2024-06-30-accounts

Friends of Grange Hill Annual General Meeting Date: Monday 30 September 2024 Location: The Grange, Meols Drive, Hoylake Time: 19:30

Minutes

Opening remarks/welcome Chair Attendance As per register to be held by Secretary Apologies: Allan Bickerstaffe, Becky Bradbury Item 1 Minutes of prior year AGM 5 February 2024 Amendments – none received Proposed as a true record Judith Founds Seconded Sue Longman

In order to take a pragmatic approach to agreeing the minutes, the AGM minutes are circulated for agreement shortly after the AGM takes place. Any amendments are then made whilst things are able to be freshly remembered. The minutes are then formally approved in the next AGM, albeit largely as a formality (given they were already checked nearer the time).

Item 2

Matters arising (from previous meeting and/or minutes) Secretary There were no matters arising. Item 3 Chairman’s report (Appendix 2) Chairman Chairman summarised his report. Item 4 Secretary’s report (Appendix 3) Secretary Item 5 a) Treasurer’s Report (Appendix 4) Treasurer b) Re-Appointment of Independent Examiner of Accounts Treasurer

The remaining funds in the bank were discussed. It was noted that a significant amount of remaining funding has intended use for future projects (most notably the lighting and base to the monument).

Approval of accounts - Victoria Doran

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Seconded – Linda Trim

Re-appointment of Liz Webster was proposed by Derek Longman, seconded by Victoria Doran. We thank Liz for continuing to provide her services in examining our accounts each year.

Item 6

a) Fundraising Chairman b) Project update (Appendix 5) Alan Percy

Alan talked though his project report.

Item 7

Election of Trustees (see Appendix 1) Secretary

Appendix 1 notes the Trustees, who will appointed at a Trustee meeting, being held immediately after the AGM. There were no objections raised to this, in the AGM.

Item 8

Any other business Chair

Item 9

Date of next AGM To be announced

Note that the intention is to hold the AGM each September (on a Monday at the end of September), although our return to the Charity Commission is not due until each April (so we can delay, if needed).

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Appendix 1: Election of Trustees

The following Trustees have offered themselves for re-election.

In addition, we are looking for additional Trustees. No skills are required, just a willingness to attend meetings and support the general aims of the Friends.

Trustees proposed for re-election:

• Derek Longman

• Mark Chandler

• Judith Founds

• Alan Percy

• Allan Bickerstaffe

• Linda Trim

• Becky Bradbury (proposed to resign as Trustee with effect from today, 30/9/24, remaining a member of Friends of Grange Hill)

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Appendix 2: Chairman’s Report

Chairman’s Report 2024

Hello All and welcome to the FofGH AGM for 2024.

I can hardly believe that we have just passed the 12[th] Anniversary of the first public meeting at the Sea cades HQ in Grange Old Road that started the Friends of Grange Hill off. Our members and volunteers over those years have achieved so much. Particularly in the restoration of the local War Memorial and generally the improvements to Grange Hill itself.

None of the tasks and projects we have led and been so heavily involved in would have been possible without the immense amount of work the Trustees put in, the work of our volunteers and the support we have received from so many in the local community. All have attracted very positive comments from former locals now living in other parts of the country as well as far off places such as Canada and Australia.

For some years we have enjoyed unstinting support from Mr David Armstrong of Wirral Council. Mr Armstrong was a Deputy Director and through him our projects went from suggestions through holdups and on to completion. He also ensured we received great financial support from Wirral Council. We were very sad to see Mr Armstrong take his very deserved retirement earlier this year. Other voluntary groups as well as ours will vouch for his support and we wish him a long and happy retirement and hope he will be able to join us at the official dedication of the new lights for the war memorial.

This year as in the past there will be a report from our Projects Manager, Alan Percy. I am sure you will find his reports into our long running projects of great interest. We also have the Secretary’s and Treasurers report too.

Again, I thank all the Trustees for committing so much of their time to FofGH and the work it entails and of course our volunteers for all the work they do to improve Grange Hill. And ensure we have sufficient funds to carry out our works and in safety.

Within the next few weeks I hope to be able to secure some financial donations that will enable us to carry out more improvements within the Garden of Remembrance.

Finally, membership. I am glad to report that we are still gaining new members and enquiries. If you know anyone who wishes to join, applications can be sent to; [e-mail]

If you wish to make your membership payment via bacs? Please send payment to our Santander Account. Sort Code 09-01-29 Acc No. 02273716

Yours sincerely

Derek Longman

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Chairman FofGH

Appendix 3: Secretary’s Report

Secretary’s Report 2023

Membership;

• Our member numbers are stable at 85 (82 reported at the last AGM), with this reflecting a mix of new members – which is great, and some lapses of membership (which can be due to a range of circumstances). We are very grateful to all of our members who continue to support us, and pay the £5 annual membership which helps us to be able to do our work on the Hill. Thank you.

Volunteers and Trustees

• Volunteers: As we reach out more on social media, we are receiving much more frequent praise for the work carried out by the Friends and it is lovely to receive. We are also receiving regular face to face praise from our volunteer work on the Hill on Sunday mornings. We welcome volunteers of any age and the more volunteers we have, the more we can achieve. Our volunteer work normally occurs every other Sunday, meeting at the memorial at 9.30am, normally finishing about 11.30am.

