A HOTEL owner is organising a petition to silence the nearby church bells which he claims are too noisy. John Lundon, who owns the Lord Eliot in Liskeard, is so angered by the bells ringing at St Martin's Church that he has already put up a sign outside his hotel posing the question: 'Do we need church bells? We say no!' 'I want the church to have respect for other people's peace – they are a law unto themselves and are definitely affecting my business,' said Mr Lundon. But the church's Canon, Tony Ingleby, believes that the bells are as much a part of England as they are of the church. 'The church bells are part of our heritage in terms of the landscape,' said the Canon. 'From a visual point of view the church tower is a distinctive mark of English Churches, and the ringing of bells is common in literature and poetry. There are quite a number of people in our parish who are too infirm to get to church and they like being reminded that the service is going on. 'The ringing of the bells does not play a part in church worship but something that we welcome because it says "welcome".' Mr Lundon does not agree. 'What is the point of it?' asked the hotel owner, who is himself Roman Catholic. 'I just can't understand why they are ringing the bells in the first place. 'It's 2006, time to move on.' The 11am Sunday service at St Martin's Church is well-supported by around 50 local worshippers, yet Mr Lundon is unhappy that bell ringing should be a part of the experience, especially on the day of rest. 'On a Sunday, everybody wants to sleep in but we can't,' said the hotel owner. The religious side of bells was to call the congregation to church and warn people of impending danger. 'In 2006, everybody has got a mobile phone and everybody knows when the church is going on.' But Duncan Matthews, president of the Liskeard branch of the Old Cornwall Society, believes the historical element of the bell tower is equally important. 'The bells are important - each one was dedicated by councillors and people of note in the town in the 1730s,' said Mr Matthews, who is a bell ringer at the church. 'Yes, the ringing of the bells is to call people to worship, but they are also a very old part of our tradition.' One of Mr Lundon's suggestions is to stop using the bell tower, replacing the bell chimes with artificial sound effects which would be played inside the church through an amplifier or speaker system. Canon Ingleby has experience of using pre- recorded bells and is not keen on replacing Liskeard's only working bell tower with artificial sound. '25 years ago I was teacher in a part of Plymouth where the church did not have a proper bell tower,' he said. 'They used pre-recorded music there, but it wasn't quite like the real thing.' But Anthony Waters lives next to the church and is sympathetic to Mr Lundon. 'My television has to be up more than half volume to compete with the bells,' said the resident. It disturbs us on a Sunday morning. The bells are so loud.' Atheist Clive Sargeant lives a similar distance away from the church but admits it is something that he has got used to. 'People knew the church was here when they moved here, they knew what they were letting themselves in for,' he said. While the hotel owner's petition is due to get underway in the next few days, Canon Ingleby will continue to permit the ringing of bells at his church. 'In theory, every time that I say morning prayer the Canon law says that I should ring the bells,' he said. 'I don't do that because I think it would be more of a nuisance value. If I felt that the bells were a nuisance to such an extent that it outweighed the attractions and the benefits then I would take steps to stopping the bells ringing. But the feedback I get is that the attraction outweighs the nuisance.'
