Our Lady, Mother of the Church – Parish Pastoral Council
Minutes of Meeting held 12th May 2026 in the Church Hall
Present – Val Lawrie, Norma Mitchell, Audrey Parfinowska, Kevin Higgins, Gerry Higgins
Apologies – Fr Francis, Angela Allan, Blanca Nieto
Matters Arising from previous PPC meetings
Gift Aid – this issue has been carried forward to these Minutes, please see ‘Gift Aid’ heading below.
Parish Accounts – re General Assessment fees – Audrey confirmed that this issue has now been resolved.
Times of Masses – still under review with Fr Francis and Fr Malachy
PPC 12th May 2026
Finance
Parish Audit – Audrey has met with the auditor and completed the Parish Audit. No feedback received as yet, and Audrey anticipates no major issues requiring resolution. The parish accounts are expected to be audited every five years.
Annual Budget for the Parish (primarily Fabric and Maintenance) – Audrey talked the PPC (Parish Pastoral Council) through the parish income and expenditure figures for the past 4 years. She proposed setting a budget for the Parish repairs and maintenance expenditure for this coming year to be in the region of £8,000. This would be for all regular maintenance expected during the year, and any one-off expenditure.
Action – Audrey to email Fr Francis with this information, and seek his approval for the budget.
Unclaimed Gift Aid from previous years – Audrey has reclaimed £8,580 for Our Lady’s Parish in additional retrospective tax repayment Gift Aid claims for the last 4 years. The PPC acknowledged Audrey’s efforts for this contribution to the Parish finances.
Gift Aid – It was agreed to encourage parishioners to Gift Aid their donations, as this will bring in more money to the parish. Audrey will liaise with George (Parish Administrator) to create a summary of regular Gift Aided donors.
Action – Audrey to liaise with George and Anthony (Gift Aid lead on the Finance Committee) to prepare a script to use at an upcoming Sunday Mass, to encourage parishioners to Gift Aid their donations.
QR Code on the Newsletter – the PPC would like clarification on how this system works. In particular, clarification on how donations and any Gift Aid paid in via the QR code are directed into the parish bank account.
Action – Audrey to liaise with George and report back to the PPC with clarification.
Fabric and Maintenance
Kevin informed the PPC that all scheduled works had been completed. Also, the annual inspections of boilers, fire detection systems and fire extinguishers, had all been completed for this year. There were no new Fabric and Maintenance issues to report.
Church Interior Modifications
The PPC propose to combine the Lady Chapel with the existing Hall to form a new extended Hall, which would enhance our opportunity to facilitate parish and community events and activities. In addition, the PPC wish to install a new Accessible Toilet, – to meet Equality Act legislative requirements – and to refurbish the existing (non-accessible) Toilet and also the Tea Preparation area. The latter areas have been identified as in need of rectification to avoid the parish contravening important Health and Safety standards.
The Preliminary Application Form submitted earlier this year to the Trustees of the Archdiocese was approved, with the proviso that the parish should aim to raise in the region of 15% of the total cost through Grants and/or Fundraising.
Grants – Kevin has applied on behalf of our parish for Grants to both the National Churches Trust, and the Benefact Trust. These are charitable Trusts which focus on support to churches (of all denominations), with a particular focus on enhancement of parish and community facilities and also the installation of accessible toilet facilities. There are no guarantees that our applications will be successful, but any contribution from the Trusts would be helpful in meeting the parish contribution of around 15% to the total cost of the project.
Fundraising – After discussion it was agreed that the parish need to have one or more parishioners leading on the important topic of Fundraising. This is another area where the parish can generate funding to support the parish project.
Action – Val to liaise with Fr Francis to identify parishioner(s) who can act as leads for Fundraising, and report into the PPC.
Communication of project status to parishioners – Sunday 14th June after Mass was agreed to be a suitable date for Kevin to provide a short update, subject to confirmation of Fr Francis availability.
Forward Plan for the Project – Commencing in late summer/September, Adams Napier Partnership (Chartered Building Surveyors) will act on behalf of the parish to manage the project and oversee the building works. This will also include managing the tendering process to generate at least 3 quotations from contractor building companies. The parish will then need to present those quotations, with our preferred choice contractor, as part of a final Project Planning Application to the Archdiocesan Trustees in November. The building work is anticipated to commence in the spring of 2027. The main entrance and Nave are expected to experience minimal disruption during the building phase, with normal church services during the building works.
Health and Safety (H&S)
• Kevin confirmed that inspections of the fire detection/alarm system, fire extinguishers, and first aid kits, were continuing on a regular basis, and are recorded in the hard copy folder in the Sacristy.
• A new rota for the ‘fire extinguisher testing’ has been posted on the church notice board, to be completed on a monthly basis by members of the parish H&S Team.
• Graham Inglis, of Thomson & Inglis, Fire Risk Consultants, will be visiting the church on 16th June to conduct a Fire Risk Assessment. This is an audit of our fire risk arrangements, which is conducted every 2-3 years.
• The Archdiocese has introduced a new central Health & Safety online database, named ‘Worknest’, which needs to be kept up to date by each parish. Worknest records the health and safety procedures and practices in place for each parish in the Archdiocese (for example, when and how our boiler, fire detection alarms, and fire extinguishers are tested; how we handle risk assurance; how we ensure parish volunteers have read the H&S booklet, etc). Kevin will work with other members of the H&S team to keep Worknest updated.
Safeguarding
General Parish Volunteer Forms – all new volunteers, working in ANY capacity in the Church MUST complete these forms. They are held in the top drawer of the Sacristy, and must be given to Val Lawrie as the Parish Safeguarding lead. New volunteers must also be given the H&S Safety Booklet to read and sign that they have read it.
Data Protection – Val circulated a Data Protection Policy document from the Archdiocese, dated April 2026. She noted that approval from parents/guardians must be sought for any photographs or videos of children taken at church events intended for the church website. This approval has to be requested for each individual event.
Children’s Liturgy – All volunteers working with the Children’s Liturgy must have a PVG in place issued from our Parish.
Safe Storage of Church Documents – Audrey to liaise with George as to whether financial documents can be kept on the Parish computer. Action – Audrey
Parish Website update – Kevin, George and Mandy have received training in uploading documents and photographs to our new website. The PPC are very keen to encourage the Parish/parishioners to use the new website. Kevin will promote this later in the year after one of the Sunday masses.
AOB
Usage of the car park by non-parishioners – a letter from one of our parishioners sent to the Chair of the PPC raised the issue about non-parishioners taking up spaces in the car park during weekday Mass times. Potential responses to this issue have been researched in the recent past, and advice taken from the H&S lead person at the Archdiocese Gillis Centre. Based upon advice from the Archdiocese, the PPC will not be seeking to install barriers in the car park entrance, as these would be costly to install and maintain, and might also create a new H&S risk when entering and exiting the car park from Pentland View. It was decided that the best way forward would be to issue polite but firm notices behind the windscreens of unauthorised vehicles using the car park. Also to send a reminder note to the Pentland Medical Centre of when they are allowed to park in the Church car park, and the times when they are not.
Action – Kevin to draft wording for the polite notice, for review by Fr Francis
Fire Evacuation Exercise – the annual parish exercise has been scheduled for Sunday, 4th October 2026.
Parish Pilgrimage – unable to be discussed as Fr Francis not in attendance.
Date of the next PPC meeting, Tuesday 13th October 2026, at 7pm
END
