LIThLE THEfFORD VILLAGE HALL Registered Charity.Nurnber-1055086 Report for the Trustee5 for the year ended 31st December 2024 Address {Chalr) 'Pear Tree House, 35 The Wyches, Little Thetford CB6 3HG Website htt www.littlethetfordvilla ehall.or .uk Governin Document and Ob'ectives Little Thettord Village Hall's governing Document is a Trust Deed contained within a conveyance dated I December 1952. The deed established the Village Hall as a Charitable Trust. The objectives set out in the Trust Deed are to provide a village hall for the use of the inhabitants of Little Thetford and the neighbourhood (hereinafter called the area of benefit) without distinction of sex or of religious or other opinions and for use for meetings lectures and classes and of other forms of recreation at leisure-time occupation with the object of improving the conditions of lrfe for the said inhabitants. The trustees consider that the main activities of Little Thetford Village Hall are in accordance with the objectives and that they are of public benefrt. The Trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charities Commission on public benefit. Trustees The Trust Deed sets out the rnanner of appointing Trustees who also constitute the Management Committee of the Village Hall. Some are representative of the Parish Council and the Parochial Church Council. Most are elected each year at the Annual General Meeting. The Management Committee has the power to co-opt further trustees. During this period there have been changes to the trustoes on the Little Thetford Villa8e Hall Committee. During this year Richard Church stood down as Chair to focus his attentions on chairing the Communitv Benefit scheme (CBS). But he continues as an active Trustee. especially sUPPOrtin8 50urcin8 & engagement with our insurance cover. We have been fortunate that Phil Hadley agreed to be elected as Vice Chair during the year and his contributions are already adding value, especially with regards to Health & Safety policy. Pam James continues to be unable to attend Trustee meetings. but we hope that she will be able to attend when her health permits. In the meantime, we are grateful to her for the work that she has done in securing grant assistance. The Parish Council have two reserved places within the Trust Oeed. However, during the year the Parish Council have been unable to nominate councillors. but we remain hopeful that these will be filled in the coming year. The Parochial Church Council (St. George's Church) also have two reserved place within the Trust Deed and Rev. Richard Church was their nomination for 2024- leaving one vacancy unfilled. A5 of December 2024, there are 7 trustees as follows: Peter Mortimer Philip Hadley Jennifer 5taines Richard Church Lisa Hadley Graham James Chair Vice Chair Secretary Trustee & Safeguarding Treasurer Caretaker Pam James Fundraising NB: Annie Foulser is no longer a Trustee but acts as an assistant Caretaker to support Graham James The trustees are supported at various events by volunteers from within the community. We are continually seeking additional people to join as trustees to allow us to extend our Tange of activities. Sources of advice and su Bank: Lloyds Bank. Ely. Cambridgeshire ACRE East Cambridgeshire District Council; Little Thetford Parish Council Cambridgeshire County Council Cambridge and Petertx)rough Combined Authority Policies and Procedures The trustees were able to obtain Hallrnark 2 accreditation with ACRE and are indebted to the work of Jennifer Staines in managing this process. This external accreditation allows the trustees to demonstrate rhat our operatlons, pollcles and procedures are efficient. effertive and comply with the relevant14islation. To guide the Trustees in exercising their duty of care to members and users of the hall, the following poliry statements have been written and adopted. The application of a formal Document Control Policy ensures that all documents are created. reviewed. distributed. and maintained in a consistent and controlled manner: controlled Documeni LTVH Document Control Policy LTVH Health & Safety Policv LTVH Bouncy Castle Policy LTVH Conflict of Interest Policy LTVH Data Protection Policy LTVH Safeguarding Policy LIVH Wi-Fi Policy LTVH Finance Policy LTVH Reserves Policv LTVH Hiring Policy LTVH Hire Fees LTVH Hire Agreement LTVH Budget and Financial Risk Assessment Policy LTVH Snow and Ice Policy LfdH Energy Policy LTVH Complaints Policy LTVH Equal