Fife Council is to spend £10,000 on refurbishment of a rectory, despite reservations about spending public money on a church residence.
The cash will help fund a £99,000 upgrade of All Saints’ Rectory in St Andrews which includes a £27,000 central heating system, a £12,000 kitchen and £14,000 window refurbishment.
Councillors voiced concern about using taxpayers’ money for the grade B listed house, built in 1938 by Annie Young of Mount Melville, which is home to the rector of All Saints’ Church.
However, they agreed on condition it was spent on the ground floor suite of rooms, including meeting rooms, to be open to the wider community.
Half of the work is to be paid for by the church, while £21,000 has been raised by the congregation and a grant of £18,000 promised by St Andrews Pilgrim Foundation.
The council’s north-east Fife area committee approved a tenth of the bill from the St Andrews Common Good Fund, less than the £18,000 applied for by the episcopal church.
As members debated the application, Councillor Karen Marjoram said: “To me a rectory is just the house the minister lives in. We are being asked to pay for someone’s house to get new central heating and the rest from the common good fund.
“What common good is everyone else getting from the rectory being nice and cosy?”
Fellow Cupar councillor Bryan Poole questioned the need for more public meeting rooms when the town had multiple school and university buildings and the council was reducing its estate.
He said: “It does strike me there’s a principle involved. Should public money be used to fund religious organisations full stop?”
Councillors were told there was a shortage of meeting space in St Andrews town centre and that the North Street rectory would complement the busy church hall.
St Andrews councillor Dorothea Morrison said: “I know for a fact that this church and the halls are very well used within the community and I think that this would be an expansion of that.”
The condition attached to the grant stipulates it be used to develop the ground floor so it can be used for administration, meetings, recreation and hospitality.
Committee chairwoman Frances Melville said: “We are pleased to support the tremendous ongoing fundraising work of All Saints’ congregation by providing these funds to improve and make some much-needed renovations to this building.
“These funds will contribute not only to maintaining the building but the plans to develop the ground floor for recreation and hospitality will encourage an open-door policy not just for the congregation but for the wider community.”