2024-12-31-accounts - The Douglas Centre Trust

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THE DOUGLAS CENTRE TRUST

REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

Charity Registration Number 1047038 Company Registration Number 3057887

Douglas Centre Trust

Trustees’ Report for the year ended 31/12/2024

The Trustees present their report and accounts for the year ended 31/12/2024

Objects of the Douglas Centre Trust:

The Douglas Centre Trust was established by a charitable trust deed on June 8[th] 1995. The objectives of the Trust are:

To promote the ideals of lifelong learning in the arts and maximise the potential of the arts to further personal and social development
To ensure equality of opportunity and access to the facilities
To reflect in its programme and activities the rich diversity which is manifest in the community at large
To endeavour to give access to the very best contemporary artistic practice.
Trustees are required to participate in an induction and training programme at the start of their term.

Employees:

The Douglas Centre Trust has no employees

Review of Activities:

The activities of the Trust are described in full in the Chairman’s report.

Trustees:

The Trustees who served at 31/12/2024 were:

Jeremy John Thorn Barbara Jane Thorn Ian Robert Davies Phillip John Cooper Joan Matilda Scriven Andrew James Keane Chika Ripley

Registered office - The Cornerhouse, 116, Douglas Road, Surbiton, Surrey KT6 7SB Working name - The Cornerhouse Charity number - 1047038 Company number - 3057887 Reporting accountant – Tim Lucas 10 Presbury Road New Malden KT3 5AH

Review of the Financial Position

Asset Cover for Funds

The Trust’s assets are held as short-term bank deposits. These are sufficient to meet the trust’s immediate obligations.

Reserves Policy and Risk Management

The Trust reviews its reserves and risk policies routinely as part of its management of the Charity’s operations.

The Trust identifies the biggest risk to its activities as the withdrawal of the virtually free premises. To address this, it continues to negotiate the agreement with the Parochial Council which sets out the noncommercial nature of the provision of the premises. The other significant risk is an interruption to day-today activities which would impact on income whilst requiring continued meeting of outgoings. The Trust considers that it needs to be able to meet these outgoings for a period of at least six months to enable it to manage such crisis. The experience of the pandemic reinforced our view that this was a sensible course. It therefore will continue to reserve £12,000 to meet basic cost commitments for six months.

TRUSTEES’ RESPONSIBILITIES IN RELATION TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS.

The charity trustees (who are also the directors of the company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing a trustees’ annual report and financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires the charity trustees to prepare financial statements for each year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and the group and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable group for that period. In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are required to: -

Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
Observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
State whether applicable UK accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;
Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in business.

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and the group and hence taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

SMALL COMPANY PROVISION

This report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions relating to companies subject to the small companies regime within Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006.

Approved by the Trustees on and

Signed on its behalf by

J J Thorn

Trustee

Douglas Centre Trust Chair's Report for 2024

2024 saw a continuance of the process I reported on last year and the year before the gradual reduction in the impact of the COVID pandemic. Income finally surpassed pre-COVID levels and audience numbers have now surpassed those of 2018 and 2019. Fuel costs remain a challenge. Expenditure increased substantially, focusing on maintaining the building, investing in new equipment to improve standards, efficiency and resilience, including improved heating, LED lighting and gantry equipment. Almost all of this work was carried out by volunteers, including an encouraging number of new people. Our reserves have continued to rise, putting us in a strong position to meet future needs in maintenance, investment, emergency resources for unexpected events and meeting the growing needs of the local community. 2024’s Panto, a key element in our income, had good audience numbers. Other in-house activity produced positive results.

We now intend to invest in infrastructure as a key priority. There was an expansion in our visual arts work and the trend of bringing in children and families for events, aimed specifically at them, continued. Once again, we participated in the Surbiton Literary Festival and Black History month events.

A wide range of regular hirers represented local schools, colleges and charities. The diverse nature of the community was also reflected in attendees at the film club and in our Singalong initiative for sufferers of dementia and their supporters. Comedy featuring locally and nationally known performers was again an important part of our offering. Poetry, both through our own poetry group and from visiting poets, including Roger McGough, was a strong feature. Folk music continued to expand and to draw large audiences.

All in all it was a highly successful year.

We are now embarking on a number of changes to management and governance structures. Once again we owe a debt of gratitude to our willing and resourceful volunteers, to our generous landlords, St Matthews Church, to our inspector of accounts, Tim Lucas and to our outgoing Treasurer, David Itcovitz.

Jeremy Thorn

Chair of Trustees April 2025

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cOnlIdat•d l•m•nt ol Fknandd ActMtI• For th• Y•v •nd•d 31 D•c•mb•r 2024 1kn8trlcl•d R•strictod Totsl 2024 Totsl 2023 Box Office 28.046 22.033 660 2.583 33,875 28.046 22.033 660 16,328 20.196 tk>n•tsn$ & Fufftd Raisiig Bank Inleresi 2.583 33,875 1,442 27,187 Bar Takng$ claneous Incon Grnnts 6,000 <ko•• Incomlry R••owc•• •7.197 87,197 71,154 L••8 Cost of Good$ Soll - Bar Supph$ 116.347) 116.347) {14.1821 N•1 R••owc•• 70.•50 70,•50 5•,972 EXPEhDTiMiE 10.076 2.218 2.632 2.315 6.750 1.345 2.336 10.076 2.218 2.632 2.315 6.750 1.345 2.336 10,203 2,103 1.428 483 aèanng Mavil•nant• & Sundiibs EkctrKal Wo Now Equwmont PYoductth)n Props & Costs Inne 5.422 1,199 4.151 1,024 288 LKenc•s 213 213 VohJnt•or Exponms IT & W•bs• 2.359 1.897 15 2.359 1.897 15 1,594 936 OffK4 and Accounts Supp&•s Marft•t•ig and Pubbxy Inhous• P•rforrnnc• Costs frknis• & Auda 3.707 772 3.707 772 1.981 366 139 139 408 M•dical Trafftfftg Wami Sp•ndng [knna1$ Long T•mi Li•bMy Ya• offs 1.215 1,215 175 35 35 16.452) 16.452) Tithl R•sowc•• Exp•nd•d 32.176 J2.176 31.710 N•1 Incom• 38.174 38.174 25,212 I li Funds Fund 8alancs bmugh fmm 2023 38.674 135.984 38,674 135.984 25,212 110.772 811••• c•rrl•d lrnrd 2024 174.658 174.158 135,984

THE DOUGLAS CENTRE TRUST

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Accounting Convention

The financial statements are prepared under the historical cost convention in accordance with FRS 102 Section1A, the Statement of Recommended Practice “Accounting and Reporting by Charities” issued in March 2015(SORP 2015), The Companies Act 2006.

The company is limited by guarantee and consequently does not have share capital.

The principal accounting policies adopted in the preparation of the financial statements are as follows:-

INCOMING RESOURCES

Income from events and centre hires are included in incoming resources in the period in which the relevant event takes place. Income from donations and grants is included in incoming resources, when these are receivable except where the donor specifies that the grant must be used in future accounting periods. In such cases, the income is deferred until the relevant period.

Interest is included when receivable by the charity.

RESOURCES EXPENDED

Resources expended are included in the Statement of Financial Activities on an accruals basis.

Certain expenditure is directly attributable to specific activities and has been included in those categories.

Certain other costs, which are attributable to more than one activity, are apportioned across cost categories on the basis of an estimate of the proportion that can reasonably be costed to the category.