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← The Parochial Church Council Of The Ecclesiastical Parish Of The Priory Church Of St Peter And St Paul Leominster

2023-12-31-accounts

THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF ST PETER AND ST PAUL, LEOMINSTER.

Annual Trustees’ Report and Financial Statements for 2023

Registered Charity No. 1131837

The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St Peter and St Paul, Leominster, Annual Trustees’ Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31st December 2023.

Administrative Information

The Priory Church of St Peter and St Paul is situated in Church Street Leominster. It is part of the Diocese of Hereford within the Church of England. The Parochial Church Council (PCC) correspondence address is Priory PCC, The Forbury Chapel, Church Street, Leominster, HR6 8NQ. The Priory web site is www.leominsterpriory.org.uk

The PCC is a corporate body established by the Church of England. The PCC operates under the Parochial Church Council Powers Measure 1956, Church Representation Rules 2020 and is a Charity registered with the Charity Commission, registered no. 1131837.

PCC Trustees who have served from the 1 January 2023 until the date this report was approved are:

Chairman: Revd. Guy Cole, Team Rector Wardens: Ken Roberts Clare Cathcart Secretary: Sue Jones Treasurer: Rupert Fairclough

Elected PCC Trustees and representatives on the Deanery Synod:

Helen Bricknell and Phillippa Wright. Kathy Bland, David Bland and Wendy Coombey ex-officio.

Elected PCC Trustees:

Geoff Bricknell, Richard Phillips, Bill Quelch, Graham Millard (Lay Vice-Chair), Ceri Hibbert, Rupert Fairclough, Patrick Deeming-Kent (until May) and Hilary Roberts.

Bankers, legal and other advisers to the PCC .

Bank of Scotland, 38 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh Lloyds Bank, 9 Corn Square Leominster

CCLA Investment Management Ltd, Senator House, 85 Queen Victoria Street, London Independent Examiner: Sarah Gluyas, 99 Ridgemoor Road, Leominster,3 HR6 8UH Architect: Tim Radcliffe Associates, Cambrian House, Nantmawr, Oswestry Insurer: Trinitas Church Insurance Services, Blenheim House, 1-2 Bridge Street, Guildford.

Volunteers

Thankyou to all the volunteers who work so hard to make the Priory a lively and vibrant community. The support of the retired clergy has been invaluable. Also all the members of the PCC, the Choir and the Bellringers for their valuable contribution to our ministry and for keeping the Priory running.

Structure, governance and management

The appointment of PCC Trustees is set out in the Church Representation Rules. At the Priory all church members are encouraged to register on the electoral role and to stand for election to the PCC. The membership of the PCC consists of the Team Rector, churchwardens, and members of the congregation who are on the electoral roll of the Priory plus ex-officio.

The full PCC met ten times during the year with an average level of attendance of 85%. Given its wide responsibilities the PCC is responsible for a number of groups, each dealing with a particular aspect of parish life. These groups include standing committee, finance, tourism and communications, fund raising, fabric and holiday club.

2023 saw the first full year of the Joint Council of the Leominster Benefice. All parishes within the Team are represented, with the Priory being represented by Helen Bricknell and Phillippa Wright. The Joint Council has responsibility for the Team Accounts and for the employment of staff working at the Team Office. The Joint Council also agrees how the costs of running the Team are shared between the parishes. It meets twice a year.

The major risks to which the PCC is exposed are identified by the PCC Trustees; this includes the monitoring of systems and procedures that have been established to manage those identified risks.

Safeguarding

Safeguarding is about ensuring the safety of children, young people and vulnerable adults. The PCC formally readopted and endorsed the Safeguarding Policy of the Church of England in March 2023, and approved the current action plan. Safeguarding is a standing item on the PCC agenda. We are working to ensure full compliance with the requirements. There are Safeguarding posters up in the Church, detailing the policy and giving contact details. If you yourself have been affected by a safeguarding issue or have concerns about someone within the Priory, please get in touch.