Opportunities Policy LTVH Lone Working Policy LTVH Hold Harmless and Indemnification Agreement LTVH Village Hall Floor Plan LT%lH Trustee Declaration Health and Safe Mana ement S tem Th@ village hall benefits from an evolving health and safety management system. This framework sets out the hall's commitments towards 13 unique health and safety aspects. comprising management documents, risk assessments, inspection schedules, and checkltsts. A selection of some of the documents featuring within this management system is shown below. As with the hall's policie5. these documents are also controlled within the Document Management System and are tracked in a Document Master Record: LTVH Asbestos Management Plan LTVH Asbestos Register LTVH Asbestos Management Survey LTVH Asbestos R&D Survey- VH Gents Toilets LTVH General Premises Risk Assessment LTVH Fire Risk Assessment LTVH Use of Stepladders Risk Assessment LTVH Coffee and Cake Risk Assessment NOLTVH Cinema Presentation Risk Assessment LTVH EHS Aspect Work Equipment LTVH EHS Aspect Workplace Transport LTVH EH5 Aspect Working at Height LPdH EHS Aspect Public Health, Safety, and Welfare LTVH EHS Aspect Lone Working LTVH EHS Aspect Hazardous Materials LTVH EH5 Aspect Emergency Response and First Aid LTVH EHS Aspect Electricity LTVH EHS Aspect Asbestos Lf￿H EHS Aspect Contractors LTVH EHS Aspect Fire LTVH EHS Aspect Legionella LTVH EHS Aspect Manual Handling Copies of these policies are included in the Tru5tees' Welcome pack. and relevant documents are made available to hall users on request. The Hall has a comprehensive premises risk asse55ment, which is complemented by additional topic-specific assessments. These focused risk assessments cover aspects such as Asbestos. Fire. and Hazaidous Materials. Grant funding has supported: l. The removal and control of asbestos in the village hall. 2. The installation of new fire doors 3. The installation of new fire alarrns. planned for 2025. Hiri Use of the village hall 15 subjert to a Hiring Agreement which must be signed by the hirer when booking. Small changes have been made to the agreement durine the year to take account of chaneing conditions. The hiring agreernent sets out the conditions of hire and identifies the respective responsibilities of each party to the agreement. Licences The hall holds a Premises Licence, a 5 environmental health accreditation for the Monday Hub and is reglstered as a food buslness wlth East Cambs. Dlstrlct Councll. A li¢•ns• to s•ll alcohol within the whol• buildin8 is h•ld by the Sports Social Club. The hall is licensed by the Performing Right Society for live and recorded music. The hall has a contract to dispose of hazardou5 sanitary waste with an external provider. Finance Summa for 2024 2024 has been a bit of a turbulent year regarding the finances of the Village Hall. The cost of electricity under our new contract with Octopus saw significant price rises. particularly during the colder months which the Trustees have had to manage. To demonstrate this, fuel in 2023 cost the Village Hall £5,772. In 2024 this increased to £7,488 which is a lot for a small comrnunity hall to absorb. We also saw a lot of maintenance work arise, much of which we were able to cover by grants but not all and this was essential work to keep the hall safe and comfortable for use and therefore had to be addressed in the year and not postponed. To ounteract some of the expenditure, the Trustees have been very cautious with what they spend on purchases, undertaken some maintenance themselves and have actively sought ways to bring in more income to the hall. Hall hirings bought £12,834 of income in 2024 which is in line with 2023. Where we have lost a regular hirer, we have been fortunate enough to replace with others and continue to promote the hall where possible. We have maintained the reserves required within our policy despite the challenges and are hopeful of a smoother 2025. Our accounts are available have been completed and audited by the external accountants Simplex Solutiong. Village Hall Activities. The Monday Hub continued to be well attended with a variety of external advisers coming in occasionally to give help and advice for those who wished use them. During thÈ Monday Hub of Village Hall week in March the then MP Steve Barclay attended and also present were members of E.C.D.C and representatives from Action with Communities in Rural England {A.C.R.E.) The Little Acorns joined the Hub on a Monday in