St Alban’s Broadheath
PARISH OF ST ALBAN’S, BROADHEATH ANNUAL PAROCHIAL CHURCH MEETING
AGENDA ITEM 3 – ELECTORAL ROLL REPORT
The Electoral Roll has been revised this April. This year there are members on the Roll, this time comprised of ( %) members resident in the Parish and ( %) members resident outside the Parish boundaries.
Since the last Electoral Roll was produced in
New members (in the Parish) have been added
Member has died
John D Palmer Electoral Roll Officer
AGENDA ITEM 4 – REPORTS FROM THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL
4.1 CHURCHWARDENS – Attached
4.2 PCC SECRETARY – Attached
4.3 PCC TREASURER – ACCOUNTS – See separate sheets
4.4 DEANERY SYNOD –
4.5 ADDITIONAL REPORTS - Attached
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St Alban’s Broadheath
4.1 CHURCH WARDENS’ REPORT MAY 2024 – MAY 2025
The church hasn’t needed any major structural work during the past year. Buddleia growing on the roof continues to cause leaking and needs removing.
There have been a few ongoing problems with the heating system due mainly to the age of the boilers which have been serviced.
The font heater has been repaired.
The heating in the church hall has been serviced and the hoses changed to comply with current legislation.
AV System
The AV system continues to work well. We are grateful to Martin Odenrode, Rob Thomason and James Cunliffe for their input in the services which greatly enhances the worship.
Quinquennial Inspection
This was carried out in February 2023 and while there are no major concerns although there are some ongoing issues that remain outstanding.
Guttering
The gutters and gulleys were cleared in December and will need doing again shortly. Regular cleaning has prevented a repeat of the previous problem of water ingress in the Children’s Chapel, caused by the accumulation of debris in the gulleys and gutters.
Grounds
Martin our gardener has continued to maintain the church grounds which look neat and tidy. He is working through the list of additional jobs which he was given. Further work is still required on some of the remaining trees, some of which have preservation orders.
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Car Park
The car park has been improved by filling in the larger holes and attempting to level it. It obviously needs further maintenance but the cost of doing so is prohibitive due to our current financial situation.
There is also a problem with the carpark being used by our neighbours without any consideration for church users despite attempts to request that they do not park on Sundays and on other occasions.
There are so many who have given their time, energy and prayers to support the ministry of the church that it is not possible to name everyone. However, thanks go to The Welcome Team, who fulfil an essential role in greeting visitors and regulars alike and to Vivienne Walton and those who help with serving coffee. I am grateful to all who have supported me during the past year, in particular Eileen Dixon, Peter Johnson and Esme Hammer.
Ros Prescott
4.2. PCC SECRETARY’S REPORT
The Parochial Church Council has met on seven occasions since the Annual Parochial Church Meeting last May, the meetings were held in Church.
A variety of subjects have been discussed. In particular, our financial situation with concern over the increasing Parish share, and energy prices; reports from the small team appointed to think about the future of our buildings; youth work; safeguarding.
Safeguarding training and DBS checks are essential for all PCC members. It also required for all PCC members to do the Basic and Foundation levels of safeguarding training followed by the session on awareness of domestic abuse.
Our services are taking place in Church but continue to be offered on Zoom which is much appreciated by all who cannot attend in person. Members of the Nigerian Church are using the Church Hall on Sunday morning led by the Revd. Dr. Christian Obichukwu.
Mrs. Sarah Thomason is organizing the Sunday club and Toddler group. Youth Worker – Alex Stewart left in June 2023; we have been looking for a Youth Worker for our youth activities, unfortunately no funding to run the group currently.
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Hopefully we can have some funding and organize some activities for our local youth in the future.
This year Christmas services as follows, Gifts for BOAZ, Children’s Nativity with donkey, Carol Service, Candle service & Holy communion at Mid night, Christmas morning Holy communion.
Curry nights –two were held in vicar’s place this year.
Pakistan Trip to Sialkot was great, St Alban’s church will give a continuing support to Sialkot.
Harvest gifts were donated to BOAZ.
In summer, there was a road improvement for church cark park.
Thank you for everyone’s support in making these events happen.
The PCC has complied with the House of Bishops’ guidance on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.
For us, it is a sad news to lose two valuable members , Ms C Edwards, and Revd T Ryan.
Three members of the PCC are due to retire this year. In addition, there is one further vacancy, making a total of four. There is also a vacancy for the second church Warden.
