## **Lea Singers** 

Annual Report and Financial Statements 

## Year Ended **31st July 2023** 

## Registered Charity: 1099155 

Page: 1 



## **Lea Singers** 

Financial Statement for year ending 31st July 2023 

|**Contents**|**Page**|
|---|---|
|**Legal and Administrative Details**|**2**|
|**Trustees Report**|**3**|
|**Review of Activities**|**3**|
|**Independent Examiner's Report**|**6**|
|**Income and Expenditure for the Year Ended 31st July 2023**|**7**|
|**Balance Sheet as at 31st July 2023**|**8**|



## **Legal and Administrative Details:** 

1. Registered Address: 50 Stewart Road, Harpenden, AL5 4QB 

2. Charity Registration Number: 1099155 

3. Key personnel and advisors: 

   - a. Co-Chair: Karen Cardy & Miriam McKay 

   - b. Treasurer: Emily Lawrence 

   - c. Marketing: Maddie Hardman 

   - d. Secretary: Karen Cardy & Miriam McKay 

   - e. Librarian: Penelope Ward 

   - f. Committee Member: Barry Flutter 

4. Independent Examiner: Michael Timmins 

5. Musical Director: Benjamin T. Kirk 

6. Bankers: HSBC Bank 

Page: 2 



## **Trustees Annual Report and Accounts Financial Year 1st August 2022 to 31st July 2023** 

The Trustees are pleased to present their report together with the financial statements for the year ended 31st July 2023. 

## **Principal activity and objectives** 

The charity is governed by the rules laid down in a formal constitution. The trustees are selected from members of the Choir and conferred by the members at the Annual General Meeting. 

The main objectives of the charity are to provide: 

- Entertainment to the public by way of a varied programme of concerts and other performances 

- Education, by hosting events with guest educators 

- Enjoyment to the membership through rehearsals and other social activities 

The charity maintains Banking facilities with HSBC Bank. The Bank Accounts have been maintained in credit throughout the year. 

## **Financial Results** 

The financial statements for the year to 31 July 2023 are set out on pages 7 to 8. The net result for the year was a surplus of £1,043.08 (2022: surplus of £1,558.28). 

The Trustees are satisfied with the results for the year and that adequate resources exist to meet the charity’s day to day financial needs. 

The choir is very grateful to the Williams Church Music Trust for its continuing financial support, particularly at this difficult time for the arts. 

Page: 3 



## **Review of Activities** 

We increased our annual subscription this year from £300 to £330 after several years keeping it the same. Several expenses have increased this year including fees we pay our Musical Director, plus cost of hiring venues, travel and cost of professional musicians. We expect these to continue to rise next year. 

We decided to try a new concert format this year which we called **Choral Discoveries.** The idea is to bring music that is not often performed to audiences in a short, accessible format. Each concert is around one hour, and we perform without an interval. 

Our first concert of the 2022/2023 season was in November at Our Lady of Lourdes in Harpenden. This was our first proper concert with our new Musical Director, Benjamin Kirk. The audience was small, but the costs were kept low and it was a good start to our musical collaboration. We made a loss of £330. 

Our Christmas concert FestiveLea was back to its pre-Covid audience. In the new Harpenden venue, the Eric Morecambe Center, again this year. We had a very good audience and made a profit of £1,900. 

For our Spring concert we returned to the Lady Chapel at St Albans Abbey. This always has a good audience and is a lovely venue to sing in. We decided to record this as we were performing some little performed pieces. This concert made an overall loss of £2,300, due to the cost of lighting and recording. 

We tried a new venue for our summer concert, The Palladian Church at Ayot St. Lawrence. This was a small venue which we filled. This represented the final concert of the season for our Choral Discoveries programme. This concert broke even. 

We commissioned a new piece of music this year from Kim Porter at a cost of £2,000. £500 of the cost of this was covered by grants from Harpenden’s town twinning associations, Friends of Alzey and Friends of Cosne. We will perform this piece in November 2023 at a concert to celebrate these town twinning relationships. 

Large expenses for this year were: 

1. Music Scores - nearly £1,000 

2. Marketing costs - over £3,000. This includes publicity and promotion, two sets of choir photographs, and the recording of the Spring concert. 

3. Programme costs - £1,125 - but income was £1,006- so these largely cover their costs as long as we can keep selling advertising. 

4. Bank charges are relatively high, we will look into finding a new bank next year with lower charges. 

5. Deputy singers - £585 

Page: 4 



We received nearly £4,000 in grants this year: £3,000 from The Williams Church Music trust, £500 from the town twinning associations, and £375 in donations to support our intern scheme. 

