PARISHIONERS in Attadale have asked Melville council to delay an application to build a new church at St Joseph Pignatelli.

Signed by 50 residents and five non-residents the petition will be considered by council later this month, “pending further disclosure of information”.

Parishioner of 30 years Graham Mahony says Attadale does not need a new $4 million church when the existing building struggles to fill pews.

“A majority of people don’t go to church these days,” he told the Herald, adding parishioners can use the Santa Maria chapel.

Dr Mahony says many petitioners are parishioners concerned about the lack of consultation on a, “new church with offices and meeting rooms, parking, a columbarium and bell tower”.

He says neither the columbarium (for storage of cremated remains) nor the bell tower were included in the application people could comment on up to July 25.

Dr Mahony adds a traffic management plan to cope with vehicles using Wichmann Road, Attadale’s main thoroughfare, was also submitted after the consultation deadline.

Parish priest Sean Fernandez says supportive parishioners have raised $2.75 million, and construction is expected to start early next year.

The land on which the existing church was built as a hall in 1955 includes Mel Maria Catholic primary school and kindy and the tennis club off Wichmann Road.

The St Joseph Pignatelli tennis club has used this land without charge: “The tennis courts serving the wider community for 50 years are being demolished to make way for the new church and the wider community registers its disappointment,” Dr Mahony says.

More than 60 members of the club wrote to the Herald saying the courts generate, “much better outcomes for a larger number of people than a new church”.

Dr Mahony says the parish does not have the money to build the new church and Perth archbishop Timothy Costelloe is chipping in a $500,000 “soft loan”.

“At the end of the day, we have to repay that money,” he says.

Asked whether it was a difficult decision to take on the Church, Dr Mahony replies, “God will be my judge on that”.

Father Sean says most people who use the six courts are not local parishioners and do not live in the area.

The club has declined his offer to keep two courts and offers of weekend access to nearby Santa Maria College’s six.

by CARMELO AMALFI