Cindy Gan
4.4 Deanery Synod
4.5 ADDITIONAL REPORTS
Children’s and Young People’ Ministry
Toddler Group Report April 2025
The Toddlers group is made up of 5 volunteers (Sarah, Dianne, Meg, Mo and Georgina) and takes place every Tuesday at 10.30-12 noon. We keep term time in line with
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St Alban’s Broadheath
Broadheath Primary School so local parents can easily follow the pattern and we don’t get the older siblings attending. We have 2 regular child minders attending.
Each week begins with a free play session where the volunteers chat to families and play with children building relationships with the community. We have a craft table that Stamford Brook Preschool resource and run, this is in line with our planning. I send the planning over each half term. This cohort of parents are really keen to get involved with the craft.
This is followed by refreshments for parents and children. At 11.40 the parents and children help tidy away the toys and get ready for a story and singing time. The story time is set structure ‘See and Know’, this is planned half termly and delivered each week consistently, beginning with a welcome song, then a planned Bible story/theme from the Bible such as Creation and then finishing with praise and Nursery Rhymes. The use of the mic really helps with the noise level in the hall. It can get noisy! I am also using the large screen to publicise the Messy Church events and enhance the story/song time.
The parent WhatsApp group is available for all, and I send out reminders, links to church, dates etc. Parents opt into this is they wish. It’s proven a really good use of communication with the parents.
We have a large group of regular families that attend and newcomers visit frequently, numbers are fairly consistent. We will continue to encourage them to visit the church celebrations and the Sunday club.
Some families came at Christmas to Messy Christmas. This was a planned event with a variety of craft tables. We have a time of worship, song that we had learnt at Toddlers and refreshments at the end. Some post toddler families also came back to visit the event. We hope to build on the Messy church events and continue to provide a small service at the end.
The prayer tree corner continues to be a part of the Toddlers, with topical children’s Bible stories, leaflets and dates for upcoming services. It also provides an opportunity to ask for prayer anonymously by using the notelets and hanging a request on the tree.
The group are supportive of each other and there is a real mix of people within the group. It’s a real blessing to be a part of.
Sarah Thomason
Sunday Club Update April 2025
This year there has been a shift in the way things work, due to the age change in the children attending Sunday Club. Our current group of children are around 11years and
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St Alban’s Broadheath
under, with the majority being under the age of 7 years. This makes the planning a little simpler, in that we don’t have to try and cover a huge age range, but it does mean the attention span of the children is a lot shorter. A short story, activity, craft, worship and prayer are plenty. The younger members of the group (under 4 years) will normally dip in and out of the activities and play with the toys in the room with parents present.
The leaders continue to plan each week using the scripture union resources Bubbles and Splash. I create the rota which is being planned 1/2 months at a time due to low numbers of volunteers. We have also had Wing support the children in creating a Chinese New Year craft activity. Two DBS adults are always present, if an adult is absent, children are kept at the table at the back of church to comply with the safeguarding policy.
During the summer I planned a week of summer activities, including a walk, trip to Heaton park with a bee workshop and candle rolling, film day and a yoga session. This was advertised as usual and with Broadheath Primary School. Only one person signed up, so the event had to be cancelled. This year we are planning to work together with Michelle Moses from ‘Hello Buddy’ and work together to host a joint Holiday club over 2 days. We will plan and run the days together.
AAW services are still being developed and I am planning a small activity within each AAW to involve and engage the children. Our activity at the back of church will usually link to the main theme of the service. Due to the younger age of the children in Sunday club, we have decided that until the children are older, they will not do the readings or prayers. They will be involved in other ways, such as activities, worship and drama. I will continue to support the AAW sessions in my role.
The candlelit service at Christmas saw a lot of families visiting and they were all given a bag of activities to take away. They all had a note from St. Alban’s wishing them a Merry Christmas and instructions for the craft. The hope being they have a little bit of church at home, creating connections. We also had a table of different craft activities for children to take part in and take away with them during the services. The craft table was at the front of church so that any visiting families can see their children from their seats.
Referring back to the shift in age groups in Sunday Club, I have felt that I am being guided to shift my focus on to the Toddler group and do more outreach with this group. My contract is being developed and adapted to reflect these changes. I will still lead Sunday club, plan the rota, but while the group is smaller my role will have a Toddler based focus, as this group is growing. The Sunday club lead will be shared out with the other leaders.
Messy Christmas was a success and we saw many families from church and Toddlers attend. It was busy and lots of fun! I would like to develop this further in the hope that more families attend and our outreach grows, ensuring the link between Toddler and
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church becomes more fluid. Messy Easter is on the horizon and we are also having the donkey attend too. There will be a craft session, then a time of worship together using the songs we have been learning at Toddlers. There will be a lego Easter story, finishing with a prayer and chocolate! Each child will go home with an Easter story book. Please keep this event in your prayers
I have been on Faith in Action network meeting, which brings together different faiths and communities. We had time to hear about different charity work going on in Trafford/Manchester and I have made contact with Dan Shelston from Trafford local care organisation and Suzanne Kelly from Life church. I think this could possibly be a great link to being a hub for families in the future.
