Instructional Documents

Document status: Final
Owner: Committee of St Letus Salata
Last reviewed: 23 September 2026
Next review due: 23 March 2027

1. Purpose

This Business Continuity Plan sets out what Tin Chapel will do if a normal part of chapel operation becomes unavailable, including the building, website, committee, records, utilities, or communication channels.

The aim is not to continue every activity at all costs. The aim is to preserve safety, maintain public information, protect records, keep essential decisions moving, and restore ordinary chapel business in a controlled manner.

2. Scope

This plan covers:

• Public access to the chapel and grounds.
• Services, meetings, events, and supervised visits.
• Website, notices, forms, guestbook, and mailing list.
• Committee administration and minute-taking.
• Keys, registers, records, archive material, and essential documents.
• Refreshments and visitor welfare.
• Communications with visitors, volunteers, suppliers, and committee members.

This plan does not replace emergency services, insurance requirements, safeguarding procedures, building safety duties, or legal obligations. Where those procedures apply, they take priority.

3. Continuity Priorities

In any disruption, decisions should be made in this order:

1. Protect life and physical safety.
2. Secure the chapel, records, keys, and money.
3. Communicate clearly with expected visitors.
4. Restore normal arrangements in the safest possible way.

4. Roles

The Caretaker

Responsible for:

• Opening and closing the chapel when access is permitted.
• Updating the noticeboard and website where possible.
• Publishing the most recent copy of this plan.
• Maintaining the incident and continuity log.
• Co-ordinating first response until the committee confirms another lead.

Deputy: Simon Potts (TBC)

Committee Chair

Responsible for:

• Confirming major relocations or expenditure.
• Convening urgent committee meetings.
• Acting as public decision owner.

Deputy: Geoff Thomas

Committee Secretary

Responsible for:

• Maintaining the committee contact list.
• Keeping an offline copy of recent minutes and resolutions.

Deputy minute-taker: Geoff Thomas

Treasurer

Responsible for:

• Retrieving any physical cash from chapel grounds.
• Keeping an offline summary of current suppliers, policies, and renewal dates.

Deputy: Geoff Thomas

Website Administrator

Responsible for:

• Maintaining access recovery details in the sealed continuity envelope.

Deputy: Simon Potts (TBC)

5. Essential Information To Keep Offline

The following should be kept in a sealed continuity envelope in Chapel storage cupboard 1, with a second sealed copy held at the Chair's residence:

• Current committee contact list.
• Keyholder list.
• Emergency services and local authority contact details.
• Insurance policy numbers and claims contacts.
• Utility supplier details.
• Website domain registrar, hosting provider, and recovery email.
• Password manager recovery procedure.
• Printed copy of this plan.
• Blank incident and decision log sheets.
• Current location of registers, archive boxes, and cash tin.

The envelope should be checked at each six-monthly plan review. Any opening of the envelope must be recorded.

6. Recovery Objectives

These are working targets:

7. Scenario Procedures

7.1 Chapel Building Unavailable

Examples: unsafe structure, leak, power failure, pest activity, severe weather, blocked access, unexplained occupation of the vestry, or instruction from an authority.

Immediate actions:

• Do not admit visitors.
• Place a closure notice at the main entrance if safe to do so.
• Inform the Chair, Caretaker, and keyholders.
• Photograph visible issues only if safe.
• Move portable records and cash to the agreed secure location if access is safe.
• Cancel or relocate scheduled activity.

Public wording:

Tin Chapel is temporarily closed for supervised access following a building matter now under review. Services and visits will resume when the chapel is judged suitable. Please do not attempt entry at this time.

Relocation options:

• A neutral local venue agreed by the Chair.
• A committee member's home for administration only.
• Online meeting for committee business
• Written decision by email where permitted

Before reopening:

• Confirm the hazard has been addressed or access restrictions are clear.
• Record who authorised reopening.
• Update the website, noticeboard, and calendar.
• Inspect the nave, vestry, entrance, kettle point, and accessible route.

7.2 Website Unavailable

Examples: domain problem, hosting outage, CMS failure, failed deployment, expired card, broken form, search/index failure, or editor locked out.

Immediate actions:

• Confirm whether the outage affects all users or only one device.
• Check domain, hosting, CMS, and recent deployment status.
• Do not make several rushed changes at once.
• Put notices on alternate channels.
• Record the time the outage was first noticed.

Alternate public channels:

• Chapel noticeboard.
• Printed notice at entrance.
• Social channels: tinchapel.bsky.social
• Newsletter

Minimum continuity message:

The Tin Chapel website is temporarily unavailable. Current chapel access will be confirmed on the chapel noticeboard and through the newsletter where possible. Further notices will be placed on the chapel noticeboard until the website returns.