Aim and purposes

The PCC Trustees have the responsibility to consult with the Team Rector on all matters of general concern and importance in the parish, most specifically the whole mission of the church, pastoral, ecumenical as well as deciding on how the funds of the PCC are to be spent.

Objectives and Activities

The PCC is committed to enabling as many people as possible to worship at the Priory and to become part of our parish community. The PCC maintains an overview of worship throughout the parish, working with the Rector to enable our services to involve the many groups that live within our parish. Our services and worship put faith into practice through prayer and scripture, music and sacrament.

When planning our activities for the year, the Team Rector, the Team Clergy and the PCC Trustees consider the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit and, in particular, the specific guidance on charities for the advancement of religion. In particular we try to encourage and enable people to live out their faith as part of our parish community through:

In 2023 we furthered these objectives by:

The PCC meets monthly and has Finance, Church Fabric and Safeguarding as standing agenda items with other groups reporting on a cycle.

The PCC has vacancies and would welcome new members who would like to contribute to keeping the Priory a vibrant, developing Church, central to Leominster life.

Mission statistics

Some data was not collected because of Covid (indicated by *). Other gaps are because the data is not available, but this gives us a baseline for the future.

2023 2022 2021 2020
Usual Sundayattendance 114 97 * *
Worshippingcommunity 282 250 131 225
Communicants on Easter Dayand Easter Eve 186 230
Total attendance on Easter Dayand Easter Eve 206 258 106 *
Total attendance duringAdvent 900 567 - -
Total attendance at services for civic organisations and
schools		 1610 830 - -
Number of communicants on Christmas Eve and
ChristmasDay		 152 170 - -
Total attendance on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 237 242 160 144
Number of Baptisms 16 29 14 3
Number of Marriages 6 3 3 1
Funerals in the Priory, by clergy at other locations, burial
of ashes/committals		 20, 5, 0 19, 15, 2 14 3

Plans for the future

Financial review

At the beginning of the year, we had forecasted a loss of £21,694. Income was budgeted to increase by 17.5% compared to 2022, to £139,250, this would be made up from improved income across all areas. Expenditure was also budgeted to increase by 17.5% to £166,427. This was due a predicted further increase in utilities and other general costs.

Excluding grants, endowment revaluation and money collected on behalf of others, actual income was £155,746, at £16,496 above budget. This was due to much higher than expected interest returns on our investments, and excellent work by the Fundraising team, who nearly doubled their target of £10,000 as well as increases in income in many other areas. Our generous church community, in the form of giving via the Parish Giving Scheme, together with donor Standing Orders and other cash donations, accounts for 50% of total income, and much of this can have Gift Aid claimed, to add a significant boost.

We continue to receive a good stream of income from our rental properties, which have both seen rental increases in line with the market, as advised by our estate agents. As mentioned above, income from fund-raising events has been extremely important this year. I would again thank the up to 75 people involved in volunteering for the church, without them so much of what we do would not be possible.

The Holiday Club ran another highly popular and successful week during the summer, ending up with a surplus of over £500, which will be ploughed back into next year to make it even better than ever. Thanks again are due to the hard work of many individuals who keep this vital part of our community outreach going.

We managed to keep expenses within budget, in fact making further savings of over £2,000. A number of factors affected this including much lower than expected fund-raising costs, amortisation of church insurance costs with a lower premium and monthly payments, lower service expenses and fewer expenses related to our rental properties. Despite renegotiating our gas and electricity costs, we were unable to offset the huge price increases and came in £2,500 over budget in this area. After our Parish Offer, Utilities costs are the greatest area of expense. Expenditure on our Intergenerational Pioneers (now Lay Pioneers) has been moved into a new nominal code, Mission.

