Company registration number. 03114198 Cbarity registration number. 1050794 Aylesham And District Community Workshop Trust (A Company limited by guarantee) Annual Report and Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 March 2024 Batchelor Coop Ltd TheNew Barn Mill Lane Easty Sandwich CT13 OJW Aylesham And District Community Workshop Trust Contents Ref¢renc¢ and Administrative Details Trust¢¢s' Report 2toS ststement of Tntstees, Responsibilities tndependent Examintrs Report StatsD)ent of Financial Activities 8t09 Balance Sheet Iotoll No*s to the Financial Statements 12to26 Aylesbam And Diqtrict Community Workshop Trust Reference and Administrative DetsiLs Trustees A Dogg¢tt SMBott J Davies C Duffield J E Flaig S M Mamjan S Manion N H B Ratcliffe C Williams Seeretary E Barnes Charity Registration Number 1050794 Company Registration Number 03114198 Th¢ charity is incorporated in England and Wales. Acltholt Road Ayleshajn Kent CT3 3AJ Registered Offi¢¢ Independent Examiner Batchelor CIK)p Ltd The New Barn Mill Lane Easty Sandwich CT13 OJW Solicitors: Furley Page 52-54 High Street Whitstable Kent CT5 IBG Binkers Lloyds Bank PLC 49 High Street Canterbury Kent CTI 2SE Page I Aylesham And District Community Workshop Trust Trustees, Report The trustees, who are directors for the purposes of company law. present the annual report together with the financial statemenls of the charitable company for the Ye￿ ended 31 March 2024. Objeetives and aetlvities Objects and The principle object of the charity is to benefit the persons of Aylesham and the rural district with the objective of improving the quality of life for those persons, by providing or assisting in the provision of facilities for the advancement of education, recreation and employment. Public benefil The trustees Conf￿ that they have complied with the requirements of section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the public benefit guidance published by the Charity Lommissiotb for England and Wales. Trustees and officers The trnstees and officers serving during the year and since the year end were as follows.. Trustees: A Doggett SMBott J Davies C Duffield J E Flaig S M Mamjan (appointed 28 November 2023) S Manion N H B Ratcliffe C Williatns (appointed 28 November 2023) F W J Marsh (deceased 2 October 2023) N Scrivener (resigned 28 November 2023) P Walker (resigned l May 2023) S Williams (deceased 15 October 2023) Secretary., E Barnes Page 2 Aylesham And District Community Workshop Trust Trustees, Report Risk management The Trustees examine the major risks that the charity faces each f￿anCIal year and where necessary seek to develop systems to monitor and control these risks, to miligate any impact which they may have on ihe future of the charity. Business Operations What a year it has been! Our staff and trustees have been busy making plans for the ￿tUre and developing our site to become the active community it should be for the benefit of the people of Aylesham. W¢ kicked off the fmancial year with a staff and trus1¢¢ 'away day, to assess where we were as a Trusi and what we wanted to achieve in the thture. We reviewed our strategic plan, discussed how we could make the most of our assets on site including our main building and land not currently in use. We are lucky lo occupy what is substantial site which used lo be the old secondary school. But being asset rich brings its own challenges as we need to raise th¢ funds lo put those assets to good use. We also considered our branding and marketing agreeing to adopt the iiame 'Ayl¢sham Community Trust, and our new colourful. modcTn logo. In June. following the departure of one of our staff, we success￿11Y appointed to 8 new rol¢ of Customer Services and Support Officer. This post has enhanced our staff leam enabling the team to tackle many long-standing maintenance and seryice delivery issues. Thanks to our sharp-eyed CEO. who noticed the imminenl closure of the SAGA sites in Folkestone, we have been able to acquire kitchen and catering equipment worth several thousand pounds. A trustee group was established io support our CEO in plamiing our catering offer, drawing up a three-year business plan and applying for loan fll)anc¢. These days running any hospitality venture is ¢hall¢nging so we are proceeding with caution but are looking forward to the commencemenl of the Old School Coffee Shop and Kitchen in 2025. We have made our main building available to local community groups and developed the Community HQ for groups to use for their meetings and to provide a postal address so that people do not have to use their personal addresses. At the end of this financial year, we had 12 organisations using this facility including the Carnival. Aylesham Ill Touch magazine, Aylesham4Aylesham. Aylesham and Rural Community Heart and the Snowdown Colliery Welfare Male Voice Choir. A number of community events have taken place this year which the Trust has either organised or been participants in. We had a week of events on site under the banner We are Aylesham which helped groups lo drum up new Members and showcased the mining heritage of