Restoration order:

1. Restore public homepage or static holding page.
2. Restore notices and visit information.
3. Restore contact and booking forms.
4. Restore guestbook and archive pages.
5. Review logs and record cause.

7.3 Kettle, Hot Water, Or Refreshments Unavailable

Examples: kettle failure, missing base, plug concern, lack of water, no cups, no milk, no volunteer willing to decide about biscuits.

Immediate actions:

• Unplug faulty electrical equipment and label it "Do not use".
• Do not improvise repairs during public access.
• Inform the Caretaker.
• Provide cold water if safe and available.

Continuity options:

• Use the spare kettle kept in Storage Cupboard 2.
• Borrow a tested kettle from Jean.
• Provide cold drinks only.
• Ask visitors to bring their own flask.
• Cancel refreshments while continuing the service or meeting.

Public wording:

Refreshments are temporarily limited due to equipment failure. Chapel business continues. The absence of tea should not be interpreted as a change in doctrine, policy, or hospitality.

Before using replacement equipment:

• Check it is clean, stable, undamaged, and suitable for the socket.
• Keep cables away from walking routes.
• Record who brought it and when it should be returned.

7.4 Service Leader, Speaker, Or Volunteer Unavailable

Immediate actions:

• Confirm whether the service or event can proceed in a reduced form.
• Chair or Caretaker appoints a substitute only where appropriate.
• If no suitable substitute exists, cancel or postpone.
• Update the website and noticeboard.

Options:

• Open chapel for quiet supervised access.
• Hold a short reading or agreed observance.
• Postpone and retain the original notice for records.

7.5 Power, Heating, Water, Or Toilet Unavailable

Immediate actions:

• Assess whether visitors can safely attend.
• Cancel public access if lighting, heat, water, or sanitation is inadequate for the event type.
• Keep electrical cupboards and boiler areas closed to visitors.
• Notify supplier or contractor.
• Record meter readings if useful and safe.
• Dig an emergency hole and locate a perching log.

Cold-weather rule:

• If the chapel cannot be kept at a reasonable temperature for the expected attendees, public events should be shortened, relocated, or cancelled.

Water rule:

• If there is no safe water for handwashing or refreshments, events involving food or longer attendance should not proceed without explicit mitigation.

8. Communication Rules

Public messages should be:

• Short.
• Dated.
• Specific about what visitors should do.
• Honest about closures or limitations.
• Calm in tone.
• Free of speculation.

Public messages should not:

• Name private individuals unnecessarily.
• Describe security weaknesses.
• Promise a reopening date before one is known.
• Hide a cancellation behind vague wording.
• Invite visitors to test whether access is possible.

9. Decision And Incident Log

For every continuity event, record:

• Date and time first noticed.
• Person reporting.
• What was unavailable.
• Immediate risk.
• Decision made.
• Person authorising decision.
• Public message issued.
• People contacted.
• Money spent or committed.
• Restoration action.
• Date closed.
• Follow-up required.

10. Review And Testing

This plan should be reviewed every six months and after any significant disruption.

Minimum review checks:

• Contact list still correct.
• Keyholder list still correct.
• Website recovery route tested.
• Backup location confirmed.
• Printed plan replaced if changed.
• Continuity envelope inspected.

Annual tabletop exercise:

• Choose one scenario from Section 7.
• Walk through who would do what in the first hour, first day, and first week.
• Record weaknesses and assign actions.

11. Immediate Action Card

Use this card when something has gone wrong and there is not yet time to read the whole plan.

1. Make people safe.
2. Stop the affected activity.
3. Secure keys, money, records, and the building if safe.
4. Tell the Chair, Caretaker, Secretary, and Treasurer as relevant.
5. Put a short dated notice where visitors will look.
6. Move, cancel, or reduce the next scheduled activity.
7. Write down what happened.
8. Do not invent a permanent solution in the first ten minutes unless the matter is the kettle.

12. Open Items For Committee Completion

• Confirm remaining deputy roles marked TBC.
• Add actual supplier and account recovery details.
• Add emergency contact numbers.
• Confirm insurance notification requirements.
• Confirm where digital and printed backups live.
• Decide whether services have pre-approved relocation venues.
• Check whether any safeguarding or licensing procedures need to be cross-referenced.

Document status: Final
Owner: Committee of St Letus Salata
Last reviewed: 23 September 2026
Next review due: 23 March 2027

1. Purpose

This policy sets out how the St Letus Salata committee decides what to do with items that are no longer needed, usable, safe, suitable, wanted, identifiable, or capable of being stored without causing argument.