August for a play & stay event alonzside the Hub. In December the hub attendees enjoyed a buffet lunch and an afternoon film. In May the Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire Mrs Julie Spence visited the Hall alongside representatives from A.C.R.E. The NTLive! season screening National Theatre production5 continued during 2024 with 6 produetions available- Dear England, Vanya, The Motive & The Cue. Prima Facie, Present Laughter and Nye. The screening of Prima Facie was so popular that ran an Encore performance, thereby making the Screening available twice. Using our relationship with Creative Arts East we screened three main stream films - Christmas Carol, Wonka and Ollver! We a150 tiialled screening two musical productions of Live to Screen event5 of An American in Paris {The Musical) and 42nd Street. The musicals were very popular and for 2025 we will be screening a fuller Season for people to enjoy. The Trustees also ran a Pop-up Painting event using the efforts of a local artist. Elaine MacDonald. This was very popular and we are aiming to run more workshops in 2025. At the end of February 2024 the Parent Baby Toddler Group rnoved to a different venue as number had unfortunately dropped off considerably. The Village Hall continues to host various exercise classes {pilates. Tai Chi plus Strength & Balance). The village hall continued to be hired on occasions for lettings such as birthday parties and family gatherings. We are also delighted that Ely Woodturners still use the Hall as their main venue. Village Hall Maintenance: The focus for 2024 was completing the electrical works within the Village Hall, including the installation of three-phase power, installation and replacement of air conditioning I heating systems, installation of solar panels & batteries, installation of water heater5 throughout the building and removal of all the old oil-based heating and hot water system. This work was undertaken alongside the refurbishment of the gent's washroom, replacement of fire doors and fire exit doors, plus the installation of an external noticeboard. The opportunity wa5 also taken to refresh the old boiler cupboard and make it a more useable space for storing cleaning equipment. All of this work was undertaken with Grant funding for which we are very appreciative. Apart from the new installation activities. the Trustees undertook the continuation of their general maintenance programme to ensure compliance with legislation and changing requirements. All of this work complemented the early stages of planning for a large extension to be be constructed to the side of the Village Hall that will modernise the entranceways too the hall, improve storage capability and house a cafe / shop operation. Grant Funding: ECDC Community Grant- We were successful in our application for £1150 for a Kindness Table made from 100% recycled HDPE. Comfortably seating eight people, this maintenance-free table feature5 Kindness Table engraved on the tabletop, promoting social interaction and kindne55 in various settins5. The Trustees have posltioned the table at the edge of Bert's Garden on the Village Hall hard standing. Naiional Lottery - Awards for All - We were succe55ful in our application for £20,000 from this 'once per y£ar' fund. The funds are to be used for the removal of asbestos and the installation of a fire alarm system. The works have been partially completed with the remaining matters to be completed in line with other work taking place. Cambridgeshire Priority Capital Fund from Cambridgeshire County Council - We were successful in our application for £39,51J) that was used to refurbish the gents washroom facilities, replace and modernise fire and fire exit doors, plus the provision of a doubltrsided external noticeboard. Apart from some minor redecoration works that are in hand. all works have been completed. National Energy Authority Community Fund - We were awarded £300 by the NEA that was used to run a Christmas Event including a screening of the film Oliver! That was subsidised by Creative Arts East. Wami Hub - CRE funding on behalf of ECDC and the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Comblned Authorlty - We were awarded funding of £20 per session that equated to about £1,000 over the course of the year to run our Warm Hub on Monday mornings. Shop and Café development Little Thettord communlty Enterprlses Ltd was registered by the Financial conduct Authority as a Community Benefit