Held on 07/01/2004
at 8 p.m. at Villa Westfield, Wells Road, Draycott.
3. Minutes and report on actions taken
5.4 Easter programme- Holy Week
activities.
6.1 Treasurer's report (see separate
summary)
6.4 School report- Admissions policy
Stanley
Price opened the meeting with a prayer. Richard Dingley took the chair.
Julie
Brown Richard Dingley Sylvia
Dingley Tricia
Corrick (all
present- no apologies) |
Chris
Green Colette
Jeff Wilf
Lacey Audrey
Morgan |
Thea
Oliver Stanley
Price John Cartwright Wendy
Cartwright Victor
Skinner |
Minutes of 20th
October were agreed as correct, with minor amendments.
Actions:
5.1
(Parish
away day). The £20 was paid.
5.2
(Christmas
card purchaser) This did not happen as the Parish Newsletter had all the
services in it.
5.3
(Confirmation
of appointment of Jeff Astle as school governor). Letter written.
5.4
(Thanks
to Maureen). Letter written.
5.5
(Flower
rota). A flower rota has been drawn up.
5.6
(Notice
board). The wrong board arrived, and is being changed for the one originally
intended. The cost is a bit higher than anticipated, at about £460. NB. The
inside notice board is getting damaged by rain leaking through the porch roof.
Several items were accepted for other business.
·
There
was a discussion about what rules we should apply to graveyard monuments, and
how this would be done. Some points of view which were expressed:
Ø We need to lay down some new rules.
Ø Large stone urns should not be allowed, as these make grass cutting difficult.
Ø We also need to publicise
the rules to undertakers/stonemasons in the region
Ø We cannot enforce rules in
the graveyard which have not been applied in the past.
Ø We must consider feelings in
the village: this can easily be alienated.
Ø We might wait to apply the
rules strictly to any new graveyard areas.
·
To
take this forward, we must draw up some local rules based on the diocesan rule
book. ACTION: Julie volunteered to undertake this.
·
The
"Bishop's course" is First to the Lord. It can be used ecumenically,
and is being adopted by Ann Wait of St. Andrew's Cheddar for the 'Churches
Together' Lent course. It is suggested that we join them: the meeting agreed.
·
Start
date: week beginning 1st March.
·
There
will probably be 2 venues in this benefice, and 4 in Cheddar.
·
The
final evening will not be in Draycott, but will probably take place in Cheddar.
It
was agreed that we would benefit from having some outside input. Our first
choice was the Greens (Dorothy and Ernest), both from their previous
involvement with our parish , and also from their experience in organising
retreats.
·
Monday:
Stations of the Cross (RC church, Cheddar)
·
Wednesday:
Joint meeting of study groups
·
Thursday:
Passover meal.
·
Friday:
meet for a meditation at Draycott Church at 6 pm. The setting would be a Taizé
service, and the meditations could be based on some from Judith Rose. We should
like to involve Ian Ames-White and Nikki Devitt. Appreciation was expressed for
the previous Taizé service organised by Nikki.
ACTION: CG to ask Nikki if she would be willing to contribute to this.
·
Easter:
still not decided. NB. we need a group for special services to think of options
for occasions like these.
·
We
raised £152.16 through the Advent Lunch and the carol service. We need to
disburse this money.
ACTION: subcommittee should be convened to decide: members Sylvia,
Julie, Audrey.
·
Audrey
was thanked for organising the Advent Lunch. This had been poorly attended-
unfortunately many people were busy (although some had contributed money
anyway). Audrey said that she would not repeat this experiment, as it was a lot
of work considering the outcome.
·
The
report was circulated and explained by Wendy.
·
Parish
share: we only paid £3,500 out of about £10,000 last year.
·
Next
year's Parish Share will be £9,583, which we must pay from an income of around
£13,000. This would not leave nearly enough for our other commitments. The
conclusion: we are not paying our way, and this situation looks set to
continue.
ACTION: this needs serious discussion, taking into account our current
fundraising plans.
·
Richard
Dingley asked if we could pay John Peddar something for all the work he put in
to the church repairs, and suggested £150. This was agreed by the meeting.
·
Richard
had decided on a notice board and ordered it.
·
The
floor has been completed, and is now much safer.
·
Stage
2 of the roof repairs have been completed and paid for, with the deduction of
some of the hire costs for scaffolding (see below).
·
Chris
reported that we still owed West Country Tiling £700.72, for the following
reasons:
a. We had previously agreed to settle our outstanding invoice with West Country Tiling (at an end-of-service meeting of the PCC in November last year), in spite of our previous misgivings. However, the invoice appeared to include the full cost of the scaffolding hire, although West Country Tiling offered in June 2003 to reduce the hire costs by 50%. We accordingly deducted 50% from the 'additional scaffold hire' part of invoice 12378.
b. When paying
the invoice, I explained our retention of the £700.72 (both to West Country
Tiling and to Mr. Chedburn). They both wrote back to explain that the charges
were in fact only £90 per week (half price). Checking the invoice more
carefully, this is true (although they are marked '100%' in the invoice)- the total period of the
additional hire is 15 weeks 4 days, which at £90 per week is £1401.43 (the
amount we were charged).
Deanery Synod report
c. There will be a payment to make in about six months time of the outstanding retention which will be released to the contractor when any maintenance items have been attended to, and we may also have to pay the architects a final amount for his fees.
·
A
Lottery Grant has been applied for, to finish off the roof. This was quite
complicated to do, and had to be delivered by hand in Bristol, on the closing
date. We have not heard yet. If they respond positively, the next step will be
to take them through all our estimates.
·
'Enhanced
fundraising committee': Victor wants to expand the fundraising committee, to
increase the ideas and manpower to carry them out. He has written to the
existing committee, not all of whom will be staying on. Ideally, he would like
to have 10 people. They will meet on Tuesday 27th January at Victor
and Rita's house.
·
The
major event for 2004 will be the Cheddar Male Voice Choir at the village hall.
This has been booked for the 19th June. We have renewed our license
to allow us to make a prize draw.
·
Hearing
loop. We should be able to get a diocesan grant for facilities for the
disabled, but we require a faculty. Stanley explained the procedure, which was
quite complicated and would have to involve the architect.
·
(raised
by JC) Have we explored the recovery of money through insurance, for storm
damage to the porch (we think this was in October 2002)? Thea had reported it
to Ecclesiastical Insurance by phone, but no claim had been made.
ACTION: CG to contact the insurers.
The
current school admissions policy does not have any positive discrimination in
favour of Christian families. The governors were against discrimination, and
Stanley was for it. He was interested in our own views on this before taking a
line at the next school governor's meeting. In a brief discussion, both
positive and negative opinions were expressed.
ACTION: The PCC should debate this issue properly when we have more
time, and perhaps take a vote.
·
Stanley
had received a memo from the Criminal Justice Group describing a domestic abuse
helpline. Booklets were available.
ACTION: details to go into magazine and on notice board.
·
Parish
survey- we are reminded that this must be carried out next month.
ACTION: Trish & Richard will do the required head count between
them.
(NB. In view of the number of items to be discussed, the issue of hymn books and re-ordering the building- on the agenda- were postponed. NB. we should also add other issues raised for the first time last meeting- visiting, joint services)
No new business was accepted in view of the lateness of the hour.
·
Annual
Church Parochial Meeting: 25th April, 6:30.
·
The
next meeting will be on Friday 6th Feb 2004.
The meeting closed with the Grace.