Financial Review

St Botolph’s 2020 Financial Review of the Year

Picture of St Botolph's Church

Church finances can pose a challenge for parishes at the best of times. This year of course we have had the added impact of the pandemic and therefore I thought it may be useful to share a summary of some of the key elements of our finances in 2020.

As in other years, the Diocese requested a ‘Parish Share’ contribution from St Botolph’s to support the continued mission of churches throughout the Diocese.   For 2020 this request was for £22,595. A number of factors are taken into account when the Diocese calculate the Parish Share, however this did represent an increase of 3.5% on 2019. I am pleased to report that, following Parochial Church Council approval, this request was met in full.

The ‘2018 Quinquennial Inspection Survey Report’ indicated a that a number of urgent repairs were required for the church. Totalling almost £6,500, these had been pencilled in for earlier in the year but were delayed due to the pandemic. They were eventually completed in October this year.

 

Church drive after renewal

Church drive before renewalThe church drive had also been a concern for some time. Parts of the drive had started to crumble and break up, which not only looked unsightly, but posed a trip hazard. The drive (from the church porch to the lamps) was renewed in March at a total cost of £3,420. here are ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos.

 

 

Insurance is of course an unavoidable cost. This year the insurance for the Church and Parish Rooms was a combined total of £6,200 (a 3.4% increase on 2019). However, we are able to pay in 12 monthly instalments at no extra cost and so this did help with annual budgeting. 

 

Picture of inside of church

An updated sound system for the church had been considered for a while. This was installed in March at a cost of £2,121.

 

We have also been fortunate in being able to invest almost £1,500 in the Parish Room facilities including: new flooring in the porch and kitchen, a new water heater and a new dishwasher.

Utilities - new contracts have been agreed with EDF (Electricity) and British Gas Lite (Gas). Combined annual savings for the Church and Parish Rooms Electricity and Gas contracts are estimated to be circa £450.

Parish giving logo

The Parish Giving Scheme (PGS) was launched for St Botolph’s in June 2020 and although the pandemic limited the launch activity, there are currently 6 people enjoying the benefits of this way of giving. The PGS is a convenient way to manage your church donations. These are collected by Direct Debit, any Gift Aid entitlement is claimed automatically and all monies come straight back to the church. Total monies to date £1327.50, which includes £260 of Gift Aid.

 

Following a period when this was produced at St Giles in Pontefract, Covid-19 precautions meant that production of the December 2020 / January 2021 Parish Magazine was completed in-house. This required the manual effort of collating, stapling and folding some 260 magazines.

Picture of first magazines printed in-house

As in-house production was determined to be the long term requirement, a new machine was sourced and installed in early December (thanks Danny from Document Solutions).

Instalilling new printer

This new machine will print, collate, staple and fold automatically and also enable colour printing. There is of course an uplift in the cost of such a machine, however the PCC are looking at ways of offsetting this

 

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