LITTLE WENLOCK VILLAGE HALL
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT
2023
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Little Wenlock Village Hall Committee
Registered Charity No. 1080317
Trustees’ Annual Report
2023
Current Trustees
Mr George Chancellor Chair Mrs Sarah Bradley Secretary Mr Brian Churm Treasurer Mrs Sue Parsons MBE Vice-chair Mrs Hilary Betts Mr Howard Betts Mr Roy Parsons Mrs Lena Churm Mrs Louise Pennells Mrs Jennifer Espley Mrs Sharon Pickering Mr Martin Tromans Mrs Valerie Walton Mrs Louise Owen Mr Laurie Rose
Advised and supported by: Shropshire Community Resource Borough of Telford & Wrekin Little Wenlock Parish Council
Governance
Little Wenlock Village Hall was established as a charity by a Trust Deed in 1998. Built on the site of an ageing 1960s building, the current village hall was opened in August 2002.
The Charity’s primary responsibility is keeping the village hall – which it owns and runs – in a good state of repair and available for the community.
Since its establishment in 1986, the Charity has also managed Little Wenlock playing field on separate land under an informal agreement with its owners, Little Wenlock Parish Council.
Appointment of Trustees
Under the rules governing the appointment of Trustees and the management of the Charity, up to 10 Trustees are elected at the Annual General Meeting to serve for one year. In addition, each regular user group nominates one Trustee. The Trustees form the Management Committee which has the power to co-opt up to four members on an annual basis.
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Policies and Procedures
To guide the Committee in exercising its duty of care to members and users of the hall, the following policy statements have been adopted:
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Health & Safety Policy
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Child and Vulnerable Adult Protection Policy
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Fraud and Finance Policy
Hiring Agreement
Use of the village hall is subject to a hiring agreement which must be signed by hirers when booking. This agreement sets out the conditions of hire and identifies the respective responsibilities of each party to the agreement.
Local groups elect to pay for hire of the hall weekly, monthly or quarterly.
Licences
The hall has a Premises Licence (not including alcohol). Temporary Event Notices are applied for directly by users to Telford and Wrekin Council if alcohol is to be sold. The Committee is registered with Telford and Wrekin Council for small society lotteries, and the hall licensed by the Performing Right Society and PPL for live and recorded music.
Risk Management
The Committee recognises its legal obligation to protect the building, its users and any employees through adequate and appropriate insurance. Cover is currently provided by Covea Insurance through Insure Your Village Hall, as follows:
Buildings £654,000 Contents £24,000 Money & Personal Accident £250,000 Public & Product Liability` £10,000,000 Libel and Slander £250,000 Legal Expenses £1,000,000 Trustee &Directors Indemnity £100,000 Employers Liability £10,000,000
Building and Land Issues
The heating system and the gas cooker are tested by qualified personnel annually, with all portable electrical appliances tested bi-annually.
The mains electrical installation is checked by a qualified electrician every
three years.
The Emergency lighting is checked monthly by a committee member and annually by a qualified electrician.
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A Fire Safety Risk Assessment is updated annually by a designated Fire Safety Officer as required by law, and fire-fighting equipment is inspected annually under contract with the supplier.
Volunteers from the Committee carry out other regular maintenance checks.
Until early March - when Little Wenlock Parish Council took on full responsibility for its management – the playing field was checked weekly by a volunteer, with a quarterly report presented to the Committee and an annual inspection carried out independently by RoSPA.
Objectives of the Charity
The charity has two main linked objectives:
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Providing a village hall for the benefit of the inhabitants of the parish of Little Wenlock, without distinction of political, religious or other opinions.
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Using the hall for meetings, lectures and classes or other forms of recreation and leisure time occupation with the object of improving the social conditions of life for the parish’s inhabitants.
The Trustees consider these objectives to be consistent with Charity Commission guidance on providing public benefit.
To avoid any external doubt over its responsibilities following Little Wenlock Parish Council’s assumption of full management responsibility for the playing field, the Committee voted unanimously at its meeting of March 7, 2023 to revert to the Charity’s original name of Little Wenlock Village Hall Committee.
