PCC Minutes

Winchcombe Parochial Church Council
Minutes of the Meeting held on 8th December at 7.30 pm in Winchcombe CWM Club

Present: David Penny (DP) (Chair), Simon Andrews (SA), Sue Proctor (SP), Elizabeth Atkinson (EA)(Secretary), Charlie Bagnall (CB) (Treasurer), Susan Crownshaw (SC), Paul Badger (PB), Geof Adlington (GA), Morag Adlington (MA), Cathy Wilcock (CW) Abbie Shurmer (AS) and Trevor Upton. Lisa Martin (LM) was also in attendance.
Apologies: Chris Haslam (CRM), Steve Carter (SCa), Fliss Hall (FH).

1.Welcome and Opening Prayer: GA opened the meeting with prayer. CB volunteered to open the next meeting with prayer.

2. Apologies for Absence
See above.

3. Approval of Minutes of last meeting
The minutes of the meeting on 13 October 2025 were approved.

4. Matters Arising from Minutes of Last Meeting
i. Winchcombe Abbey School Foundation Governor replacement: Gareth Moseley has been approved as a Foundation Governor by the Diocese. There is still a second vacancy and PCC members are encouraged to think of possible candidates. An email was received by EA from the Diocese informing the PCC that the terms of Lynne Banks and Sara Collins as Foundation Governors are coming to an end in March 2026 and need renewing. EA will confirm that they want to continue and whether there is a time limit on length of term. Assuming they can and want to continue, the paperwork will be completed and the approval of the PCC sought at the next meeting in Jan 2026
ii. Employment sub-group – DP has someone in mind and will try and progress it.
iii. The grand piano is now in place in St Peter’s. Sourcing of wiring and covers for heating wiring are ongoing by Director of Music (DoM). However, a cover is needed for the piano itself. Second hand for £150 on eBay or new and made to order from a specialist for £275. For the sake of £125 the latter is recommended. The PCC approved the cost of a bespoke cover. SA will pass this news on to the DoM
iv. Projector cable was purchased and is working.
v. Following on from the Appeal, 51 filled shoe boxes for Ukraine were received and sent on to the distribution centre.

5. Chair’s remarks
i. Anti Bullying Policy review. A revised Anti-Harassment and Bullying Policy was put to the PCC for approval. The PCC approved it unanimously.
ii. PCC Governance- a meeting took place on Saturday 22 November with the PCC and others to discuss the governance issues relating to the PCC with the help of a diocesan facilitator. As a result of the workshop, a small group was convened and has met to discuss a way forward to improve the governance arrangements to make them less St Peter centric. The output will be brought to the PCC in January 2026.

6. Finance:
i. 2025 Accounts to date (/2025)
CB circulated the extracts from the accounts. As requested, this now includes line by line detail and is in two separate reports, one for the Pioneer Minister Fund that covers the Beacon, and one for the General Fund and all other funds.
Highlights:
General and other Funds. Thanks mainly to a legacy of £10,000, (split 50/50 at donor’s request between St Peter’s and Stanley P), and a donation towards the new piano, we have already exceeded our budgeted income for the year.
Expenditure is in line with budget if you take out the new piano, so we will end
up with a £40k deficit that is roughly (with 4%) of our budget. That we are so
close is due to that legacy, so we do need to exert more control on costs next
year. DP has found a previous Stewardship pack that was used and will revise it
as part of the ongoing drive to increase regular giving.
ii. Budget
CB circulated the finalised budget document in advance. The Parish Share
remains at £93k (see note below). Income for the General fund is budgeted to
be down about £5000 on 2025 mainly due to declining regular giving.
Expenditure will be broadly in line with this year. Taken in the round we still
have a budget that projects a £50k deficit on all funds except the Pioneer
Ministry Fund.
The Pioneer Ministry Fund spend will be less than 2025 because Bryoni will be
on Maternity leave for approximately eight months and we do not plan to
arrange paid for cover. However, while we received £11k in donations this
year, we have no known further funding at this stage, so 2026’s deficit will be
over £15k instead of £8k. This means we can probably only run the Beacon to
the third quarter of 2027 before exhausting our funds.
The PCC approved the budget in the full knowledge of the projected deficit.
iii. Parish Share:
The draft budget shows a projected deficit for the General Fund of £50,000.
We cannot continue on this path and be responsible stewards of our parish
funds. We have alerted the Archdeacon that we may not be able to sustain
this level of Parish Share and conversations will resume in the New Year which
could lead to a reduction in our Parish Share across 2026-2027. For now
however, the figure we have submitted to the DBF for 2026 is the £93k
shown.
iv. Local Fees
EA presented a schedule of local fees for weddings, wedding blessings and
funerals. They had been increased in line with the inflation rate of 3.8% and
rounded up to the nearest pound. Following discussion, the PCC approved the
increases with the proviso that EA researched what other churches were
charging and report back. If we were not charging as much, then the fee levels
would be revised upwards. EA was also asked to discuss with the DoM
whether we wish to offer choirs for wedding and what we should charge.

