Chair’s Report to the Annual General Meeting
13th November 2025
Dear Member,
Introduction
I am pleased to be delivering this report to you for 2025.
This report first reviews Broadheath Community Association activity prior to reviewing activity related to our main asset, Broadheath Community Hall.
In the past year, Broadheath Community Association (BCA) and Broadheath Community Hall (BCH) has continued to be managed by five Directors who:-
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Meet once per month as a group to formally discuss standing items regarding each Director’s ongoing areas of responsibility
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Manage ongoing issues related to BCA and BCH matters
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Deal with operational matters between formal meetings via a WhatsApp group
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Ensure a Hall open and closing rota is delivered to support one-off bookings
As in 2024, the main priorities for BCA Directors have been to focus on running BCH. While consistently meeting the requirements within the BCA Articles of Association, it has been difficult to plan more strategically against these and it is likely that for at least another year, BCA’s Directors will remain in operational mode (i.e. focussed on the running of BCH). It is hoped that with recruitment of additional Directors, plus a number of new volunteers, we can become more strategic in working for our community.
Broadheath Community Association (BCA) Updates
BCA Events - past year
7 th Anniversary - Broadheath Community Hall.
It is now seven years since BCH opened. We celebrated this anniversary in August, which, once again, was a great success. There were bouncy castles, side shows, donkey rides, free ice creams and refreshments and a plentiful number of games and activities available both inside and outside the Hall. Some two hundred people attended including the Mayor of Trafford and her Consort. Feedback about the event has been very positive.
Carol Concert
A fourth Carol Concert was organised in December 2024. Again, Sale Salvation Army Band provided music for the concert and the Choir of Broadheath Primary School led the singing.
Sadly, we will not be holding a concert this year, due to being unable to obtain a date in which all parties are available. We will look forward to holding the carol concert next year.
Additional Work
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All required returns and verifications for our business model are up to date (such as ICO; Company House; Charity Commision).
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BCA remain part of Broadheath Partnership Group.
In Progress / Planning
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Directorship Development Initiative.
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BCH Birthday event August/September 2026.
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●BCA are in the process of joining Cheshire Community Action who are our regional ACRE support network representatives.
BCA Leadership
Director Roles
After the AGM for 2024, and since, no new Directors have been added to the existing group, and without nominations received for new Directors for this AGM in 2025, the group number will remain at five.
We clearly need to increase the number of Directors for BCA in order to meet our broader objectves and are having difficulty doing that while it can be perceived that the role seems more related to the day to day management of BCH than our wider objectives.
We hope to be able to address this over the next 12 months by scoping and offering a Director in Development role for members who may wish to support the objectives of BCA but are unsure what this could mean or whether to commit.
The aim is for these roles to come with mentoring, plus personal objectives related to the BCA objects or the governance of BCH. Please let me know if you would like to express an interest in this.
Broadheath Community Hall Update
Management and Maintenance
As an existing member, you’ll be aware that BCH is not a local authority-managed community centre and therefore the BCA Director group continues to act as the BCH management group. In the past year we have:-
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Continued to maintain the high standards of upkeep within the hall, by continuing to deploy the services of local tradespeople as there are constant jobs to be undertaken.
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Secured time from a local business to ensure the surrounding grounds are maintained.
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Increased the space for hall users by adding 2 storage boxes outside.
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Replaced foyer furniture.
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Purchased our own Karcher floor cleaner to improve the surface of the hall floor.
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Complied with all service checks that are required (such as alarms; PAT testing; gas certificate) are complete.
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Renewed all required licences (such as insurance; PPL/PRS).
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Replaced front door locks and a french window pane due to wear & tear.
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Replaced main hall blinds with thermal ones to prevent heat loss in the winter & keep heat out in the summer.
Hall Usage - Operational Review
Hall Users
We continue to have long-term group users:-
Daytime - Pre-school for 2 to 4 year old children; Foot Respect offers a regular clinic schedule; a Tuesday Walking Group and a Friday Friendship Group. There are also 2 weekend meditation groups. We also have a new regular booking of Arabic Classes at the weekend.
Evenings - Zumba, Kettles, Danceworks Altrincham, Scouts, Beavers, Cubs and SlimmingWorld.
