Church Buildings Bulletin November 2024

Caring for your church – news, advice and more. Sent to all Clergy, Readers, ALMs, LLMs, Churchwardens, Treasurers and Deanery Lay Chairs.

In this Issue:

Introducing Richard Jackson

Events and Resources

• AccessAble – Letting disabled visitors know about access in and around your church building
• Churchwarden training resource page: Taking care of your building contents

Environment

• Supporting hedgehogs and other small animals

Information

• Heating your church this winter
• Emergency works – process we follow
• Applying for List B permission (Archdeacon’s Letter)
• UK Digital upgrade
• Church War Memorials

Maintaining your building

• Maintenance week
• Recommended monthly tasks

Grants and Funding

• Funding newsletter – is this a link to the last newsletter?
• Living Alongside Bats in Churches
• Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme
• National Lottery Awards For All England
• Benefact Trust – Movement For Good

Good news stories

• Christmas Tree Festivals

The DAC team and the Diocese’s Website

With thanks for all you do to maintain our wonderful churches as places where people can encounter God, parishes can reach out in mission and local communities can be transformed.

Emma Critchley, DAC Secretary
Ann Wise, Historic Buildings Support Officer
Jenny Dart, Pastoral and Advisory (DAC) Officer
Tom Abraham, Net Zero Carbon Officer
Mayra Shaw, Team Secretary – Church Buildings
Liz West, Church Buildings Maintenance Officer
Richard Jackson – Local Church income officer

Introducing Richard Jackson

Over the last year Richard Jackson has visited a number of parishes to offer an “Income Generation Healthcheck” – a chance to meet key stakeholders in parishes to look over church facilities and offer guidance and advice on using them for income generation.  It sometimes doesn’t come naturally to a PCC to charge for making use of church buildings and assets, but he hopes to empower them to have confident conversations about increasing or sustaining their Trading Income (section 12 on the Parish Finance Return Form).  Having regular sustainable income through sensible use of assets means that hard-earned “fundraising” amounts through giving, stewardship and legacies etc can go towards Mission Action Plan without passing the offertory bowl round just to keep the lights on.

There are many ways to generate trading income with projects and ideas of all sizes to look at, but some quick wins to consider:

· Hiring out or licencing Parish Rooms / Church Halls at a sensible market rate for meetings and events

· Offering spare storage/ garage spaces for short term let to store items 

· Using services like JustPark to make use of parking spaces that sit unused for part of the week

· Churches with wonderful acoustic tying up with music colleges to host music student recordings for their assessments

· Making organs available for tuition where students can’t afford a home practice instrument – this has the additional benefit of nurturing the future generation of organists to support our services.

Richard is also able to advise on marketing suggestions, booking systems and low-cost smart tech to help remove some of the admin barriers related to hiring out spaces.  He is an experienced 360° photographer and 3D floorplan designer, so can also capture some panoramic images and generate user-friendly 3D layout drawings to support marketing your halls and parish buildings online.  

Richard’s role is part time, only working two days a week and mostly out and about in parishes.  If you want to discuss further or arrange an Income Generation Healthcheck Visit – please drop him an email rjackson@stalbans.anglican.org and he will get back to you as quickly as he can.

AccessAble – Letting disabled visitors know about access in and around your church building

There are a number of resources available for parishes to complete an access audit. Please contact the DAC Team for more information

If you would prefer some assistance from an outside organisation, read on.

AccessAble is a disabled person-led organisation, founded in 2000. They exist to enable disabled people and their families to use buildings and spaces with dignity.

Their website www.AccessAble.co.uk helps over 6 million disabled people a year find the accessibility information they need before visiting a place or space. Over the last 25 years they have worked with 1000s of disability groups to shape their service. They work with 100s of public and private sector organisations to support them on their accessibility journey.

AccessAble’s founder and CEO, Dr Gregory Burke, has offered to take part in a free webinar for parish volunteers, to explain the services AccessAble can offer. This will be held on Thursday the 23rd of January 2025, and you can book at the following link: AccessAble webinar

Churchwarden training resource page: Taking care of your building contents

Taking Care of your Buildings Contents

• Why is this important and how does it support your Mission and Outreach
• The Church Property Register (also known as the Terrier and Inventory)
• Relationship with your Professional Advisers and Quinquennial Inspections
• Resources that are available including advice about filming, lettings and professional advisers

Environment

Supporting hedgehogs and other small animals.

