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A LEADING figure in the clergy has spoken out about residents in Tufnell Park who are opposing plans to redevelop St George and All Saints’ church.Archdeacon of Hackney Rachel Treweek points out that while local people are entitled to comment about the details of the scheme, the local community “does not own” the church.Residents wrote to Archdeacon Treweek complaining that the church was not engaging with the community over plans to demolish and rebuild the 40-year-old church and community hall in Crayford Road.The scheme is said to include a new “overbearing” seven-storey tower block with 24 mainly private flats. The residents would prefer a smaller, less intrusive development. Archdeacon Treweek replied in a letter that there has been a full consultation over the scheme and added: “The church is open for public Christian worship but it is not a public building and the land is private.” Roderik Gonggrijp, a spokesman for more than 50 residents, said: “We have been totally ignored, shut out and patronised by those who say they represent the church.” The residents complain that there are insufficient socially rented homes within the scheme but Archdeacon Treweek argued that they were being “disingenuous”. She pointed out that the plan is to have as much social rent property as is viable. The church, she added, has been open about the fact that due to escalating costs they are struggling to reach Islington Council’s 50 per cent social homes target. But with a 70/30 split between shared ownership and social rent they are working as hard as possible to meet the target.Mr Gonggrijp said the development would be four storeys above the existing roof and tree line and “completely out of scale” with the architecture of the surrounding streets.“We question whether such an expensive, intensive and grandiose development is needed at all,” he said.He added that many residents believe that the existing building is fit for purpose and the church has failed to engage with the community. Archdeacon Treweek, who served at the church in the early 1990s, said she remembered that even then the fabric was in a poor state. “Churches rarely enter redevelopments simply on financial grounds,” she said. “Rather it is about wanting to provide viable and good space for Christian worship and community activity.”