Its purpose is to make sure chapel property is disposed of safely, lawfully, transparently, and with proper regard for money, records, heritage value, donor intentions, and cupboard space.

2. Scope

This policy applies to:

• Furniture, fittings, and loose equipment.
• Electrical items, including kettles, lamps, heaters, cables, projectors, and equipment of uncertain origin.
• Kitchen, refreshment, cleaning, stationery, forms, signs, and noticeboard stock.
• Tools, keys, lock parts, and maintenance materials.
• Digital equipment and storage media.
• Archive objects, photographs, records, registers, and donated material.
• Items found in the chapel, yard, vestry, cupboards, porch, boiler room, graveyard, or other chapel-controlled areas.

This policy does not apply to personal belongings temporarily brought to the chapel unless they are abandoned, unclaimed, or have been mistaken for chapel property for long enough to require a decision.

3. Disposal Principles

Asset disposal must follow these principles:

1. Safety comes first.
2. Chapel property must not be removed for private use without approval.
3. Items with possible archive, legal, financial, or heritage value must be assessed before disposal.
4. Electrical, hazardous, confidential, or sensitive items must be handled properly.
5. The reason for disposal must be recorded.
6. Disposal should recover value where reasonable, but not at the expense of safety, dignity, or administrative sense.
7. No item may be disposed of merely because it is inconvenient, associated with a previous committee, or doesn't match the colour scheme.

4. Roles

The Caretaker

Responsible for:

• Identifying items that may need disposal.
• Labelling items as "Hold for disposal decision" where appropriate.
• Keeping items secure, maintaining the disposal log, and carrying out approved disposal where authorised.

Committee Chair

Responsible for:

• Approving ordinary disposal decisions.
• Referring significant, disputed, valuable, sensitive, or urgent disposals to the full committee where needed.

Treasurer

Responsible for:

• Recording any sale proceeds, disposal cost, refund, scrap value, or replacement cost.
• Advising on insurance, accounting, grant, and cash-handling matters.

Committee Secretary

Responsible for:

• Recording committee decisions about disposal.
• Keeping supporting records with the minutes and checking whether donor restrictions, previous resolutions, or loan arrangements apply.

Archive Lead Or Appointed Reviewer

Responsible for:

• Reviewing items that may have archive, historical, community, artistic, evidential, or reputational value.
• Advising whether an item should be retained, catalogued, photographed, returned, transferred, or disposed of.

Where no archive lead has been appointed, the Committee Chair must nominate a reviewer before disposal.

5. Disposal Categories

Each proposed disposal should be placed into one of the following categories.

6. Disposal Routes

Approved disposal routes are:

• Reuse within the chapel.
• Repair, if economical and safe.
• Sale for chapel funds.
• Donation to another suitable organisation.
• Return to donor, lender, owner, or family where appropriate.
• Transfer to archive storage.
• Recycling.
• Specialist disposal for electrical, hazardous, confidential, or controlled items.
• General waste, only when no better route is reasonable.

Items must not be:

• Taken home by committee members without written approval.
• Sold for cash without Treasurer record.
• Dumped on Chapel lane.

7. Standard Disposal Procedure

Use this procedure for ordinary disposals.

1. Identify the item.
2. Check whether it belongs to the chapel, is on loan, or may belong to someone else.
3. Check whether it appears in an inventory, archive list, minutes, grant record, insurance schedule, or key register.
4. Assess safety, usefulness, condition, storage burden, possible value, and disposal route.
5. Photograph the item if it has value, history, unusual markings, or a likelihood of later dispute.
6. Obtain the required approval and record the decision in the disposal log.
7. Carry out disposal and record completion, including any money received or cost incurred.

No item should be moved from "pending disposal" to "disposed" until the log has been updated.

8. Urgent Disposal

Urgent disposal may be used where an item presents an immediate risk, such as:

• Electrical danger.
• Fire risk.
• Contamination.
• Sharp edges or broken glass.
• Vermin, damp, mould, or biological concern.
• Obstruction of an emergency route.

Urgent actions:

1. Make the area safe.
2. Isolate and photograph the item if safe.
3. Inform the Chair.
4. Dispose of the item through a safe route.
5. Record the disposal afterwards, including why normal approval was not possible.

Urgent disposal must not be used to bypass committee discussion about awkward, sentimental, valuable, or socially inconvenient items.

9. Archive And Record Material

Archive and record material must not be disposed of without review.

