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Registered Charity Number: 1070017

PAGHAM VILLAGE HALL TRUST UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

PAGHAM VILLAGE HALL TRUST (Registered Charity No 1070017)

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR TO 31 MARCH

2021

The Trustees during this period were:-

Philip Coleman Chairman & Trustee for protection matters John Carr Trustee (Parish Councillor) Susan Gregory Trustee (User) Arthur Guppy Trustee (Lay) Judy Halls Trustee (Chairman User Forum) Lesley Howlett Trustee (Parish Councillor) David Huntley Trustee (Parish Councillor) Graham Puttock Trustee (User) Stuart Ridgewell Trustee (User) Maria Wildman Trustee (Lay)

Pagham Parish Council built and owns the Village Hall. Its management, maintenance and development have been handed over to Pagham Village Hall Trust, a not-for-profit charitable trust, which leases the building from the Parish Council for a nominal rent over 90 years, expiring 31 July 2088. In 2017, the Trust decided to vest the Hall with the Official Custodian for Charities. This does not affect the responsibilities of the Trust for management of the Hall. The Trust was formed under a Declaration of Trust dated 23 April 1998; the Village Hall was formally handed over by the builders in August, and the Trust began hiring it out from 1 September 1998.

The object of the Trust is to manage Pagham Village Hall and associated facilities in the interests of the residents of the parish, for their benefit and enjoyment as a Village Hall, and to seek thereby to serve the recreational, leisure and social needs of local people, on a fair and equitable basis, regardless of age, creed, class, religion or politics.

The Trustees believe that the aims, decision-making and activities of the Trust meet the Public Benefit requirement as set out in the Charity Commission's guidance.

Because the Trustees are not subject to democratic election, they see the Annual General Meeting as an opportunity for residents to hold them to account for their stewardship. This Annual Report and Accounts will be registered on the Charity Commission’s website and on the Village Hall section of Pagham Parish Council's website. Interested parties can communicate with the Trust by email to philandjan.coleman@btinternet.com or in writing to Pagham Village Hall Trust, Pagham Village Hall, Pagham Road, Pagham, Bognor Regis, West Sussex, PO21 4NJ.

During the year, meetings of the Trustees were held on 27 May, 1 July, 19 August and 7 October 2020 and 14 January and 24 March 2021, as well as

the AGM on 19 August 2020. Several of these meetings were held virtually by internet, or by a combination of trustees meeting in person or via internet.

Membership of the Trust

The list of Trustees is set out above. There have been no changes during the year.

There remain vacancies on the Trust for two lay trustees — i.e. ones with relevant local knowledge and/or specialist skills. The Trust is keen to recruit new active trustees with the appropriate skills to carry the work of the Trust into the future.

Lay trustees and user trustees are appointed by the Trust, the four user trustees being co-opted from a user forum, a committee of Hall users that provides a link between Trustees and users. Three parish councillors are appointed as Trustees by Pagham Parish Council.

Activities and Achievements

The year has been dominated by the coronavirus pandemic. The Hall was required to close late in March 2020, shortly before the start of this financial year. It proved much harder to re-open than it did to close!

There followed a period of preparation for re-opening in a Covid-secure way. Following Government guidance, with helpful advice from ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England), the Trustees carried out a risk assessment. We installed hand sanitisers, displayed appropriate notices, marked out social distancing measures, and introduced a one-way system for access to and exit from the main hall. We drew up additional special conditions of hire to make activities in the Hall as safe as possible.

The Government guidance made it clear that the primary responsibility for safe operation and compliance with regulations rested with the hirers of the Hall. The Trustees, therefore, required all hirers to carry out their own risk assessments, cleaning regimes, and track and trace systems, although the we supported users by providing templates to show what was required.

Throughout this time we did our best to keep regular hirers informed about what was happening and offered them a two month free period of hire when they returned. Lesley Howlett has managed the Hall's Facebook page to keep the community abreast of developments and to give an account of the Hall’s history during Village Halls week in January 2021.

The Hall re-opened at the beginning of September. The preparations that had taken place during lockdown paid off. Many regular users returned, but several did not - understandably given the age and vulnerability of many of those taking part in their activities. To the best of our knowledge, no cases of Covid during this period were attributable to activities taking place at the Hall.

Unfortunately the second wave of the pandemic, especially with the impact of the highly transmissible Kent variant, brought about a second closure from 5 November, which continues in force at the end of the financial year. During this second lockdown, the only permitted use is the Village Station PreSchool. Sadly. the lockdown resulted in the cancellation of the annual New Years Eve dance.

We have taken advantage of the closure to carry out some improvements and essential maintenance tasks. The floors in both halls were stripped, sealed and repolished and the small hall walls were re-painted. Following a near miss from a falling roof tile, tile guards were fitted to the roof on the south elevation. A new maintenance and mowing contractor has been appointed to look after the grassed area within the fence on the south side of the Hall. The defibrillator has been moved to an accessible position outside the Village Hall. Early in 2021, the Trustees agreed to install an awning over the patio between the kitchen and the committee room. This major project awaits completion at the end of the financial year.