7 Fabric Update:
• Christ Church: Quinquennial Inspection took place on 10 Oct 25. The 147-page
report was issued to read, together with a summary of recommended actions by
the architect and comments by SA. The recommended actions were discussed one
by one and the priorities agreed. It was suggested that free advice could be sought
from SPAB on perimeter drainage channels. The PCC approved those
recommendations that were high priority and CB agreed to put an extra £2k in the
budget and SA agreed to inform Sue Fleck of the actions approved and would work
with her to involve the Village Association in fund raising to off set as much of the
costs, when known, as possible.
• St Michael’s: Nothing significant to report
• St Peter’s: Integrated Project (IP):
i. The Project Enquiry for a grant bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund
(NLHF) was rejected citing that the heritage argument was not strong
enough.
▪ The IP group recommend to the PCC that they should not pursue
further development cost grant funding from NLHF and should
now concentrate their efforts towards the delivery of the
individual – but still integrated – elements of heating, energy,
seating, AV and lighting; the major structural development
changes would be put on hold. The PCC approved this course of
action.
▪ The recommendation’s rationale is based on the perceived
likelihood that St Peter’s, which is in a structurally good place with
heritage not at risk, will be lower down any list chasing limited
funding against projects where heritage/structures are at risk.
▪ Whilst disappointing in the sense of the level of ambition being
reduced, a clearer route to actually developing and executing
some of the changes – particularly heating – in a timely manner can
be pushed forward at reduced cost to the PCC.
▪ The IP group’s architect will be asked to review the impact of this
recommendation if, in future, the structural work as previously
envisaged was to be initiated, ie, how much reverse engineering
might be required to adapt the potentially put in place heating,
seating, lights and AV solutions.
ii. Statement of Significance Stage 1 report has been received and broadly
supports future intent. The next meeting with the authors (£250) will be
after the next IP meeting of 12 Feb 26 to discuss our detailed proposals
and impacts via a Stage 2 report (£600). This should then satisfy Faculty
requirements.
iii. The PCC was briefed by the IP team on 12 Nov 25 and the following
guidance – again re-endorsed at the PCC meeting of 8 Dec 25 – was
received from the PCC:
▪ Recognising that a heating hybrid solution would be necessary to
cover all parts of the church, that the major element should be
based around underfloor heating, utilising heat pumps and
increased battery usage.
▪ That seating solutions should be based around the removal of
pews from the Nave and aisles and replaced by chairs or benches
for which further selection decisions will be based on future trials.
▪ The preferred AV contractor is Piranha although noting that any
DAC Faculty will require at least two quotations.
▪ That further exploration should concentrate on the use of a large
drop projection screen in the area of the Chancel/Nave interface,
with supporting TV screens as needed.
• Diocesan Grant Bids Related to IP Work:
i. Lady Chapel Three Double Electrical Sockets: List B approval has now been
received and the grant funding (£230) has been received into the PCC
account.
ii. Batteries for Solar Panels:
• The DAC have now made a recommendation for acceptance of the
Faculty application relating to batteries in Parvis Room. Public
notification documents are in place and, after 30 days (22 Dec), the
Diocese Registry should endorse and issue a Faculty to allow the
work to be executed assuming they are still working that close to
Christmas!
▪ A local trusted ’friend’ has been asked to remove one cupboard
from the Parvis Room where the batteries will be placed.
▪ Tim Hall’s estimation is for 3 days to do the work so we still remain
on track to complete before the 31 Mar 26 by which time all work
and contractor payments are to be completed in order to claim the
£5k Diocese grant we were allocated earlier this year. The
remainder has been agreed ‘in principle’ to be paid by the FoSP.
▪ The plan remains for the PCC to pay the remainder, seek VAT
refunding and then go to FoSP to request transfer of the post VAT
sum to the PCC.
• Noticeboard: List B approval has been received and actions are underway to
purchase, erect the new and dispose of the old noticeboard. Delivery has been
requested for early Feb 26 to conform with installing contractor’s availability.
• Tower Floodlights Repair/Refurbishment. Five out the nine floodlights
immediately adjacent to the tower are not working with the three on the other
side of the churchyard driveway working. Owing to the specialist nature of these
external lights and access via the protective grills, SA is seeking quotations for the
fixing of non-working lights and removal of debris from the remainder. Financial
support has been requested from the FoSP.
• Paschal Lamb Altar Frontal Refurbishment. The team is nearing the end of the
work on the four outer panels and are starting to turn their attention to the central
figure of the Lamb, which itself looks good. Closer inspection shows many sprung
threads, but they think they have an effective (and unobtrusive) way of dealing
with these. Caution is still the byword, but completion in time for Easter 2026 is a
safe guess.