Ayl¢sham. Amongst our many plans we intend that our sile should become an arts and cultural space as this is lacking in the village. Our cinema club showed a number of films including the Chair's favourile Elf just before Christmw. Wotking in partnership with Espression Arts and funded by Dover District Council community granl we ran s¢ri¢s of cr¢ativ¢ coffee mornings which were really well att¢nd¢d. 2024-2025 represents ihe 40ih anniversary of the national miners, strike that had an enornious impact in Aylesham. In discussion with forn)er miners in Aylesham and the surrounding coalfield area il was agreed to stage commemorative events. A strike comniemorative committee was fornied and both Trust staff and trustees were active participants. A major event was lield in May this year but more of that in next year's report. As in previous years, we administered the JOK grant fvnd from the Coalfield Regeneration Trust and our own 6K small granls programme to local community groups in Aylesham and ihe surrounding fonner Kent coalfield area, beneficiaries included Aylesham Scouts, the Arts club at Bechamge and the Green Howards to enable them to attend the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Page 3 Aylesbam And District Community Workshop Trust Trustees, Report During the year we have continued to work closely with Bechange, an organisation that is based on our site and runs activilies of benefit to the local community. There a two key partnership projecls. The community garden which continues to thrive although the main funding for this project (through Aspire) has now come to an end and the social pantry- This is based in our main building but 15 also rnn by Bechange and it continues to grow, providing a much-needed SeTvice in reducing grocery shopping costs for its members. Aylesham Panty was the IOOth panty to be established in F.ngland. The Co-op. who s￿nsOr food pantries. held a celebration event with us and l 00 people from our community in June. li was a good relebratory and networking day. It also showed us how nice our main hall can look when it is all decked out in fancy tsbles and chairs! Our site has continued to be a successful place for small businesses to operate and, for the most part, thrive. For most of ihis year we had l 00/0 occupancy of our otrices in Garrily House and our units on Miners Way. This was the best we have ever achieved. We have also been developing a new strategic parlnership with East Kent College for them to deliver support to students from our site. Unfortunately, we have not been immvne to the effects of climate Change. The ferocity of the winter storn)s, including on one day a mini tornado, resulted in considerable damage to the roof on our main building and Garrily House r¢qiiiring ui'&ieiii repuirs. The slaff did a faiilli slic job identifying all the daiiiage and Lyelliiig buckels ui)demcutli! Tliere will be niore to coiiie so it deiiionsirdied how crucial it is to keep up to dale with buildiiiLI IliLiinlen(IIIL'C. Our CEO represented the trnsl at a numb¢r of events throughout the year including The Carnival selection night held in our main hall, the Remembrance Day service, and the performance of St Joseph's school choir. Our trustee board has met flve times during th¢ year wher¢ we have considered plans for the futur¢, signed off policies needed to run our Trust and reviewed our financial posilion. The system of sub groups covering finance, staffjng and remuneration, and governance has also worked well helping the board meetings to focus on the decisions that need to be made. We were all saddened when we received news of the deaths of ttvo Trustees during the course of the year. Both Steve Williams and Fred Marsh will be very much missed by all of us. After many years service as a Trustee we also said goodbye to Neil Scrivener who stood down due to increasing work commitments and we thank him for all his support over the years and wish him well. We have also welcomed Maria Mamjan to the Trustee Board following her election as one of our District Councillors. I should like to thank OUT dedicated band of trustees who put in a lot of work and. l am very pleased to report, are good attenders at our meetings. Finally, I should like to thank our stsff team - Emily. Lisa, Marla. Rachel, and Andy they work very well together and are always willing to go above and beyond when nveded. We are luLky to havc them. I am pleased to say that our community trust is a good news story but watch this space. we will do even better next year! Structure, governance and managemenl Nalure ofgovernlng document The company is registered as a charitable company Limited by Guardntee and was set up by a Memorandum of Association on 16 October 1995. Recruilmenl and appolntmenl oflruslees The Trust has policies and procedures in place for the recruiting, induction and training of new trnstees. This policy is under review. Page 4 Aylesham ADd District Community Workshop Trust Trustees, Report Organisallonalstrmrture The management of the charity is the reswnsibility of the Trnstees wbo are el¢ct¢d and co-opted under the tenns of