A simple tip from a churchwarden:
Some years ago, we were having work done on our external stopcock, the hole was left open overnight, next morning I found a Hedgehog sitting in the bottom of the 30cm deep shaft. Sometimes graves are dug 2 or 3 days before the funeral or burial of ashes, I always check the grave each morning and evening to make sure that an animal hasn’t fallen in. If a grave is open for a few days and an animal falls in, it will be likely to die from lack of water.

Heating your church this winter

Heating & Net Zero Carbon.

With the temperature finally dropping outside your heating systems will be starting to get more of a workout.  We hope that your heating system will work well, but we’re here and will try and help if your heating system has problems.  This could be through the provision of advice, or the loan of temporary heaters.  More information can be found on the Net Zero Carbon page of the website.

We would also like to draw your attention to the Net Zero Carbon Quick Wins grant scheme.  This can potentially provide funding towards a variety of different actions all related to the Practical Path to Net Zero.  We would encourage  you to complete the Practical Path from the national church’s website.

Then consider applying for a Grant to support you on your journey.

Examples of projects that could be funded include support to fix windowpanes, replacing bulbs with LED alternatives, adding sensors to lighting, obtaining data loggers to learn how your building heats and cools, and support for both temporary heating, and long-term electric heating systems.

Emergency Works – what to do

Most people know about the process for applying for a faculty or a List B permission, but what do you do if an emergency arises?

You’ll be glad to know we have a tried-and-tested process in place involving DAC members and the Diocesan Registry team, to ensure we can deal very quickly with any emergencies relating to the church and churchyard. So if a tree has shed a branch overnight, or there is a water leak in the churchyard, or a piece of stonework that is unsafe, please follow the proper steps, as indicated in our website.

If you need urgent advice please contact the DAC Team:

Applying for List B permission (Archdeacon’s Letter)

The process isn’t necessarily the same in every diocese, but in the Diocese of St Albans all applications for minor works that may be included in the national Minor Matters List B start with an application via the DAC part of the Diocesan online portal.

If you cannot easily make an application in this way, please email the DAC team. We will check what permission is needed and if we need any further information, and then we’ll consult relevant DAC members via the portal system. Once we’ve dealt with any queries or comments, we will notify the Archdeacon’s office that your application is ready for the permission letter to be reviewed by the Archdeacon and issued.

UK Digital upgrade

PSTN switch off

People may be aware that BT Openreach is carrying out a national infrastructure project to digitise the phone network. This will include the withdrawal of copper (hard wired) telephone connections. One of the implications is for any lift, fire or security alarms etc. which require connection back to an off-site control base (such as lift emergency call buttons, fire and security alarms to fire stations or police etc). Providers should have arrangements in place for the change-over. If you have any of these systems in your church or hall, please see further information from Ecclesiastical Insurance Risk Management Resources: UK digital upgrade | Risk Management | Ecclesiastical.

Church War Memorials

Has your church war memorial (internal or external) been registered on the Imperial War Museum’s War Memorials Register? It is a national database of UK war memorials and the names of the individuals they commemorate. The War Memorials Register includes memorials commemorating members of the armed forces, civilians and animals from all conflicts, and those who died in service. How to get involved Memorials image upload form | Imperial War Museums

Maintaining your building

Maintenance week

SPAB’S National Maintenance week took place last week and Liz West, the Church Buildings Maintenance Officer, hosted a series of events to help parishes with issues relating to maintenance. Liz also wrote five blog posts highlighting some of the important issues. You can read the blogs in the Church Building News section of our website. You can also see some of the resources used in the workshops in the various event pages:
Lunch and Learn – Maintenance Plans – The Diocese of St Albans

Liz says: “Thank you to all those who attended one of our National Maintenance Week events. It was wonderful to see so many people keen to manage the maintenance of their church buildings, and we hope you left the sessions feeling equipped to tackle all those fun tasks! A special mention goes to those churches who hosted an event: St Peter’s, Sharnbrook; St James, Goff’s Oak; St Peter & St Paul, Little Gaddesden; and St Michael’s, St Albans. We look forward to running more events next year.’