Society at the end of May 2023. The Management Committee comprises Richard Church, Sue Merrell, Bob Clarke, Sue Wallis, Christine Howard, Jenny Staines, Bob Rain and Sheila Church. The shop and cafe will be run by the CBS and will enjoy long terrn occupancy of the new premises to be developed as an extension to the village hall. The CBS opened a bank account and has published a business plan and community shares prospectus. A copy of these documents are available online at the little5hop.org.uk. A meeting was held in Octobei to hear the views of the village and answer question5. This was followed by a shareholder meeting in November for those who had invested in the project. The design is now being developed in consultation with regular hall users. The trustees offer this account of the charitVs activities and finances in the past year. Signed on behalf of the Tru5tee5 Peter Mortimer. Date: ## **Little Thetford Village Hall Income and Expenditure Account For the Year Ending 31 December 2024** ## **Income** |Lettings|£|11,768.50
£||| |---|---|---|---|---| |Grants|£|60,262.70
£||| |Sports and Social Club|£|6,198.60
£||| |Misc Income|£|1,137.30
£||| |Ticket and Shows Income|£|1,449.98
£||| |Café|£|1,302.00
£||| |Savings account interest|£|154.80
£||| |Refund from UK Power Network|£|4.87
£||| ||**TOTAL INCOME**|**TOTAL INCOME**|**£**|**82,278.75**
**£**| ## **Expenses** |Fuel||£|7,379.92
£| |---|---|---|---| |Booking Officer||£|2,595.00
£| |Maintenance||£|7,485.96
£| |Cleaning||£|2,882.40
£| |Water||£|1,383.96
£| |Subscriptions||£|411.90
£| |Insurance||£|1,458.53
£| |Internet||£|750.60
£| |Website||£|264.00
£| |Misc Expenses||£|798.03
£| |Sports and Social Club Expenditure||£|4,390.00
£| |Ticket and Shows Expenses||£|1,159.84
£| |Cafe Expenditure||£|194.63
£| |Grants Expenditure||£|29,482.05
£| ||**TOTAL EXPENSES**|**£**|**60,636.82**
**£**| |**Surplus/(Deficit for the year**|£|21,641.93
£|| |---|---|---|---| |Balance brought forward Main A/c|£|7,899.12
£|As at 31st Dec 2023| |Balance bought forward Savings|£|13,779.56
£|As at 31st Dec 2023| |Balance Bought forward Grants|£|14,181.20
£|As at 31st Dec 2023| |Prepayments - Lettings for 2024|-£|280.00
-£|As at 31st Dec 2023| |Creditor - owed to shop from Grant|-£|150.00
-£|As at 31st Dec 2023| |**Balance carried forward**|**£**|**57,071.81**
**£**|| ## **Balance carried forward comprises** Lloyds Bank Lloyds Savings account Lloyds Grant account Prepayments - Lettings for 2025 Creditor - owed to shop from Grant |£|4,715.30
£|||As at 31st Dec 2024|As at 31st Dec 2024|As at 31st Dec 2024| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |£|11,934.36
£|||As at 31st Dec 2024|As at 31st Dec 2024|As at 31st Dec 2024| |£|41,918.15
£|||As at 31st Dec 2024|As at 31st Dec 2024|As at 31st Dec 2024| |-£|1,346.00
-£|||As at 31st Dec 2024|As at 31st Dec 2024|As at 31st Dec 2024| |-£|150.00
-£|||As at 31st Dec 2024|As at 31st Dec 2024|As at 31st Dec 2024| |||**£**|**57,071.81**
**£**|||| ## **Independent examiner's report on the accounts** **Section A Independent Examiner’s Report** **Report to the trustees/** Charity Name **members of** Little Thetford Village Hall **On accounts for the year** 31/12/2024 **Charity no** 1055086 **ended (if any) Set out on pages** 1-2 (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets) I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended **31/12/2024. Responsibilities and** As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the **basis of report** accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. - **Independent** - **examiner's statement** I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below *) which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: - the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or - the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or - the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 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. I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. - _Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply._ **Signed:** Yvette Smart **Date:** 12/03/2025 **Name:** Yvette Smart – Simplex Solutions **Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): Address:** 33 Hoylake Drive, Farcet, Peterborough, PE7 3BD **Oct 2018** 1 **IER** ## **Section B Disclosure** Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners). **Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose** . Nothing to report. **Oct 2018** 2 **IER**