Hibaldstow Village Hall Annual General Meeting.
Trustee Report 2025
Committee
The Village Hall Committee continued largely unchanged from that which took over the management of the hall in late 2021, however 2025 saw Phil King step
down from the committee as he heads off for retirement in South Africa. Phil is thanked for his significant contributions over the years.
We also welcome Brian Clegg to our group and thank him for throwing himself into the role. Brian arrives with extensive experience working with the FA in Yorkshire and will be a valuable member as we seek to develop the football pitches. The committee membership stands at 10, plus our Parish Council nominee, David Stothard. As always there remains space for more, for anyone who wants to get involved.
Hall Usage
The hall and playing fields continue to grow in usage with several local agencies and businesses using the hall as a meeting venue. This includes The Redbourne Centre, Brigg Power station and the Environment Agency amongst others. In addition, we now have three male, one female and one under 9s football team making our field their home base, in addition to our other groups using the hall and facilities on a regular basis.
The panto group brought us Little Red Riding Hood in 2025 and the panto events are becoming quite a highlight of the winter months in Hibaldstow. A summer and a Christmas production are planned for 2026.
All this activity has meant that hall space is now at a premium most days and the village is maximising use of its community asset.
Events
Increasing public use of the hall in 2024 has reduced the frequency and need for the hall to put on events, it is worth repeating that our primary purpose is to provide a quality venue for people in the village to use. We are getting to the point where time in the hall is at a premium as more groups come in. Nevertheless, if people want some sort of club or society or event then the hall committee will help and assist in any way it can, but they will always need a champion from the community to take the lead whom we can support. The upside of all this activity is that hall finances are stable and we have been able to hold prices for 2026.
Developments
Over the last year we have seen several improvements to the hall, some have been funded by grants, some by the 200 Club, some in partnership with hall users, some in co‐operation with the Parish Council and some from our own funds. In 2025 These included:
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New CCTV cameras are to be purchased with help from Merlin Renewables
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A grant for installation of new additional solar battery capacity to reduce our energy bills
courtesy of Northern Powergrid and support from the parish council to install heating timers. Both of these are making a significant difference to heating costs
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Replacement goals for the main pitch with support from the PC and 200 club.
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The parish council has secured funding to enable the tennis court to be converted to a multi use games area (MUGA) The committee are currently working to develop a tennis and racquet club in 2026 to maximise use of this asset.
Future Developments
We continue to work with the Parish Council and Local Authority to develop plans for improving the changing rooms and sports facilities which are currently not fit for purpose. This is a significant investment and will not happen overnight, so please be patient. The village hall committee continues to work with the parish council to make this a success.
Finances: See appendix 1 & 2
. The committee agreed that the hire rates as they currently stand are covering operating costs and following last year’s increase, no further increase is necessary in 2025, noting that we will insist on a minimum 3 hour hire for parties
Constitution
At the January 2024 AGM we passed agreement to adopt a new constitution. The current one is very old, has some restrictions that are no longer necessary, leaves trustees with some personal liability and actually discourages people to join the committee (as it states that committee members have to be charity trustees). We are looking to finalise moving to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) during the coming year. This is the recommended method for setting up charities like ours following changes in charity law a few years ago. It divorces the role of Charity Trustee from the day‐to‐day operation of the charity and will give us more flexibility in operation. This is now with the Charity Commission and we await confirmation in Spring 2026
Future Events
We are always keen to hear from anyone with ideas and enthusiasm for new activities in the hall or on the playing fields. For example, we have been asked to consider reinstating the Flower & Vegetable Show which the gardening club ran successfully in years gone by. However, this needs the support of some willing volunteers, so if this is something you can help with, or have any other exciting ideas, please be sure to come forward and let us know!
Similarly, with the gala, we need more to get involved, so please let us know if you can help out with the planning, or on the day itself. We simply do not have enough people to put an event on as it stands. Members are welcome to join the committee permanently or for specific events, whichever you prefer.
Finally, as we progress with the improved facilities for sports, our venue has the potential to develop still further as one of the leading facilities in the area. For example, tennis, basketball, croquet, table tennis, walking football, walking netball are all on the radar as potential new activities for local groups, so don’t be shy in coming forward with ideas to support these, or any other activities. If it crosses your mind, make sure it crosses ours as well and we look forward to hearing from you!