Recommended monthly tasks

The following are taken from SPAB’s Maintenance Calendar

November:

Check that the flagpole is secure
Check the roofs for damage: Debris on the ground from broken or missing slates and tiles indicates that there may be a problem.
Clear leaves and debris from gutters and rainwater pipes regularly and check for any storm damage. Frequent attention may be needed if the building is surrounded by trees, or perched on by pigeons.

December:

Parapet and valley gutters need to be cleared of snow to prevent melt water rising above them and causing damp internally. Extra caution is needed in icy conditions.
Gulleys beneath rainwater pipes should be cleaned out regularly and drains should be rodded out if they overflow during wet weather. Remove silt and debris and ensure water discharges freely
Make sure that fire safety equipment has been serviced.

Grants and Funding

We now have a separate church funding newsletter. You can find the latest newsletter at: Funding newsletter: Church Funding Newsletter October 2024 | Diocese of St Albans Connect

Do keep looking at the website pages on grants for church buildings for funding opportunities and deadlines

Grants for Church Buildings

Living Alongside Bats in Churches Grant

Please see: Living Alongside Bats in Churches Grant – Bats and Churches – Bat Conservation Trust

Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme

The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme gives grants in respect of VAT incurred in respect of repairs and maintenance to listed (grade 1, grade II* and grade II) church buildings. It does not cover repairs and maintenance to unlisted churches or any halls or other building owned by PCC.
Please be aware that the scheme is due to end on the 31 March 2025. We have everything crossed that the Government will decide to extend it. If you haven’t yet written to your MP about the importance of the scheme and asking them to lobby the Chancellor now is the time!
While we wait a decision, if you are currently setting out a budget for a project that won’t happen until the new financial year our advice is please take into consideration that VAT may not be able to be claimed back.

National Lottery Awards For All England

If you are thinking of planning a project that is all about engagement with your local community do check out the Awards For All grant.

National Lottery Awards for All England | The National Lottery Community Fund

Funding ranges from £300 up to £20,000; there are no deadlines for applications but you need to apply at least 16 weeks before your project starts.

If you have applied for this grant in the last few years, please let Ann know how you got on.

Benefact Trust – Movement For Good

There is still time to nominate your church (or a charity that your church supports) for the Benefact Trust’s Movement For Good annual programme of giving. The successful charities that are chosen will each recieve £1,000 to spend how they wish. The deadline for nominations is 19 December. For more information Movement for Good – Nominate a charity for an award.

Beds and Herts Grants

If you are thinking of applying to Beds and Herts Historic Churches Trust for a grant but not sure if they fund your type of project or repairs its now easier to find out!  By going to this page on their website Grants awarded by BHHCT – Beds & Herts Historic Churches Trust you can see which churches have been awarded a much needed grant in recent years and how much they received. Congratulations to the churches featured that received the most recent grants for the financial year 2023/24.

Good news stories

Do keep having a look at the DAC blog posts on a variety of topics. There will shortly be a blog post about what’s happening in an Eco Church in the diocese.

Christmas Tree Festivals

Good luck to all the churches within the Diocese that will be holding a Christmas Tree Festival at some point in the next few weeks leading up to Christmas. Every Festival is unique – may your tinsel glisten and your baubles shine!

In recent years, Christmas Tree Festivals being held in churches has become very popular; they are a great way of bringing communities together, raising money for local charities or much needed church repairs and to raise awareness of your wonderful building. The Festivals can be on a big scale or something more modest, regardless of size they bring joy to all ages and are fun! By inviting local organisations to decorate a tree for the Festival it is a wonderful way of engaging local people and enticing them into your church.

A lot of hard work goes into organising the Festivals.  A successful Festival requires a core group of people to work on the initial plan, a larger group to help set it up (and oversee its dismantling) and finally having people willing to steward the event. A big thank you to everyone involved!

The DAC team and the Diocese’s Website

New church wardens might not be aware that the DAC has a big presence on the website! This page Buildings and Churchyards – The Diocese of St Albans is full of very useful information and has links to back copies of the Bulletin, all our blogs and much more!

We would like to take the opportunity to which everyone a peaceful and joyful Advent and Christmas!