FINANCIAL UPDATE

Both the finance sub-committee and the full PCC meet during the week after I write this article and many crucial financial issues need to be resolved before the end of this calendar and financial year. Another £8,486 has to be found to pay off this year's Parish Share (previously known as the Quota) which is still payable throughout the interregnum. Work on the trees in the churchyard, the church lightning conductor and various expenses at the Vicarage will drain our dwindling resources even further and increase cash flow problems.

£2,000 was withdrawn from deposit on 24th September but there was only £17 in the church current account at one stage last week, the end of October. Excluding the tax recoverable under the gift aid scheme, planned giving now accounts for less than half our required budgetted income. Dividends and interest received during Septmber and October totalled £637 but this will decrease once investments are realised to repay loans or meet debts.

The Friday coffee mornings have provided £400 for general church funds and we are grateful for a legacy of £200 from the eststate of Mrs Marie Sybil Sharp who lived in Waterlooville prior to 1989. The money has been given to assist in the maintenance of the Icon above the remembrance desk in St George's given in memory of her late husband Gilbert Sharp.

Recent votive candle sales reached £101, bulb sales £160, church bookstall sales £46 and profit from Father Malcolm's retirement photographs £15. Collections at the Battle of Britain Service and Trafalgar Day totalled £131. I recently negotiated a reduction in our monthly electricity direct debit, together with a refund of credit amounting to £196, brought about by economy of use, a mild autumn and of course fewer services.

September's retiring collection for Portsmouth Samaritans was £132.19, October's for the Church Army £99.80 and the Harvest Auction for Children in Distress in Romania, the Archbishop of York's Appeal, has to date raised £60.

Recent repairs to the loop system cost £52.88 and the flagpole £52.64, electricity, gas and telephone charges for the vicarage were £132 and a special purchase of votive candles £276. A change in administration of the Phonographic Performance Licence has resulted in a three fold increase in the annual fee to £189.31, outlay on flower bulbs purchased for sale is £320 and printing of the Christmas Bazaar draw tickets was £43.

Our Sequestration Fund set up to meet the cost of visiting clergy during the Interregnum - yet more paperwork which has to be kept separately from normal church accounts - shows a net deficit of £470 for September and October and a claim is currently lodged with Portsmouth Diocese for reimbursement.

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas.

Linda Wainwright
Honorary Treasurer to the PCC