Vernon Institute (V.I.) - Charity No. 1156797
AGM – Chair’s Report - Tuesday January 13[th] , 2026
Comments: This report covers the period from November 2024 to December 2025 The Vernon Institute is known locally as the V.I.
Name of the Trustees of the Vernon Institute CIO for this period
Chris Harman – Chair Jenny Young – Vice Chair Peter Young – Secretary Harry Dobson – Treasurer Kay Parry Claire Nicholas
Governance
This report covers the period from November 2024 to December 2025.
The following trustees were re-elected as trustees at the January 2025 AGM – Chris Harman, Peter Young and Claire Nicholas.
The Trustees priority in the last year has been to finish off remedial works after the damp report from 2022 for the cottages and renovate Cottage 1 ready for reletting in June 2025.
Financial
Our accounts for the year ending 5[th] April 2025 showed a large loss of £8,207 and the treasurer’s report contains some highlights of the financials with a copy of the Charity accounts, which will be submitted to the Charity Commission before the end of January 2026. The accounts were independently audited by Dave Ash, and the Audit report is also included in the annual submission to the Charity Commission.
Reserves
We had to use £5,000 of the cash reserves to support the renovation of cottage 1 before reletting. We will replace this reserve as soon as our cash reserves allow. We also have capital of £100,158 invested in Charibonds.
Main VI Buildings
There were various maintenance jobs on the main buildings and car park costing us £12k in the last fiscal year.
Over the last year we have been investigating acoustic dampening for both halls at the Vernon Institute. We have at the end of 2025 been successful securing a National Lottery Community Fund Grant which will enable us to move forward early in 2026 with this project.
Property
The management of the four cottages is provided by Teal Estates, who manage the tenant relationship, maintenance, and legalities on all our properties. The last year has been busy with the tenants in cottage 1 leaving in April. Teal Estates managed the contractors needed to prepare the property for reletting turning the whole project around in 2 months securing a new tenant by June and reducing the lost rental revenue. We also had a change of tenant in no 2 which Teal Estates managed for us.
The main expenses on the other cottages in the last year were a new boiler in cottage 2 and work to the kitchen and bathroom in cottage 3.
Vernon Institute AGM – Chairs Report 2024-25
1 | P a g e
Land
The Vernon Institute own the recreational land at CH1 6HH known as the Seahill Playing Field and this continues to be leased and used by Saughall Colts Junior Football Club. They continue to make significant investment in improvements to the grounds completing the new perimeter fencing. They have also applied, with our permission, for funding from the Football Foundation to erect a club and changing rooms on our land. There are now over 400 children as members of the club, and there is continued growth in the number of girls joining the club and they now are with supporting older age groups with walking football.
Development Plans 2024-25
The development plans in the last year focused on completion of the work from the damp reports in 2022. This work was completed by middle of 2025. We also were fortunate that the Sandy Bears Forestry Preschool took on the project to reclaim the back of the carpark as a contained safe outdoor space for the children. We also had InPost lockers installed in the carpark bringing in some additional revenue for the charity.
In the next year we will be looking to complete the acoustic dampening project and some outstanding cottage improvements.
Vernon Institute AGM – Chairs Report 2024-25
2 | P a g e
Bookings
The Hallmaster booking system continues to be a great tool to manage our bookings and invoicing for the hall hire along and provides useful management information. The bookings/sessions over the last year are up by 19 (2%) on the same period last year.
Personnel
The caretakers continue to make the VI a clean and safe environment for our users. They provide support completing many minor repairs during the year. Again, we have had positive customer comments on the quality of our venue. I extend the thanks of the Trustees to both Peter Durose and Debbie Harris for their continued commitment to the VI.
Management Committee
I would like to thank the management committee members for their support. The Vernon Institute is all about being a place for the local community and the continued support of the many affiliated groups using the Vernon Institute enables us to meet our charity’s objective.
Trustees
We will only have 5 Trustees as of the AGM as Peter Young will be standing down as a trustee as he no longer meets the requirement of living in Saughall. After over 14 years of working with Peter, I and the other trustees want to extend our thanks for his great work leading the transformation of the management of the Vernon Institute to a CIO, the great work on the building refurbishment project and his impeccable work as the charity’s secretary.
As Chair I would like to thank all my fellow Trustees for their support and advice with the management of the Vernon Institute and special thanks to Claire and Kay for organising the Xmas events again.
