Nobody has actually said they missed reading about the September meeting of the PCC, but perhaps you are all too polite to complain. As it happens, there was a good deal of common ground in the business for the September and November meetings, so it makes sense to cover them in a single report.
The good news story has been the crypt refurbishment programme, which was completed only a couple of weeks behind schedule and about 9% over budget, mainly as a result of unforeseeable events, including the discovery of a Victorian tomb, and the decision to extend the specification to include new flooring throughout. The PCC was enormously grateful to Peter Ginnings for his conscientious and highly professional oversight of the project.
The not so good news has been the growing concern about our financial position. Over the last few years we have raised money not only for the parish rooms (aka the crypt rooms) but we have also bought a curate’s flat. But regular income has not kept pace with expenditure, so the PCC has necessarily spent much time debating both how to raise more revenue and how to cut costs. Unless this year’s stewardship campaign yields a lot more than it has so far, the PCC will face some very tough choices when it has to determine the 2010 budget.
The third recurrent item has been the Parochial School. Links with the church are close, through seven governors and no fewer than 19 children in the reception class alone. The current Headteacher, Mrs Rebecca Harris, who led the school to an excellent Ofsted report in 2008, is leaving at Christmas to go to another CofE primary school in a more deprived area of central London, but the PCC was delighted to be told this month that her place is to be taken by the Revd Simon Atkinson, an Anglican priest attached to the Old St Pancras Team, who is currently the Deputy Head of a Catholic Primary School in London. Simon looks forward to working with our clergy to develop a shared mission and ministry in the school and the wider community.
Meetings of the PCC
Handley Stevens