2022-12-31-accounts

HDCC Treasurers Report - End of Year 2022

Hadlow Down Community Centre

31 December 2022

Figures are given for the period

Figures are given for the period		01/01/2022	to	31/12/2022
Assets/Liabilities:-		Current a/c	Cash in
	Date	CAF Bank	Hand	Total
Balances at:-	01/01/22	10,076.96	134.00	10,210.96
Balances at:-	31/12/22	14,345.54	310.00	14,655.54
Gain/(loss)for the period		4,268.58	176.00	4,444.58

Income:-

Income:-
Donations	475.39 Includes Pub Quiz donations
Grants	0.00
Lottery	2208.00 Ticket sales
Fund Raising	1024.95 Spring Market and Christmas Market takings
Race night	2406.83 Takings
Sales	0.00
Gift Aid	162.25 From HMRC
Bank Interest	12.12
Other	2778.75 Transfers to/from Cash/Bank
Total Income	9068.29
Expenditure:-
Surveys	0.00
Race night	871.87 Expenses
Fees	21.00
Publicity	18.35
Lottery	721.00 Lottery prizes
Bank Charges	99.54 Monthly fees, pay-in charges and cheque fees
Gifts	98.00
Office Expenses	15.20
Other	2778.75 Transfers to/from Cash/Bank
Total Expenditure	4623.71
Income – Expenditure gain/(loss)	4,444.58
Assets gain/(loss)	4,444.58
Notes:
Lottery profit (for period)	1,487.00
	J. D. Thompson (Treasurer)
	31 December 2022

Page 1 of 1

Hadlow Down Community Centre

Chair’s Report

At the last AGM I set out the priorities to be addressed during 2022. They were as follows:-

• 1) Marketing Plan – this was to include a pricing structure and promotion of the community centre within and outside the parish.

• 2) Fund Raising Plan

• The first task was to check if the funding priorities of the various grant providers that we had identified had changed. There was evidence that the impact of the pandemic had led to some agencies to concentrate more on the alleviation of the effects of Covid, particularly in deprived areas and for people facing significant hardship. Secondly, we would continue to try to identify other potential sources of funding. Third, we would be guided by advice and oversight of a professional fundraising consultant who assists voluntary, community organisations in fast track major donor and other income opportunities as well as enabling them to develop approach strategies and to produce a major donor strategy to identify and secure long term relationships with major donors ensuring significant levels of funding.

• 3) Local fund-raising

We planned to hold two local events in the near future – firstly, a Race Night in April and secondly a Boot Fair at Tinkers Park towards the end of June.

So, how did we do? To be brutally honest with you, not great and as chair, I take full responsibility for that. Deterred by the spiralling costs of construction materials that happened on a weekly basis, there seemed little point in attempting to finalise a Business Plan that would require regular revision. Since the final quarter of 2019,

such costs have risen 32% and a more accurate cost of building our new hall is nearer £2 million!! At the same time, upon checking the funding priorities of various grant providers, our research revealed a very worrying and challenging situation. Many charitable trusts that ordinarily provide funding to charities and voluntary organisations engaged in capital projects such as ours, re-aligned their funding priorities to support Covid alleviation within communities. The following is one of many examples:- Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) launched a £5m Coronavirus Emergency Fund in March 2020 to help smaller charitable organisations in the UK affected by the impact of COVID-19. Grants of up to £10,000 were available to support charities core costs, staffing, volunteer costs, supplies and equipment, communications or other critical charitable areas. It received nearly 5,000 applications in just eight days. Naturally, those charities that continue with their traditional priorities are dealing with a greater number of applications. One final example if I may:- in March 2020, Sport England suspended its Community Asset Fund in order to target such resources to its Covid emergency response. This finding programme has not been reinstated and so, for the foreseeable future, the possibility of securing a grant of £50k has alluded us. Given the uncertainty and increasing enormity of our fund-raising task, we recognised that securing the required funds might not be achieved within the duration of our planning consent. We were granted a five year consent back in June 2019 and therefore it will expire at the end of May 2024 – in barely 15 months.

We recognised that valuable time had been lost due to the pandemic and an opportunity to make our case to Wealden planners presented itself in April when Stacey Robins, Head of Planning and Environmental Services attended a meeting with the Parish Council. I took the

opportunity to ask him if the ‘lost’ time of 18 months to 2 years could be re-instated. Much to my surprise, he was very supportive of our situation and saw no problems and simply requested that I write to him setting out the circumstances. Seven months later and after several phone calls and emails, still no response. Finally, after intervention by Michael, eventually we did get a reply at the end of January but not one that we had either expected or wanted to hear. To be brief, we would have to submit a fresh application. Very quickly it became clear to us that the time we had left would be insufficient to secure the funding we required.

With regard to securing the support, advice and guidance from a fund-raising consultant, Sarah has met with this person and he has agreed to act as a mentor and critical friend advising on the applications that we intend to submit and making us aware of both charitable and corporate funding opportunities.

Yes, we did manage to hold our Race Night and in spite of Covid and its restrictions, roughly fifty people attended and we made a respectable profit of £2000 plus.

Our priorities for 2023

To:-

• 1) carry out a new survey of parishioners in order to demonstrate a continuing need for a new hall. It will be crucial when applying for funding that there is both a demonstrable need and support within our community as well as relevance as far as when the survey was conducted. I can’t believe that the last one was conducted in 2011.

• 2) re-appraise our strategy with regard to the construction of the new hall and consider a phased approach e.g. the building of the main hall as Phase 1 and the sports accommodation as Phase 2.

• 3) consider the options available to us in terms of planning consent and resolve the matter urgently.

• 4) ensure that all planning conditions are resolved by beginning of May.

• 5) Secure ‘extant’ planning permission. Put simply this will require us to undertake some limited works on site to commence a planning permission and thus keep it alive. We will not need to submit a fresh planning application and pay the fees of £5800 to the planning authority.