is our default, which only confirms a national conflict between imaginative designers and mythical remains: the scope that William Burges took with Cardiff Castle is now an impossibility – so without him and the Earl of Bute we would now be looking at yet another immaculate pile of medieval masonry.
Ian Leith
Chippenham, Wiltshire