I have attended the CoE leadership Safeguarding course.
Next steps:
To continue to develop Sunday club and AAW
To grow what we have
To develop intergenerational activities
Sarah Thomason
Finance Team and Planned Giving
The Finance Team meets regularly to review the church’s finances and its members are the Vicar (Daud), Church Treasurer (Peter Johnson), Sally Cunliffe, Eileen Dixon. Beth Cooke relinquished the role of treasurer in 2024. Unfortunately, Clare Edwards who had been part of the team died in early 2025.
We introduced contactless and card payments to the Toddler group, Community Café and general services this year using a small device and a CollecTin donation station. Hopefully the use of this will grow. We received a grant for some young people’s activities in 2024 but the holiday club that was planned did not happen so this money is waiting to be spent on other related things. We checked the employment status of our cleaners and confirmed they are not employees. Sarah Thomason our families’ and children’s worker is the only employee. Major expenditure was on removing a large horse chestnut tree in the church grounds, improving the car park and boiler repairs.
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St Alban’s Broadheath
Thank you to all who have continued to support the mission and life of St Alban’s Church over this year by your generous giving. Regular giving is very helpful whether by standing order or numbered envelopes.
Over the last few years we have lost a number of regular givers so if you would like to support St Alban’s please speak to me. Please consider whether you can join the planned giving scheme or increase your giving.
We have continued to pay a reduced amount to the Diocese for the parish share as our regular outgoings have continued to exceed our income. The parish share is the amount of money that Chester asks us to contribute to the overall running of the Diocese.
The Gift Aid tax reclaim was a significant help again this year. If you are a tax payer and would like to take advantage of this tax efficient way of giving, please ask me.
Peter Johnson
Ministry Team
Members of the team. Daud Gill, Christian Obichukwu, Peter Johnson, Ros Prescott, Esme Hammer, Alan Paulley, Sarah Thomason, Rachel Bradley.
The Ministry team meets regularly to plan, review and develop the regular church services and to plan special events. It provides support and oversight for the House groups, The Alpha courses and The young people’s work.
Our regular Sunday service continues at 10:30am. We have had 2 sermon series on the book of James and The Acts of the Apostles. On other occasions we have followed the Lectionary readings. We have had special services during Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and Pentecost. Occasionally the services are led by lay leaders.
The services are still available on Zoom for those who are unable to attend church. We are thankful to the AV team of Martin Odenrode, Rob Thomason and
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James Cunliffe for all that they do. The 9am communion service continues at present on the first Sunday of the month. All age worship once a month is an opportunity for our younger members to get involved.
The Alpha course in September was run at St George’s church in Altrincham along with ourselves and Christ Church Timperley. A Cantonese Alpha was run at the vicarage during the past year.
There are two House groups which meet regularly on a Tuesday evening and a Thursday morning. They meet to study the Bible together, pray for and support each other. If you would like to know more about them please ask Daud, Alan, Meg or Rachel.
The Children’s and Young people’s ministry will have a separate update but we are very thankful to Sarah and her team for all that they do with our children and young people.
Christian looks after The Nigerian Chaplaincy which meet in the hall early Sunday mornings. Daud is a chaplain at Trafford college and Peter a chaplain to the Sea Cadets. Daud also has input with some volunteers at Broadheath primary school and we are grateful to them for this.
Experience Christmas and Easter takes place in the church with around 300 children from Broadheath primary school hearing the Easter and Christmas stories.
There are many folks involved in the service on a Sunday. Including the Welcome team, readers, intercessors, The AV team, the tea and coffee team and the young folk’s team as well as those leading and preaching. We are very thankful for you all and grateful for your commitment and support.
Rachel Bradley
On behalf of the Ministry Team.
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St Alban’s Broadheath
Prayer Team
Prayer Team Members: Sandra Fairclough, Daud Gill, Darlene Harrison, Gillian Shepherd, Rita Wickens, Cecilia Williams
Between April 2024 and March 2025 the team has been able to meet each Monday from 1.30 p.m. to 2.30 p.m. for prayer via Zoom. We would like to thank all those people who have contacted us with requests for prayer. All requests are regarded as confidential and are confined to the group. We also include other urgent needs concerning the work, events and activities of the church, as well as local, national and international situations as appropriate.
Members of the Prayer Team are happy to pray in church with anyone who requests prayer.