Prepared by Chris Harman
Cjharman
Chair of the Vernon Institute
Vernon Institute AGM – Chairs Report 2024-25
3 | P a g e
| Charity Name | No (if any) | No (if any) | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Section A Receipts and payments Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Endowment funds Total funds to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ A1 Receipts Receipts and payments accounts Period start date Period end date To For the period from 06-Apr-24 05-Apr-25 ee e ee |
Last year to the nearest £ CC16a |
|||||||||||||||
| Hire of Hall | 19,412 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 19,412 | 19,412 | 32,123 | 32,123 | |||||
| Dividends & Interest | 5,086 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5,086 | 5,086 | 4,894 | 4,894 | |||||
| Property Rental & Café | 40,356 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 40,356 | 40,356 | 35,159 | 35,159 | |||||
| Parish Council Grant | 5,000 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 | |||||
| Fund Raising / Donations | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 190 | 190 | |||||
| Pre School Rental | 7,724 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7,724 | 7,724 | - | - | |||||
| Car Park & Sports Field | 1,843 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1,843 | 1,843 | 1,475 | 1,475 | |||||
| Sundry | 622 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 622 | 622 | - | - | |||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) |
AR) 80,043 |
- | - | - | - | - | - | 80,043 | 80,043 | 78,841 | 78,841 | |||||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). - - - - - - - - - Sub total - - - - - Total receipts 80,043 - - 80,043 78,841 A3 Payments ————~~——~~ |
||||||||||||||||
| Wages & Taxes | 39,817 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 39,817 | 39,817 | 32,763 | 32,763 | |||||
| Utilities | 7,869 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7,869 | 7,869 | 5,724 | 5,724 | |||||
| V.I.Repairs | 11,906 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 11,906 | 11,906 | 7,426 | 7,426 | |||||
| Cottage Repairs & Maintenance | 13,116 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 13,116 | 13,116 | 5,024 | 5,024 | |||||
| Capital Expenditure | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6,557 | 6,557 | |||||
| Hall Insurance | 3,930 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3,930 | 3,930 | 3,817 | 3,817 | |||||
| Agent Mgmt Fees | 3,882 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3,882 | 3,882 | 3,819 | 3,819 | |||||
| Gain on Investments | - 854 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - 854 | - 854 | - | - | |||||
| Misc.Expenditure | 8,584 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8,584 | 8,584 | 17,076 | 17,076 | |||||
| **Sub total ** | 88,250 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 88,250 | 88,250 | 82,206 | 82,206 | |||||
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) - - - - - - - - Sub total - - - - - Total payments 88,250 - - 88,250 82,206 Net of receipts/(payments) - 8,207 - - - 8,207 - 3,365 A5 Transfers between funds - - - - - A6 Cash funds last year end - - - - - Cash funds this year end - 8,207 - - - 8,207 - 3,365 ————~~——~~ =====>> |
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
08/01/2026
1
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B1 Cash funds |
Details M&G Charibonds M&G Charifunds Blackrock Charinco Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Co-operative Current Account Co-operative Deposit Account Petty Cash Details CCLA Charity Details Vernon Institute Cottages 1-4 Furniture Green Lane Field School Fence Cottage Fence Details Signature |
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ 6,709 - 20,636 - 94 - 27,439 - Agreement Error OK Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) Perm - Perm - Perm - Perm - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) Perm - Perm - Perm - Perm - Perm - Perm - - - - Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) - - - - - Print Name |
Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | |||
| OK | |||
| Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - - - - Current value (optional) 31,236 42,440 15,967 10,495 - Current value (optional) 850,000 850,000 3,474 25,000 2,333 3,321 - - - When due (optional) Date of approval |
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
08/01/2026
2
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report The Vemon Institute, Church Road. Saughall, GH16AN truste68 Report to 31 March 2025 Charity no (rf any) 1156797 On accounts for the year ended Set outon pages I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (Xhe TTusf) for the year ended 30 103 12025. As the tharivs trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in aGcordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (llhe Acr). Responsibilities and basis of report I report in respeci of my examination of the Trusys accounts carried out under sectton 145 of trie 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 theAct. Independent charity's gross income exceeded £250,000 and l am qualified to examinerfs statement undertake the examinatton. I have completed my examination. I confinn that no material matters have corne to my attentton in o)nneGtion with the examination (other than that disclosed below ") which gives me cause to believe that in. any material respect" the accounting records were kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act. or the accounts did accord with the accounting records. or the accounts did comply wth the applicable requirements conceming the fomi and content of accounts set out in the Chartties (Accounts and Rewrts) ReguEations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a Xrue and fair, view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no COnmS and have Gome across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention shoukl be drawn in this report in order io enable a proper untsr5tandln9 of the aGunts to be reaGh¢d. Date: 14 October 2025 Signed:
Vernon Institute Independent Examiners notes tax year ended 5 April 2025 I ntroduction
The accounts were presented in an easy to follow format with an encompassing memory stick which enhanced the method of examining the accounts . Having previous had experience of a charity commission audit, and having to file the annual report, I obtained their guidelines, bearing in mind this was not a complete audit, just an independent examination of accounts. I have previously examined the Vernon Institutes account, and found them to be true and accurate. I took a selection of various aspects of the accounts to perform selected checks.
First Impressions
The accounts were extremely well set out and the inclusion of the accounts in electronic data assisted in assessing that accounts were in good order.
The method of payments i.e. cash, cheque, direct debit was clearly itemised.
Ideally cash and cheques should be a thing of the past, which would make the treasurers job easier, but taking into account it can be difficult to get some people to change their habits, the method involved in dealing with this problem has been dealt with in a clear and accurate way.
Wages
I did not perform a full check, only a few months, which were correct. Holiday pay and year to date figures were not included on pay advices, unfortunately this possible comes with the payroll software.
The employees were paid above the minimum wage.
The other reports were comprehensive and were easy to follow.
General Documentation
General documentation was good with plenty of computerised reports to assist in balancing the accounts. A scroll report covering the period of examination was included which simplified the interrogation of the accounts.
Having the accounts on a memory stick made the examination easiery.
Overall Recommendations
The main area of concern would be cash and cheque reconciliation, as this is a minor irrational, there is no overall concern, with the accounts demonstrating that the Charity is run in good and professional manner..
More sections are now paying directly into the Vernon Institute bank account, the remainder were possible should be also encouraged to avoid cash and cheques, which would avoid cash and cheque reconciliation, and hopefully less work for the treasurer.
==> picture [496 x 46] intentionally omitted <==
Dave Ash Independent examiner 14 October 2025