IN the article ?Old chapel may be demolished?, on the front page of the East Cornwall Times (November 24), local resident Dorothy Kirk is quoted as saying that the chapel is a listed building. This is not, in fact, the case - the chapel is not a listed building. The plans submitted for building three houses on the site provide for off-street parking (a natural concern of the parish council), and for dwellings which would be very much in keeping with the other houses in Chapel Street. Sad as it may be to see some familiar landmarks disappear, the economic facts of life sometimes make this inevitable, and the hard decisions have to be taken by those who have had the responsibility and borne the burden of the upkeep of the building over the years. As for the old Albaston Chapel, that was cold and dark, with access that was difficult for many of the elderly and impossible for anyone in a wheelchair. Its replacement, the new Tamar Valley Methodist Church, is light and warm, accessible to all and an asset to the communty. It?s a matter of opinion, of course, but to me the houses on the old Albaston Chapel site seem far more in keeping with the surroundings than the old chapel ever was.
The Rev Howard Curnow Superintendent Minister of the Callington and Gunnislake Methodist Circuit