7. Deanery Synod report – No meeting has taken place since the last PCC, so nothing to report.

8. Safeguarding:
DP expressed thanks to Abbi for volunteering to undertake the Safeguarding role
and understood the reasons for stepping back. It has been decided, as there has
been no other volunteers, to ask the Parish Administrator to undertake the
Safeguarding role. He has agreed. His paid hours will be adjusted. He has
experience of the role in his own church and references are being taken up.
9. Social Committee/Events:
(changes from the previous meeting are in blue; Social Committee involvement in italics)
i. Events
2025 Events:
• 23 Nov: Bring and Share Lunch (St Peter’s; soup based).
• 1 Nov: Crafters Fair (St Peter’s; Sue Proctor).
• 28-30 Nov: Winchcombe Christmas Festival: (Abbie Shurmer, Sue Proctor,
JoAnne Freeman; (Handbell ringers TBC).
• 20 Dec 6pm: Nativity Play (St Peter’s; Winchcombe Players; interval drinks).
2026 Events:
• 7 Feb: Seed Swap (St Peter’s Lady Chapel; EcoChurch)
• 8 Feb: Bring & Share lunch (St Peter’s; Social Cttee)
• Lunchtime Organ Recitals x 4 (St Peter’s; DoM)
i. 24 Mar, 1pm: Andrew Horton.
ii. 21 Apr, 1pm: Evie Perfect.
iii. 19 May, 1pm: James Willshire.
• 10 Apr: Whist Evening (Abbey Fields Cty Centre; Social Committee with Fliss
Hall)
• TBC Spring & Autumn: Living Roots; A Celebration of the Cotswold National
Landscape (St Peter’s; Revd David).
• 3 May: Bring & Share lunch (St Peter’s; Social Cttee)
• 29-31 May: Concerts weekend (St Peter’s; DoM)
i. 29 May, 7pm: LANO Quartet.
ii. 30 May, 2:00pm: Children’s Concert – Willshire Duo.
iii. 30 May, 7pm: Miki Takahashi and Masumi Yamamoto, baroque duo.
iv. 31 May, 10:30am: Festival Service.
v. 31 May, 7:30pm: Gala Concert: Hannah Davey soprano, Cirencester
Male Voice Choir and Cotswold Male Voice Choir.
• 14 Jun 21 Jun: Winchcombe Green Trail (St Peter’s; EcoChurch)
• 20 Jun 1-2pm: The Cheltenham Choral Society (St Peter’s; Concert Sec; no
interval).
• 4 Jul Time TBC: Glos Excelsior Brass Band (St Peter’s; Concert Sec; interval
drinks)
• 11 Jul: Parish fête (Charlie Bagnall, CWs, Jo Rees).
• 26 Jul: Bring & Share lunch (St Peter’s; Social Cttee)
• 30 Aug: Parish BBQ (park near Med Centre).
• 19 Sep: Progressive Supper (Social Cttee)
• TBC Sep: Winchcombe Pride Event (David Penny).
• TBC Oct: Concert by Susy Firth (St Peter’s; Concert Sec; interval drinks).
• 31 Oct: Craft Fair (St Peter’s; Sue Proctor)
• 1 Nov: Bring & Share lunch (St Peter’s; Social Cttee)
• Date TBC: Christmas Tree Festival (St Peter’s; Abbie Shurmer)
2027 Events:
• TBC: Da Capo Quartet (St Peter’s; DoM; interval drinks).
ii. Advertising
SP was concerned that some of the events and services were not being
sufficiently advertised. DP stated that we should use all tools available including
social media, Signpost, better use of tabs within Churchsuite to target emails,
magazine, flyers, posters. The event organiser was responsible for creating the
content. It was suggested that events should be put on the Experience
Winchcombe website and our website needs to be updated regularly. Work was
being done on the website. Signpost was felt to be too long especially with the
homily at the start. This would be reviewed.
SP informed us that Rev Michael Hand had delivered the new home packs to the
71 new houses off Delaware Road and the PCC expressed their thanks to him
for undertaking the mammoth task. There were thought not to be enough spare
magazines to drop into the 71 new houses at the same time but CW could
provide spare magazines for future delivery to new homes.

11. Business around the Parish
i. Gretton
ii. Stanley Pontlarge
iii. Winchcombe:
Churches Together(CTW): The carol singing at the Christmas market had a good
turn out from each of the churches. We would be joining the RC church on Good
Friday 2026 for the Walk of Witness. The Methodist minister, Steve Ward, was
now Chair of the CTW.

12. Communications
i. Correspondence – Nothing further to report
ii. Confidential items – Nothing to report

13. Any Other Business
None

14. Dates of future PCC meetings –2026 Monday 5 January, Tuesday 3 March, Tuesday 2 June,
Monday 7 September, Monday 7 December. All at 7.30pm at Winchcombe CWM Club, unless
specified otherwise.
The meeting closed at 21.05 with a closing prayer.

Approved: ___________________________ Date: ____________________