Any prayer requests should be given to Daud (0161 928 4820; daudgill@hotmail.co.uk) or to another person within the team.
We would appreciate more feedback on situations for which prayer has been requested and thank those people who do keep us updated. It does encourage us to hear of an outcome or to have an update.
Thank you.
Gillian Shepherd
St Alban’s Community Café
St Alban’s Community Café is open every Wednesday morning between 10am and 12 midday in the Church hall on Lindsell Road. We serve a small menu of drinks and snacks at very affordable prices.
We seek to offer a relaxed place to meet and share God’s love with our local community. We are especially keen to reach out to folk who live locally who may be isolated or lonely. There is always a listening ear at The Café.
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We have been delighted to have seen a growth in new folk attending regularly.
We have a number of clients and carers from Ordinary Lifestyles which is an organisation that supports adults with learning disability who attend regularly.
We enjoyed singing carols at Christmas time and are very thankful to Andy Dodd for arranging a Brass band to accompany this. It made our celebration very meaningful.
We would love you to help us increase our numbers so please invite your family, friends or neighbours along.
Thank you for your prayers and encouragement.
The Café Team.
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St Alban's Church Broadheath
Accounts 1 January - 31 December 2024
This report reflects the church accounts of St Alban's Broadheath from 1 January - 31 December 2024.
The following assets are recognised but not valued in the balance sheet:
- audio visual system, general office equipment, kitchen equipment, music equipment, movable church and hall furnishings which are held by the church wardens and would need a faculty for their disposal.
The PCC leases a photocopier rather than owns one.
Items are shown to the nearest £ so there may be some rounding errors. The figures behind these are kept to 2 decimal places.
Account balances
| Account balances | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 31/12/2024 | 31/12/2023 | ||
| £ | £ | ||
| Lloyds Bank current account | 19134 | 13176 | |
| CCLA general account | 10429 | 9904 | |
| CCLA BFM account | 29 | 28 | |
| Church hall account | 0 | 5434 | |
| Take 5 account | 0 | 1073 | |
| Petty cash | 40 | 36 | |
| Total | 29633 | 29651 | |
| Increase in total balances -18 -9613 (Negative indicates decrease) |
Receipts and Payments 2024
| 2024 Receipts £ £ |
2024 Receipts £ £ |
2024 Receipts £ £ |
2023 Receipts £ £ |
2023 Receipts £ £ |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Unrestricted | Restricted | |||
| Planned giving | 42229 | 40721 | ||||
| Cash collections | 4191 | 2551 | ||||
| Donations | 2607 | 2520 | 3589 | 948 | ||
| Legacies | 10000 | 0 | ||||
| Sunday refreshments | 453 | 361 | ||||
| Toddler group subscriptions | 908 | 724 | ||||
| St Alban's Community Café | 1574 | 1027 | ||||
| Trafford YFC room rental | 1740 | 1740 | ||||
| Car park rental | 3725 | 0 | ||||
| HMRC tax refund | 10986 | 12735 | ||||
| Fees from weddings/funerals etc |
1930 | 2221 | ||||
| Grants | 530 | |||||
| Miscellaneous | 3677 | 1627 | ||||
| Hall hire-regular bookings | 27345 | 16965 | ||||
| Hall hire-one-off bookings | 1928 | 1661 | ||||
| CCLA account interest added | 527 | 308 | ||||
| Total receipts | 113819 | 3050 | 86231 | 948 | ||
| Grand total receipts | 116869 | 87179 | ||||
| 2024 Payments |
2023 Payments |
|||||
| Parish share contribution | 59336 | 51780 | ||||
| Salaries, NI and payroll fees | 2887 | 3973 | ||||
| Staff expenses (inc council tax and water) |
2496 | 2778 | ||||
| Church running costs | ||||||
Church gas |
4978 | 7211 | ||||
| Church electricity | 4402 | 1041 | ||||
| Broadband | 849 | 908 | ||||
| Church insurance | 3982 | 3734 | ||||
| Service consumables | 849 | 912 | ||||
| Payments out of petty cash | 131 | 93 |
| Church cleaning | 1759 | 1563 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Church maintenance and consumables |
2081 | 1318 | |||||
| Gardening and grounds maintenance |
2925 | 2950 | |||||
| Children's work | 171 | 207 | |||||
| Music licence | 248 | 231 | |||||
| Photocopier lease | 674 | 664 | |||||
| Major spending on church building and grounds |
7328 | 2140 | |||||
| Miscellaneous payments | 298 | 755 | 972 | ||||
