In 1997 some £13M was authorized from Council, Home Office, and European Regeneration funds for renewing housing and improving the environment of the area over the following five years. This included better use of low quality open space and provided some 150 housing stock.

There are plans for a £3M community and fitness centre attached to St Alban's CE School, a new medical centre, and a  £2M training/employment project involving European Development Funds. Other local partners include the Cheapside Business Group Limited and Matthew Boulton College, as well as South Birmingham College who have established one of a number of community computer training courses in St Alban's CE School Library.

Directly across the street from the school and at the heart of this small and compact patch is the historic and magnificent church building which dominates the local skyscape. It is the only Grade II* listed building in the district, and it is even more prominent after the demolition of the twenty storey Princethorpe Tower block by the culverted River Rea, as Highgate is transformed into a Twenty first century urban village, with an Urban Parish Council.

Originally built to serve the crowded streets just southwest of the city centre, the clergy at St Alban the Martyr, Conybere Street, soon created a school for the educational needs of local children. In the 1960s a new secondary modern building was erected across from the church and it is now a place where 400 children of all faiths (and none) are welcomed into an educational setting where tolerance and mutual understanding are positively promoted within an essentially Christian ethos.

Currently the Birmingham Diocesan Board of Education and the governing body of the secondary school have commited hundreds of thousands of pounds to expanding its facilties to serve a growing and deprived district who have the worst health and lowest achievement levels in the country.

There is now a major effort to build further classrooms in order to increase the size of the student body to some six hundred, and four new classrooms will be completed by August 2004.

Over twenty years ago St Patrick's room was built onto the church to better the needs of the changing community. These facilities are now well established.

At the heart of the small, deprived urban neighbourhood stands this historic church site connecting local people with public and private service providers through housing, health, education. This is exemplified by a £60k City Challenge Home Office Closed Circuit Television Scheme delivered  in 1997 through a consortium comprising local traders, institutions, and companies.

St Alban's church is central and accessible to the 1500 families living in the high rise tower blocks and other council properties - many of whom are in need of social support. St Alban's Church is also convenient for those who come to worship from many miles distant because of it's vital Anglo-Catholic tradition; however, the effects of time and pollution have taken such a heavy toll on the buillding that following the Inspecting Architect's report in 1996 the future safety of the fabric is in question.

After more than a century the building itself now needs a major investment on it's fabric in order for priests and people together to deliver another hundred years of commitment to people living in what is in fact the second most deriprived parish in the country's second city.

Having achieved a successful bid in 1996 for some £44K through the Arts Council for the restoration of the Organ, the PCC are applying itself to a £750K bid through the Heritage Council. Were this also to be successful, funds would only be granted on the basis of secure sources of funding for the remaining portion.

Even over four years - the minimum length of time for a Deed of Covenant - a sum more than twice the annual turnover of the Church Council's trust fund would be needed: however, already payments and promises in excess of £250,000 have been achieved with the assistance of  the prominent world class capital fund raising specialists, Compton International Fundraising Limited. They have encouraged church representatives to appeal for major gifts from businesses, charities and trusts,

Clearly this largest piece of church building work in the parish since its founding far exceeds the current capacity of the small congregation and parish combined. Sponsors and supporters (named and anonymous) from across the city, are needed in order that St Alban's can continue making its distinctive contribution to the life of the city through the development of a community it has championed for more than a century.

By Canon Jim Pendorf

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