Other maintenance work includes:e Repairs to one of the memorial benches outside the patio doors.
e Weeding the French drain around the Hall and additional shingle added. e Patio sprayed with weedkiller.
e Trees trimmed, especially around the flagpole.
e New door plates fitted to doors either side of the stage.
e Table and chair stores either side of the stage thoroughly cleaned. e Anew chair trolley purchased. e Kitchen cupboards cleared out, washed and disinfected. e Broken rainwater down pipe clips replaced. e Broken roof tiles replaced to south elevation. e Outside light with movement sensor installed above the main hall emergency exit north elevation.
e New bulb fitted to one car park column light. e Acistermiser water flow control has been installed to the men’s urinals. e Awater leak to the Pre-School wash trough was repaired. e The leaves have been cleared from the low level gutter east elevation. e The damaged external gas meter box north elevation has been repaired.

Nearly all of this work has been carried out by Graham Puttock, Terry Reed, Ron Halls or Rodney Wildman, to whom we are very grateful.

Throughout this time, Terry and Tracey Reed have visited on most days to carry out essential cleaning and to carry out lighting, fire alarm and water tests.

During the year the gas and electricity supply contracts were due for renewal. The gas contract was renewed with the existing contractor. The existing electricity supply contractor went out of business, and following a review by the Trust’s agent, British Gas Lite has been chosen as electricity supplier.

At the end of 2018, 87 solar panels were installed on the roof of the Hall. In 2020, the second full year of operation, we spent £1,060 on our purchase of

electricity - a saving of £1,716 compared with £2,776 in our base year 2018, and £418 less than in 2019. We received Feed-in Tariff payments of £2,025. We thus received £965 more than we spent, in effect contributing £2,681(cumulative £4,367) to payback on our original investment. The Trustees will continue to consider measures to save gas consumption and reduce the carbon footprint of the Hall.

We have reviewed our Health and Safety Policy and Risk Assessment, including fire risk assessment.

There were no serious incidents, such as loss of the Trust's money or assets, damage to the Trust's property, or harm to the Trust's work, beneficiaries or reputation, that require reporting to the Charity Commission.

Financial Report

The accounts for 2020/21 continue to show a healthy situation, despite the fact that the Hall has been closed for much of the year. The Trustees have decided to make no change to hiring charges for 2021/22.

The closure resulted in a drastic decrease in hiring income, from £55,483 in 2019/20 to only £5,029 in 2020/21. Fortunately, this has been off-set by Government grants, totalling £39,143, together with a business rates ‘holiday’ saving £1,920. We were also extremely grateful for a totally unexpected donation of £200 from The Mulberries.

Fortunately, expenditure has also reduced considerably, amounting to £41,720, compared with £60,925 in 2019/20.

The Trustees’ believe that reserves are needed to meet emergency situations such as this or unplanned building repairs and future improvements, and that the Trust should hold minimum unrestricted reserves of £30,000. In fact, the Trust currently has a cash balance of over £95,000. For the purposes of notional budgeting, we have set aside an Improvement Fund of £30,000 and £15,000 for future repairs and renewals.

More financial details are set out in the accounts.

George Booker became the Trust’s Honorary Treasurer in late 2011. Announcement of his retirement at the end of last financial year proved to be premature. The Trust's bank account was initially set up in 1998 before the trust deed was completed. We were given a “Community Account” at that time and only when the management of the account came to be transferred from George to our new Hon. Treasurer, Leonie Smith, did it transpire that the Trust has the wrong type of account and should be operating a “Trust Account”. This changeover required a mandate be signed by all the Trustees, and although this has been done the Bank has moved extremely slowly and has sent some of the documents back for amendment. This remained unresolved at the end of the financial year, making it impossible for Leonie to formally take over all the Treasurer's functions. She decided for personal reasons to withdraw from the role at the end of the financial year. We are

extremely grateful to her for all that she has done for the Trust, and that she and George have worked together through the year to keep the Trust's financial affairs in order.

Thank you

The Trustees would like to express their special thanks to Terry Reed, our caretaker and booking clerk, and his wife, Tracey. During the crises of the past year, they have kept hirers informed, ensured the Hall is Covid-safe, and carried out a lot of special cleaning and maintenance, as well as routine tests and caretaking. They are absolutely central to the operation of the Hall.

The Trustees gratefully acknowledge the help of many volunteers, especially George Booker and Leonie Smith, who have looked after our finances, and Carole Snodin, our Honorary Secretary.

All my fellow trustees willingly and freely give their time and efforts to ensuring the continued success of the Hall.

We are grateful for the loyalty of our users and hirers and look forward to welcoming them back as restrictions are eased in the year ahead.

PHILIP A. HEATH-COLEMAN Chairman 1 April 2021

i CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES

: Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner's Report

Report to the trustees/ members of | PASHAM ViuLAge HALL Thus On accounts for theendedyear 3 i[0?] /'202.(4 Charity(itany)|no 1770017 Respective The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. responsibilities of The charity's trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year trustees and examiner under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (the Charities Act) and that an independent examination is needed. It is my responsibility to: ¢ examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act, e to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act, and e to state whether particular matters have come to my attention. Basis of independent My examination was carried out in accordance with general Directions given examiner’s statement by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair’ view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below. Independent !n connection with my examination, no material matters have come to my examiner's statement attention (other than that disclosed below *) which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: e accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act or e the accounts do not accord with the accounting records | have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn 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. qualification(s)Relevant professional or(if bodyany): (]ifAAT Address: [[¢T THs HAllTOW LIV, 15 Alpwick ROAD, (02) IV

IER

December 2017

Section B

Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight 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.

IER

December 2017