| Church hall (cost of trading) | |||||||
Hall gas |
3479 | 3278 | |||||
| Hall electricity | 1531 | 3168 | |||||
| Hall water | 286 | 294 | |||||
| Hall cleaning and caretaking | 2743 | 2153 | |||||
| Hall waste removal | 406 | 545 | |||||
| Hall insurance | 1913 | 2325 | |||||
| Hall window cleaning | 350 | 350 | |||||
| Hall maintenance and consumables |
1216 | 894 | |||||
| Major spending on hall building and grounds |
1410 | 0 | |||||
| Other costs | |||||||
| Donation to mission partner | 2200 | 400 | |||||
| Other payments from restricted funds |
0 | 602 | |||||
| Fees paid to diocese for weddings/funerals etc |
2224 | 0 | |||||
| Bank charges | 280 | 309 | |||||
| Refunds/repayments | 2700 | 0 | |||||
| Total payments | 113932 | 2955 | 95790 | 1002 | |||
| Grand total payments | 116887 | 96792 | |||||
| Excess receipts over payments |
-113 | 95 | -9559 | -54 | |||
| Total excess receipts over payments |
-18 | -9613 |
| General fund | 28037 | 24707 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vicar's discretionary fund | 0 | 299 | ||
| Mission fund | 611 | 1388 | ||
| Sialkot collection | 0 | 0 | ||
| Grant from Changing Lives Together | 530 | 0 | ||
| Fabric fund (undesignated | ||||
| fund) | 0 | 34 | ||
| Alpha (undesignated fund) | 0 | 552 | ||
| Tithe (undesignated fund) | 0 | 875 | ||
| Special collections | 454 | 1796 | ||
| Total | 28037 | 1595 | 24707 | 4944 |
| Grand total | 29633 | 29651 | ||
| Description of funds | ||||
| Grant (restricted) | ||||
| Changing Lives Together grant 2024 | 1/7/24 | 530 | ||
| Less expenditure | 0 | |||
| Balance at 31/12/24 | 530 | |||
| Sialkot collection (restricted) | ||||
| Opening balance 1/1/24 | 0 | |||
| Donations and fund raising | 1423 | |||
| Transfer from Mission fund | 777 | |||
| Gift to Sialkot mission | -2200 | |||
| Closing balance at 31/12/24 | 0 | |||
| Special collections (restricted) | ||||
| Held at 1/1/24 (Boaz Trust October 2023) | 110 | |||
| Children's Society (Christmas Eve service | ||||
| 2023 and 2024) | 324 | |||
| Open Doors (donation Feb 2024) | 20 | |||
| Special collections held at 31/12/24 | 454 | |||
| Collection for June Nixon (restricted) | ||||
| Opening balance | 0 | |||
| Donations | 755 | |||
| Gift made to June | -755 | |||
| Closing balance at 31/12/24 | 0 | |||
| Mission Fund (designated) | ||||
| Opening balance 1/1/24 | 1388 | |||
| Transfer to Sialkot fund | -777 |
| Closing balance at 31/12/24 | 611 |
|---|---|
| Petty cash | |
| Opening balance 1/1/24 | 36 |
| Additions made from cash collections | 135 |
| Expenses (refreshments) | -131 |
| Closing balance at 31/12/24 | 40 |
Notes for 2024 accounts
Church hall bank account (HSBC) and Take 5 bank account (Lloyds Bank) were closed in 2024 and the balances transferred to the main Lloyds Bank account. The Take 5 cafe was renamed "St Alban's Community cafe" prior to 2024.
Vicar's discretionary fund, fabric fund, Alpha and tithe fund have been undesignated by the PCC (17/2/25) due to their being unused for several years. Monies have been paid out for appropriate items in 2022, 2023 and 2024 but were taken from general funds. The Mission fund has been retained.
A collection was made for the Sialkot diocese, visited in 2024. This was transferred via the vicar's personal account for reasons of discretion. Bank transfer and receipt details are available.
The 2023 collections for Christmas Eve in 2023 was not paid out to Children's Society and for Boaz Trust in October 2023. These have been corrected in the 2024 accounts and paid out in 2025 along with other special collections in 2024.
All receipts made using the SumUp system are shown nett of commission. In 2024 there were £790 of gross receipts using this method with £10.31 commission giving a nett of £779.69 with an average commission of 1.3%. It is shown this way is because monies are received only after commission is deducted.
The refund of £2700 was paid to Manchester University NHS Trust caused by an overpayment by them for the use of the church hall.
A high level of fees were paid to the diocese as 2023's fees had not been paid.
Church electricity shows a very high figure due to an error by Octopus corrected during the year. The refund is shown under "Miscellaneous receipts".
New gas and electricity contracts have been signed for 3 years for supply to church and hall.
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