Stevenage Meeting takes direct hit

Car smashes into Stevenage Meeting House, no casualties

An eighteen-year-old woman was arrested after crashing a car into Stevenage Meeting House.  The woman was detained on suspicion of taking a car without consent, failing to stop and other driving offences after she walked unhurt from a black Vauxhall Corsa. It had smashed through a brick wall of the Friends Meeting House on Cuttys Lane in Stevenage shortly before 6am on Friday 8 June. She tried to flee the scene. There were no casualties.

Steve Whiting, a warden of Stevenage Meeting, said: ‘The crash will cause huge disruption to the Meeting. The building is heavily used by the local community. Groups make use of it for activities such as yoga, folk dancing, self-help and quilting. It is also used by vulnerable adults and several “anonymous” groups’.

Steve added: ‘Quite apart from the disruption to our weekly worship, we will lose a lot of income, and there is the disruption to all the groups who use the building. It is very frustrating.’ The lettings income is significant at Stevenage.

The damage to the building is quite extensive, both internally and externally, and some of it is structural.

Steve also added, with a wry smile, that ‘it seemed rather an over enthusiastic response to our outreach’.

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Comments

Since the meeting House was not on the move, it must be the innocent party and therefore the lady’s insurance should be paying for the loss of income in the same way as if she were in collision with a lorry or taxi???

By BarryB on 14th June 2012 - 18:21

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In the unlikely event of the lady having a motor insurance policy, there is surely no way it would pay out if the vehicle had been removed without consent!

By Ian Waller on 15th June 2012 - 16:32

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