the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the company. They fomi a board of Directors which is responsible for the general control of the charity. Trusteesmirectors are volunteers, give their time freely and receive no remuneration or other fmancial benefits in respect of theiT voluntary position, save that reasonable expenses (nolably travel) may be paid. T￿￿tee5/DIreCtOrS meet together on a regular basis. Day lo day management of the charity and its ass¢ts are delegated to paid staff and volunteers. The annual report was approved by the trustees of the charity on 26 November 2024 and signed on its behalf by: E Barnes Company secretary Page 5 Aylesham And District Community Workshop Trust Statement of Trustees, Responsibilities The trnstees (who are also the direclors of Aylesham And District Community Workshop Tn]si for the pu￿OseS of company law} are responsible for preparing ihe tru5tees' report and the financial statements in accordance witl) applicahle law and Llnited KiiigFdom Accounting Sis￿dards (United Kiii¥dom Generally Acc¢pted Accouiiling Practice), includinbT FRS 102 "The Finaiicial Reporting Stamdard applicable in the UK and Republic ot. Irelaiid, Company law requires the trustees to prepare fmancial stateTnents for eacli fiiiancial y¢Rr. Uijder company law the trustees must not approve the financial statements uiiless they are sat15tied tl)al they give a Irue and fair view of the sl¥11¢ of a rruirs of the Lliurilabl¢ compaiiy of the incoming resouTLe5 and application uf resources, includin&i ils incoi)ie and expeii(lilui'c. of the Ll)aritable, company for that period. In preparing these fmancial statements, the trustees aTe required to.. select suitable accounting policies and apply them consistently. observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP. make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and pNdent' state whether applicable accounting standards, Coillpi'ising FRS 102 have been followed. subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the fiiiaiiLial statemLiils; and prepare the finan¢ial statemcnts on the going conceTn basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charllable company will continue in business. The Irustees are responsible for keeping proper 8ccounting reL()I'cIs Ilial Lan disclose with reasoi)iil)le ¢lLLUnlLy at any time Ilie financial position of tli¢ cliarilable coiiipk)ny and eiiable Iliciii to ensure that the lin4iii¢ial 51aleiiieiits comply iviili the Companics Act •006. Tliey are iilso responsible for safeguarding the assets of th¢ ¢harAtabl¢ company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevenlion and detection of fraud and other irregularities. The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and infrgrity of the co￿Orate and financial infornjation included on the Chiiriliible ioiiipaiiy's Wcl?silL'. I.¢&Tisl¢ilioii govLming the preparation and dissemination of financial statements lil¢lJ dillir I I'uii) IL&yislaij()ii in ()Iliei' jLlI'i.4dfftciiuiis. Page 6 Aylesham And District Community Workshop Trust Independent Examiner's Report to the trustees of Aylesham And District Community Workshop Trust ('the Company,) I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the C<)mpany for the year ended 31 March 2024. Responsibilities and basls of report As the chaiity's trustee5 of the Company (and also its directors for the purposes of company law) you aTe responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2000 ('the 2006 Act,). Having satisfied myself that the accounts of the Company are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of your charity's accounts as carried out under section 145 of the Charitie5 Act 2011 {'the 2011 Act,). In caTrying out my examination I have followed the Directions givcn by the Charity Commission under section 145(5Xb) of the 2011 Art. Independent examiner'5 Statement Since the Company's gross iTJcome exceeded £250,000 your ¢xamineT must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the 201 l Act. J confiTm thai l am qualified to und¢rtake the examination because l am a memlxr of Ihe Association of Accounting Technicians. which is one of the listed bodies. I have completed rny examination. I confwm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause lo believe: l. accounting records were not kept in respecl of Aylesham And District Community Workshop T￿st as required by seclion 386 of the 2006 Act. or 2. the accounts do not accord with those records. or 3. the accounts do not comply with the accountlng requirements of section J96 of the 2006 Act other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'true and fair view, which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. or 4. the accounts have not been prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practiee for accounting and reporting by charities [applicable lo charities preparing thelr accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (I.-RS 102)]. I have no concerns and have come across no oiher matters in connection with the examination to which attention hould be drdwn in this report in ordcr to en