Principal Activities in Pursuit of Objectives
The hall is regularly used for a variety of activities including Indoor Bowls, Women's Institute, Amateur Radio Club, Lunch Club, Pilates, Yoga Fitsteps and Parish Council Meetings.
The Committee organises an annual Burns Night Celebration and Christmas Fayre (jointly with St Lawrence PCC) together with Flicks-in-the-Sticks, visiting theatre productions and quiz nights.
The hall is hired for private functions that include art classes, yoga, circle dancing, children’s parties, wedding receptions, christening parties, funeral teas, birthday parties, training events, cooking courses and village social functions.
Funding Strategy
The Trustees set out to manage the revenue budget on a self-financing basis and the contribution made by users of the hall are set to achieve this.
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2023 Activities & Achievements
Having recovered from the social impacts of the pandemic in 2022, the Village Hall, returned to its pre-COVID 19 functioning during the year, both in terms of use and the Committee’s work.
We held a full programme of community events – from the Burns Night in January, through spring and autumn seasons of Flicks-in-the-Sticks to the Christmas Fayre in December.
To celebrate the coronation of Charles III, we ran a highly successful village tea party over the special Bank Holiday weekend with small grant support from Telford & Wrekin Council. Some 150 residents – young and old – from across the parish joined in the afternoon event, with a further 70-plus attending a separately-run barn dance and supper the same evening.
In addition to making the hall available for an inter-Village Halls quiz involving around 40 teams, we revived the idea of a Little Wenlock quiz night in the autumn with an enthusiastic local quiz master and his team. This proved so successful that we are repeating the event in the spring and hope to make it twice-yearly.
Commercial bookings have stabilised, with the hall proving particularly popular for children’ parties. We are again seeing somewhat more interest from regular groups beyond the established yoga, WI, indoor bowls and lunch club usage. We hope this will translate into increased bookings in 2024.
Having clarified the ownership of the playing field, detailed discussions led us to formally hand-over all responsibility for its management to the Parish Council in early March. Several volunteers from our Committee joined the Working Party established by the Council to help plan its future and undertake non-professional maintenance work.
To reflect this change and re-emphasise our primary charitable objectives, we formally reverted to our original charity name at the same time, dropping the previous reference to Playing Field.
Following the ending of our fixed electricity tariff with EDF, we switched to a fixed rate annual contract with Octopus from the final quarter of the year, based on a reasonable quote, the guarantee of completely green electricity and the experience of several Committee members with the company.
While the costs are, unsurprisingly, considerably higher than our last fixed term tariff, moving to a green energy supply will further reduce our carbon footprint. Arrangements for the Feed-in-Tariff from our solar panels remain unaffected by this move, and we have been assured that we will continue to qualify for the reduced 5% VAT rate and remain exempt from the Climate Change Levy.
To address the issue of amplified music disturbance to a few residents in the immediate vicinity of the hall we installed an electronic noise control system towards the end of the year. While the settings remain to be fine-tuned, we hope the system’s ability to turn-off the power supply to the main hall temporarily (requiring a manual re-set) whenever a specific decibel level is reached for a designated period will prove a reasonable solution without putting-off potential hirers.
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Having explored various options for an EV charger, we continue to be in two minds over the advisability of installing it; not least as the community interest company that appears to be the best opportunity requires an extended commercial lease on the hall. A final decision on this has been deferred to early in 2024 and if we decide not to go ahead, the Telford & Wrekin Council grant (which remains held in restricted funds outside the main revenue account) will be returned.
All the usual routine inspections and maintenance were kindly organised and by Committee members, keeping the hall and its equipment in first class condition.
For the first year since 2020 we received no grant COVID grant support. Despite this and the substantial increase in the cost of our electricity, the annual accounts continue to show a small excess of income over expenditure for 2023.
As this excess as noticeably lower than 2022 and the full annul effect of our more costly electricity is still to be felt, we agreed to review our schedule of hire charges early in 2024. Our emphasis here will continue to be on maintaining sufficient revenue from external hirers to support the use of the hall by community groups at the lowest possible cost.
