Council Leader: Prayers will continue as normal

Council Leader, Councillor Colin Lambert

Rochdale Council Leader, Councillor Colin Lambert, has said that prayers before council meetings in Rochdale will “continue as normal,” despite a ruling from the High Court last week. 

The High Court ruled that Bideford Town Council in Devon was acting unlawfully by putting prayers on meeting agendas. The case was brought by the National Secular Society and an atheist town councillor from Bideford. 

Mr Justice Ouseley said: "The saying of prayers as part of the formal meeting of a council is not lawful under section 111 of the Local Government Act 1972 and there is no statutory power permitting the practice to continue." 

The ruling added that prayers could be said in a council chamber before a formal meeting as long as councillors were not formally summoned to attend. 

In Rochdale prayers are said before every full council meeting. 

Councillor Lambert described the ruling as “absolute nonsense.”

He added: “We will carry on at both Rochdale Council and Heywood Township saying prayers beforehand.

“The people who brought this charge forward haven’t got a prayer when it comes to us.”