## **Charity Donations** 

We donated £1,321 to charities. £370 was raised for Harpenden Child Contact Centre in November, £1,060 was raised for the Harpenden Trust at the Christmas concert, and £552 to British Ukraine in Spring. 

## **Reserves Policy** 

The choir retains sufficient reserves to cover major concert risks such as cancellations and to provide working capital to cover the costs of concerts incurred in advance of concert income. 

We have an M&G Charifund investment of £5,263, £5,318 is in a savings account and the remainder is held as cash on deposit with HSBC. 

## **Approval** 

The Annual Report and Accounts were approved by the Trustees on 30th August 2023. Signed on behalf of all the Trustees. 

Emily Lawrence **Treasurer** 

Page: 5 



## **Report of the Independent Examiner to the trustees and members of The Lea singers, registered Charity number 1099155** 

I have examined the Income and Expenditure Account and Balance Sheet of The Lea Singers on pages 7 and 8 relating to the year ended 31st July 2023. 

## **Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner and basis of report** 

The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’). The charity's trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Act and that an independent examination is needed. 

I report in respect of my examination of the Lea Singers’ 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 giving me cause to believe that in any material respect: 

1. Accounting records were not kept in respect of the Charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or 

2. The accounts do not accord with those records; or 

3. The accounts do 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. 

## **Independent Examiner** 

Name: Anthony Michael Timmins Signature: Date: 23 September 2023 

Page: 6 



Income & Expenditure:
The Lea sIr￿tr$. Income & Expendltwe
Sub5Cri
tion5
MO Rehearsal fees
r*st lees
Rehearsal Ven￿ hire
Tt)tsI
£7,944.(M)
-£6,i39.LK)
.£150 (X)
-£2,082.20
-£8.771.20
4827.20
com
Totsl
Aurumn
FestiYLea
-£331.86
£1,913.03
-£2.326.99
£66.91
£250.iXI
-£690.67
5umw*r
Cathedral Weekend- E
Cathedral WeekEnd- St Da￿d5
T*x•I
41119.5•
rtht Income
£8,467.fA>
£8.244.C
£3,955.C
Sub5Cri
tknnts
Cathedral subs
PAfvertisin
Pro
ramme C
Online fufidfa￿n
Tax Rebate
Friend5
Music libra k)•nsto Oth￿ th￿IS
Music sales to choir members
DNidend5
Other
tion5
£i,W6.(X)
£40.
£273.69
08.
£230.
£102.50
£80.44
£307.04
£133.41
£1.321.62
Collectio
of debt
ous
written down
Trtal
fMpehditsr*
Concert Cosis
Rehearsal costs
ramme Print)n
mU￿C libra
Mu*c libra
urchases
Muyc Purchases for sale to Choir
Maknn
m￿￿C sthcri tion and in5ur3n
£8,036.75
£8.771.20
£1.125.75
91.
5t0
E980.92
144.99
£186.(Xl
comodation
Gifts
8ank Char
Sund Station
Chari
donation
MD tommitteo attefidartecosts
Markettn
& Publici
orher
£670.C(I
£62.58
E71.04
£125.70
£1.321.40
334.28
E3.164.95
E141.16
£25.1￿.?2
-£499.30
Total eXpend￿re
Charifund *Y)rth
surplus1d•fklt
fL043X
Page.. 7

Balance Sheet:
The Lea Slryers
forth• perlodlye•r •nd•d
2022.2023
2021-2022
FUNDS
Funds at beginning of the year
SurpluslDeficit for the year
£14.951.67
£1,043.08
£13,393.39
£1.558.28
£15 994.75
£14.951.67
REPRESENTED BY
Bank and cash
Current account
Deposit account
Tatsl bank & osh
£5,947.35
£5 318.87
£1
266.22
£7,596.97
£5,281.95
£1187&92
Charifund investm•nts (cost £6JXXI)
Charifund than8e
£5 263.55
-£499.30
£S,762AS
Debtors and prepayments
Toial debtors
£1869.00
£107.17
£107.17
Music books
£94.L
£1.92
£95.98
£94.06
Cash
Tatal
£94.06
£IVX75 £IV43.00
Uabilitl•s
£383.LKI
Subs fry Ely
£2.500.fy) £2.96833
TUtAL UABILMES
£3￿133
TOTAL FUNDS
£15 994.75
£14.951.67
Registered Charity Number 1099155
Page.. 8