The budgeting process for 2024 was completed towards the end of 2023 and we are now working our way towards breakeven point, continuing losses are clearly not sustainable. We expect to have another deficit in 2024 but we are planning for it to be much less than in 2023. Supported by the Hereford Diocesan Board of Finance, we are looking at various ways that we can maximise income, through legacies, donations, regular giving and fund-raising events. We will also be working with the Team Treasurer to minimise our contribution.

Thanks are also due to the rest of the financial management team who assist the Treasurer with cash handling and banking, and renewed thanks to Richard Phillips who continues to manage the recording and claiming of Gift Aid payments – a vital role.

HEREFORD DIOCESE FINANCIAL UPDATE

The majority of the funding for the Diocese comes from contributions from parishes. Our financial contribution helps to spread the gospel throughout the Diocese in many ways.

Hereford Diocese has been operating a Parish Offer scheme and has subsequently recorded deficits in its accounts. The Diocese is currently looking at a deficit in its accounts of approximately £1M.

The PCC voted to keep our Parish Offer at £80,537 as of 1[st] January 2024, with the potential to make additional payments if funds allowed.

Analysis of Income

PCC of Leominster

01/01/2023 to 31/12/2023

Analysis of Expenditure

PCC of Leominster

01/01/2023 to 31/12/2023

Balance Sheet

PCC of Leominster

As at 31/12/2023

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Trustees receiving remuneration during the year were David Bland and Kathy Bland who are paid as Lay Pioneers. Small expense claims are reimbursed but are not of a material value.

The Projects restricted fund has been built up from various sources for specific purposes, including Flowers, Leominster Asylum Seeker Support, Stonework and Restoration. The other investment funds are restricted to the title of the fund.

Investment Policy - It is PCC policy to invest our fund balances with the CBF Church of England Deposit Fund. This remains a safe place to keep our funds.

Reserves Policy - It is PCC policy to maintain a balance on unrestricted funds (if possible) which equates to approximately 6 months unrestricted payments, to cover day to day running requirements and emergency situations that may arise from time to time. The balance of £112,004 of unrestricted funds at the year-end meets this target.

Accounting Policy - The financial statements of the PCC have been prepared in accordance with the Church Accounting regulations 2006 and SORP 2015 using the receipts and payments basis.

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention except for the valuation of investment assets, which are shown at market value. The financial statements include all transactions, assets and liabilities for which the PCC is responsible in law. They do not include the accounts of church groups that owe their main affiliation to another body nor those that are informal gatherings of Church members

Fixed assets - The freehold land and buildings comprising the Verger’s House and 10 The Meadows in Leominster is included at a deemed cost being its cost on purchase. The PCC Trustees consider the freehold land and property to be worth considerably more than the net book value stated in the accounts. Equipment used within the church premises is depreciated on a straight-line basis over 4 years. Individual items of equipment with a purchase price of £1,000 or less are written off when the asset is acquired

Investments are valued at market value.

Restricted funds represent a) income from trusts or endowments which may be expended only on those restricted objects provided in the terms of the trust or bequest, and b) donations or grants received for a specific object or invited by the PCC for a specific object. The funds may only be expended on the specific object for which they were given. Any balance remaining unspent at the end of each year must be carried forward as a balance on that fund.

Designated funds are unrestricted funds which are set aside at the discretion of the PCC Trustees for specific purposes.

Endowment Funds are funds, the capital of which must be maintained. Only income arising from investment of the endowment may be used either as restricted or unrestricted funds depending upon the purpose for which the endowment was established. Last year we incorporated the Bateman Memorial Trust into our accounts. And this has now been separated into an Endowment amount in Fixed Assets and an Income amount in Current Assets.

Unrestricted funds are general funds which can be used for PCC ordinary purposes.

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT

To the Parochial Church Council of the Priory Church of St Peter and St Paul Leominster On the accounts for the year ended 31 December 2023

Respective responsibilities of trustees and the examiner

The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (the Charities Act) and that an independent examination is needed.

It is my responsibility to:

Basis of independent examiner’s statement

My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair’ view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

Independent Examiner’s statement

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention: