PHOTOGRAPHERS are risking Haworth Parish Church’s entire renovation project by sneaking on the roof to take scenic pics, the parish council chairman has warned this week.

Cllr John Huxley blasted the “irresponsible selfish” snappers who climbed up scaffolding to take shots of restoration work at night.

He claimed any accident during the daring manoeuvres could have closed the site for months, put at risk £200,000 of grant money and affected workmen’s jobs.

Cllr Huxley, writing as a parochial church council member, said: “We would hope that the individual or individuals concerned will understand that not only are they taking massive risks on their own behalf but the result of their actions could have a massive impact on the Haworth Parish Church community.”

Cllr Huxley spoke out after the church received requests from several photographers to go up the scaffolding to take panoramic pictures of the village.

The building contractors agreed to the requests once they had made the structure safe to access and could provide a safe and controlled situation for photographers.

Cllr Huxley said that despite this, one or more snappers had made unauthorised climbs up the scaffolding at night and posted the results on social media.

He said this incident – greeted with “dismay and horror” by church members – could have halted the project for years, putting at risk all the church’s fundraising, including the £200,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

He added: “We were happy to co-operate with photographers’ request to go up the church and are totally despondent that, just when we are so close to completing a project we started way back in 2010, it could be put in jeopardy by such irresponsible and selfish behaviour.

“The parish church belongs to all our community and the current repair work is designed to ensure that baptisms, weddings, funerals and worship can continue beyond the 21st century.

“We do not believe that anybody should put that work at risk, whatever the quality of the photographs and ambitions of individual photographers concerned.”

Cllr Huxley said the project’s postponement would have meant the church having to restart the process to gain permission from the diocese to undertake the work.

He said the church would have lost crucial income from many thousands of visitors lost and wasted the hundreds of hours by members of the congregation seeking funding.

Weddings booked into the church in the months ahead would have also been in doubt, and contractors would have faced “grave penalties" and potential jobs losses as a consequence.