• Trustees: We are actively looking for more trustees and would invite anyone who is interested in becoming a Trustee to get in touch with any of us, or through our website or Facebook page. We hold our Trustee meetings each month, at the Grange in Hoylake, on the first Monday of each month at 7.30pm and finish by 9pm.

Administrative and social media updates

• This year, we have not progressed our social media and website as well as in previous years, as we currently have no-one taking up this role. We would welcome anyone who has some skillset in this area to think about becoming a Trustee, or offering their help to us. Please approach any of the Trustees for further information, or let us know on Facebook. Our Facebook page – “Friends of Grange Hill”.

• We also welcome any charitable contributions which can be made through our website, Facebook, or you can donate at no cost to yourself, and support our charity through through “Easyfundraising” or “Amazon Smile” where you can purchase items online from leading retailers, and our charity receives a percentage of the purchase price, at no cost to yourselves.

• AGM timings – we are back on track with our usual September AGM, after the delayed AGM last year (held in February 2024), which was delayed owing to owing to the amount of work that was taking place pre-Christmas (the significant work on the memorial, as noted in the Chairman’s report).

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Mark Chandler

Secretary

Appendix 4: Treasurer’s Report

Friends of Grange Hill Treasurer's report - 2023-24

It is with pleasure I am able to provide a brief report on our accounts which run from 3 July 2023 to 3 July 2024.

We started July with a balance of £25,615.04 Add: Money received £37,127.88 Total income 2023/24 £62,742.92 Less: Expenditure for 2023/2024 -£23,032.40 Balance at 3[rd] July 2024 £39,710.52

Income

• We received £16,000 funding from Wirral Council. This was ring fenced for repairs to the memorial. WBC received copies of all payments made as a requirement.

• A final payment of £12,325 was received from the War Memorial Trust. The second and final payment of the £25,650 awarded.

• Alan Percy secured VAT repayments of £6,104.67 on invoices paid so far for repair works to the memorial.

• Subscriptions raised £400.

• Generous donations made by various people throughout the year raised £1,194,92. Many thanks to all who kindly donated.

• Shopping and choosing FofGH as chosen charity raised £20.24 from Amazon and EasyFundraising.

• Signing up for Gift aid added £53.75 to our funds.

• Money received from funding raising including Ashton Park tea room – during the summer holidays and a race night held in The Lake during November raised £958.06 after expenses of £71.24.

Expenses

• Grosvenor and Donald Insall were paid a total of £17,353.26 for works/repairs to the memorial

• A payment £4,982.40 was made to LITE for a mock trail and a deposit for lighting to the memorial

• £265.17 paid for our Annual public Liability Insurance

• Various further expenses totalled £431.57 as listed below.

The cash balance at the year end, includes funds earmarked for the memorial lighting works, and paving of the base of the memorial.

The attached accounts have been certified correct by our authorized auditor, Liz Webster. I trust the accounts are acceptable.

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Judith Founds Treasurer

Friends of Grange Hill Income and Expenditure 2022-23

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Appendix 5: Project Report

PROJECT REPORT - 2024

Monies from Memorials Trust

I judge we are still entitled to claim a refund for the VAT element of 6 invoices paid to Donald Insall Associates, and 1 invoice paid to Grosvenor Construction. The total claim to the Memorials Trust would amount to £2,207.39.

New Distribution Pillar

A space for the active equipment for the new webcam system was allocated in the pillar, and brackets have been made that provide for fixing these items in the( limited space) available.

New Resin Bonded Aggregate Pavement Surface around the Plinth

This will be laid by Alan J Griffiths Civil Engineering. Samples with a choice of colour are available for inspection. However a consensus is emerging preferring the aggregate material with a red finish.

Work will start on the new surface laying once the installation of the lights is complete.

New Lighting Scheme

We are close to being ready for the installation of the new lights!! We have taken delivery of most of the equipment required.

Two issues that still have to be addressed are as follows:

• i. CDM Regulations

• ii. Drainage

• (i) Before work can start, the site needs to be cordoned off and a nominated party takes responsibility for full compliance with the Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2015. The obvious candidates are Alan J Griffiths or Wirral Council. We need to have discussions with either/both to finalise this matter.

• (ii) In order to comply with the product warranty conditions for the light fittings, the manufacturer’s installation instructions must be closely followed. In relation to protecting the fittings from ingress of water there is a drainage test. One option is to put in a drainage pipe system below the level of each of the fittings. The other option is to carry out an “acceptance test” which requires a quantity of water to be poured into the voids created for each

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fitting, to see whether it drains away naturally within 30 minutes. If it does no further action is required. If it doesn’t, it will be troublesome and costly to provide pipes with a fall from each fitting to the nearest base edge (some of which will be below ground level).

CCTV Webcam System

We decided some time ago that we would go ahead with the webcam installation. All the equipment is to hand. It just needs installing, connecting up and commissioning.

Alan J Percy 28 September 2024

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