22nd February 2012

LYME REGIS: More questions about Christian group raised in council chamber

By Francesca Evans

A LYME Regis resident has questioned how appropriate the United Beach Missions activities are for the town’s beach.

The Christian group United Beach Missions (UBM) have organised children’s games and taught Bible stories on Lyme Regis beach during summer holidays for the past 40 years. Their activities first came into question last year, when Councillor Mark Gage said they were not being open about their religious values and reported that some parents had complained that UBM had told children to be wary of non-believing adults as they “could be paedophiles”. UBM later described this statement as “nonsense”.

However, questions about the group were raised again at the recent full meeting of Lyme Regis Town Council. Local resident John Bartholomew said he was not looking for a debate on the rights and wrongs of religion but asked how appropriate UBM was for the beach.

He said: “Lyme Regis Town Council is in the position, and has been for 40 years, of licensing one group, and one group only, to sell a partisan view of the world on the beach and seafront. This begs certain logistical questions.”

He asked councillors if they were happy to license any legally constituted group which sells a view of the world, either political, religious or philosophical and, if so, how many groups they should license.

Mr Bartholomew also asked if councillors were not willing to license other groups and why, and why they judged UBM to be “unique and special”.

He continued: “Are you prepared to acknowledge the right of individuals to challenge what is being said to children on the beach? Have you considered the implications of managing such debate?”

Mr Bartholomew said he believed those working with UBM were “decent people, working from genuine personal conviction”, but added: “One person’s conviction is another’s worst nightmare.”

He pointed out that the group’s engagement was primarily with children of a vulnerable age and “any school in this country would be alert to the dangers of allowing partisan access to children”. He said that by licensing this activity the town council was “effectively putting children in a quasi-educational situation without any of the safeguards which would apply in formal education”.

Mr Bartholomew asked: “Do we want the beach to be a forum for political and religious debate? While acknowledging the rights of people to believe whatever they want and to seek to persuade others to their point of view, might you not acknowledge a prior right for the rest of us to be able to enjoy a designated leisure facility in peace and freedom from such activity?”

Concluding his stamement, Mr Bartholomew added: “I recognise that it is difficult to end a relationship that has lasted for 40 years, but times change and the world moves on. Might not such groups be able to carry on their activities perfectly well in the spaces specifically designed for them - churches?”

LYME REGIS: More questions about Christian group raised in council chamber

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