In managing and maintaining our fantastic facilities, we remain indebted to the voluntary efforts of too many Committee members and other individuals from the community to mention.
We would, however, particularly like to record our thanks for all their efforts to long-serving members, Heather Cooke, Diana Justham and Karen Sloan who stood down from our Committee during the year.
Looking Forward
Once again, we face another year of both opportunities and challenges in 2024.
Putting the management of the playing field in the hands of the Parish Council – where it, arguably, should always have been – has relieved us of the burden of supporting it out of hall income and will allow us to focus more of our time and effort on the hall itself.
This is particularly important as, moving well into its third decade, the fabric of the hall is requiring increasing attention and investment to maintain and improve.
In this context, we have committed a considerable sum to the complete resurfacing of the main hall floor, last undertaken 10 years ago, in 2024. That way its obvious wear will not compromise the sub-surface and result in even greater future costs.
While we may well not be installing an EV charging point, this does not mean our carbon-saving journey is at an end. Indeed, we are already exploring the feasibility and support available for adding to our solar panels and up-grading our battery storage system with technology that has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years.
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The trustees have approved this report.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees.
Signature …………………………………………………. Full Name George Chancellor Position Chair Date …………………………….
File: LWVH Trustees’ Report 2023
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SDH Accounting For all your Accounting and Audit solutions Principal Sue Hackett Grand Bam One Brandiston Norwich NRIO 4PJ E: unt Angd Little Wenlock Village Hall Committee 5 Manor Farm Manor Farm Al Telford TF6 5BZ 21 January 2024 Dear Brian, RE: LirrLE WENLOCK VILLAGE HALL & PLAYING FIELD COMMirrEE - INDEPENDENT EXAMINATION OF ACCOUNTS YEAR ENDED 3111212023 I can confirm that I have acted indeperKlently and carried out the an examination of the attached accounts armj presented documentation. The tests as described below SUPF3()rt my opinion inat the aCUnIS acCratelY refiect the cnarity's accouniing ath'vittes for the year. As per the Income & Expenditu account a surplus of £2.139 has bn reported for the year ended 31112123,. which when compared with last year's surplus £6,194 appears low; however this is satisfactorily explained below. A comparison betsveen 2023 and 2022 has bn made: Covid grants of £3,307 were received in 2022 and not in 2023. A T&W grant of £1,500 has been treated as a possible liabilty in 2023 as it is uncertain whether the Committee will be able to utilise it. It is therefore excluded from the Income & Expenditure Stalement and shown on the Balan Sheet only. Booking income in 2023, compared with 2022 remains faidy constant. However Electricity costs have notably increased by 175 % and water costs by 14 %. This seriously impacts on operating costs. but is to be expected in the current economic climate. Communrty events increased with Coronation activities. this is also refleed in Fundraising income and expendrture and donations to the PCC which substantially increasing in 2023. Capital expenditure in 2023 related to the purchase of a Noise Limrting System { £1,797),. which is shown in the Balan Sheet. Tests carried out during the examination induded: Verfying balanS per the Income & Expenditure Account to the General Ledger and tracing a sample of transadions from the General Ledger to SOU doojmentation and the bank account. which included a number of in year refunds of deposrts.
Similarly a sample of banking transactions have been trad to the General Ledger and supporting documentation. This supports the accuracy of the accounting system. It is pleasing to note that the General Ledger is routinely reconciled to the monthly bank statemenL A number of minor amendments have been necessary to the draft Income & Expenditure Account statements produced which have been fully discussed with yourself, these included the treatment of T&W grant £1,500 and capttal costs relating to the Noise Limrting System. Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch. I have attached a formal Independent Examiners Report for filing with the accounts to the Charity Comrnission,. On the accounts have been signed by yourself as Treasurer and presented to the Committee and formally approved. Yours sinrely, Ske HP.ckptt Sue Hackett Encl.. Final Accounts & Examiners Report: Invoice.