Public open meeting: at the church tomorrow (9th May) starting at 6.30 p,m. A representative of the the owner of the building, the Churches Conservation Trust's Head of South East England Region will be there to explain the proposal and take questions.   

The owner of St Augustine's early 15th-century church in Norwich - the Churches Conservation Trust (CCT) - is in discussion with a telecoms company who want to erect a telecoms mast on top of the church's historic red brick tower.

St Augustine's is a Grade 1 Ancient Monument. Its tower is unique among Norwich's 30+ surviving medieval churches. The tower was built between 1677 and 1688 to replace the original flint-faced tower, which had collapsed. Building with brick was only then coming into large-scale use in England following the reconstruction of London after the Great Fire and the colour of the brick - a pleasing terracotta orange-red - led to the people who lived in this parish being known as "Red Steeplers" to other Norwich citizens.

The tower at St Augustine's is surmounted by a weathervane and is a well-loved landmark in an area of Norwich that has suffered planning blight and ill-conceived development since the 1960 such as Anglia Square and the Magdalen Street Flyover. The erection of a telecoms mast on its tower will be a further degradation of the fragile surviving heritage of this historically important area of the city known as Norwich-0ver-the Water.

The CCT will be making a decision very soon. Now is therefore the time to ACT to stop this vandalism.