This includes:

• Registers, minutes, accounts, correspondence, permissions, complaints, inspection notes, and certificates.
• Photographs, slides, negatives, programmes, clippings, posters, notices, and service sheets.
• Objects connected to chapel history, former committees, services, fundraising, maintenance, or disputes.
• Items with names, dates, inscriptions, labels, catalogue numbers, or unusual wear.
• Items donated to the chapel, even if the donation was made in an envelope, carrier bag or biscuit tin.

Possible outcomes:

• Retain and catalogue.
• Photograph, return, transfer, or retain temporarily pending identification.
• Dispose after committee approval.

If the value of an item is uncertain, it should be retained until the next committee meeting unless it presents a safety risk.

10. Donated, Loaned, Or Unclear Items

Before disposal, the committee should check whether the item was:

• Donated with conditions.
• Loaned for an event.
• Bought with grant funding.
• Lent by a named person.
• Part of a memorial or dedication.
• Entered into the archive.
• Listed in minutes or correspondence.

If ownership is unclear, label the item as "Ownership under review", record where it was found, make reasonable enquiries, and do not sell, donate, or throw it away until the Chair authorises a decision.

Reasonable enquiry does not require a public appeal for every spoon.

11. Electrical Items

Electrical items may be disposed of where they are broken, unsafe, obsolete, not worth repair, lacking essential parts, unsuitable for chapel use, or present in numbers exceeding chapel need.

Before disposal:

• Unplug the item.
• Label it "Do not use".
• Remove it from public access.
• Check whether it contains data, batteries, lamps, or other parts requiring special disposal, and record the reason for withdrawal.

Electrical items must be recycled or disposed of through an appropriate route. They must not be placed in general waste unless permitted by local arrangements.

Kettles require a note confirming whether disposal was due to the kettle itself, its base, its plug, visible limescale, missing confidence, or some other reason.

12. Data And Confidential Material

Items containing personal, financial, administrative, or committee information must be disposed of securely. This includes printed forms, contact lists, donation records, private minutes, guestbook moderation records, and data-bearing devices.

Required actions:

• Separate confidential material from ordinary recycling.
• Shred, securely destroy, or use an approved confidential disposal route.
• Wipe or destroy data-bearing devices before disposal.
• Record what was destroyed and who authorised it.

The chapel must not sell or donate data-bearing equipment unless data has first been removed in a verifiable way.

13. Sale, Donation, Or Transfer

Where an item has resale value, the committee may approve sale.

Sale rules:

• The Treasurer must record the amount received, and proceeds belong to the chapel.
• Sale to a committee member, volunteer, or related person must be declared and approved by the committee.
• The item should not be sold below reasonable value without a recorded reason, and cash must be handled under normal finance procedures.

Donation or transfer rules:

• The recipient should be suitable.
• The transfer should not create risk, confusion, or reputational difficulty.
• Transfer of archive or record material must be minuted, and items must not be donated merely to avoid making a decision.

14. Disposal Log

Every disposal, other than trivial consumables, must be recorded.

The disposal log should include:

• Disposal reference number.
• Item description, location, and condition.
• Owner or source, if known.
• Category, estimated value, and reason for disposal.
• Approval, disposal route, date removed, and person completing disposal.
• Money received or cost incurred.
• Photograph reference, if taken.
• Notes or restrictions.

Suggested reference format: TC-D-YYYY-001.

15. Items Not To Be Disposed Of Without Full Committee Approval

The following must always go to the full committee:

• Registers, minutes, accounts, and legal records.
• Archive material.
• Memorial items, plaques, inscriptions, and dedicated objects.
• Keys, locks, safes, cash boxes, and security equipment.
• Items worth more than £100.
• Items bought with grant funding.
• Items that may belong to a donor, family, former trustee, or neighbouring property.
• Anything subject to disagreement.
• Anything the Caretaker has described as "probably nothing" while placing it on a high shelf.

16. Review And Audit

This policy should be reviewed every six months and after any disputed disposal.

Minimum review checks:

• Disposal log complete.
• Pending disposal items still present.
• Electrical disposal route and archive review arrangements still suitable.
• Treasurer has reconciled sale proceeds and disposal costs.
• No unlabelled disposal pile has formed in the vestry.
• No item has been "temporarily" stored in a private home without a recorded date for return or disposal.

The committee should review the disposal log at least annually.

17. Immediate Action Card

Use this card when an item must be dealt with and nobody wants to start a policy discussion beside the cupboard.

1. Stop using unsafe items.
2. Label the item.
3. Photograph it if useful and safe.
4. Check whether it is a record, archive item, key, memorial object, data item, valuable item, or possible loan.
5. Ask the Chair if approval is needed, record the decision, and dispose through the right route.
6. Give any money or receipt to the Treasurer.
7. Do not put it back in the cupboard unless the decision is to keep it.