Local councillor surgeries and resident’s group meetings are also regularly held.
A range of one-off weekend bookings continue to be made. These range from birthday parties and family get-togethers to membership-led events celebrating Eid, Diwali and Chinese New Year.
The Hall has also continued to be used as a polling station. This has brought in extra income and, at the same time, has reached members of the local community who may not have visited the Hall or known about the activities that take place. It has since been agreed that the Hall will again be performing this function in May 2026.
Hire Charges
BCA has maintained charges without increase for five and a half years since its opening. However as stated in last year’s annual report the directors needed to review fees due to increased running costs. In April this year, the hourly hire rate was increased by 10%, but still maintained the differential between community and regular rates. Subsidies continue for the Walking and Friendship Groups, with no charges being made.
A change that we have had to incorporate into booking information is that we now are required to report the purpose of all bookings within our annual PPL/PRS Music Licence Assessment.
Cleaning Services
In late 2023, we changed the cleaning contractor to a local company, and we use a local company for window cleaning services. Both contractors continue to be used.
Fuel Contracts
These have been reviewed and new contracts have been negotiated.
While gas bills are similar to previous years, we need to report to our membership that:-
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electricity bills are now significantly higher than in previous years, even within a capped contract (@£350 per month).
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water bills, particularly for sewage water are high (@£170-220 per month).
Hall Usage - Strategic Planning
In 2024, Directors set goals to:-
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Continue to support the Walking Group and Friendship Group by providing free meeting space on a weekly basis.
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Understand the implication of Martyn’s law - Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill 2024-25. In anticipation of the need to comply with this proposed law, we have already capped hall hire attendance and will ensure through our membership of the village hall action group, ACRE , that we are well informed in terms of our additional responsibilities.
In addition, we continue to have objectives for new or existing groups:-
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We continue to offer a reduced community rate of hire subject to meeting eligibility criteria (that the group has objectives for supporting the community of Broadheath).
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BCA have continued to offer support for community groups in their set-up phase so that signposting for advice and guidance can be offered and so that costs could potentially be subsidised.
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The group must have plans to create objectives for supporting the community of Broadheath. A copy of the support request form is available on request and by invitation.
I would like to thank those members of our community who actively support our objectives and either
provide or support activities that are held at BCH or that BCA co-ordinate.
Thanks also to those who have actively supported the Directors as they fulfilled their individual responsibilities.
Finally, and on our members behalf, I would like to say a special thanks to my Director colleagues. They have worked tirelessly to provide quality management and maintenance of the Community Hall.
Kind Regards,
Ian Golding, Chair, BCA
Financial Summary 2024-2025
| Bank balance brought forward to April 2024(A) | £68,709.87 | £68,709.87 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amount | Summary of Activities | |||
| 4940 - Rental Income | £25,497.75 | Combination of one off and group bookings | ||
| 10000 - Refund of Hire | £0.00 | Minus amount. | ||
| Refund of hire fee that had already been paid. | ||||
| **Total income for this period(B) ** | **-£ ** | 25,497.75- | ||
| **Total income(A)+(B)=(C) ** | **-£ ** | 94,207.62- | ||
| 5001 - BCA equipment & consumables | £888.48 | Cleaning equipment; kitchen & bathroom | ||
| 5002 - Event specific | £1,509.01 | Carol concert; xmas gift; xmas meal; anniversay | ||
| 6000 - Marketing | £468.00 | |||
| 7200 - Electricity | £4,208.75 | Pozitive electricity | ||
| 7210 - Gas & Oil | £1,370.66 | Crown gas | ||
| 7460 - Subsistence | £0.00 | |||
| 7540 - Internet Charges | £621.36 | BT - wifi | ||
| 7605 - Corporate Licences/Fees | £115.00 | Companies house & music licence | ||
| 7615 - Safeguarding | £35.00 | Information commission annual fee | ||
| 7620 - Consultancy & Professional Fees | £506.04 | Crown Fire Services - firechecks | ||
| 7630 - Business Insurance | 2,098.30 | Methodist insurance | ||
| Decorating; | ||||
| 7800 - Repairs and Renewals | £4,157.71 | plumbing/gas heating and boiler; toilet & front door repairs; french window |
||
| replaced. | ||||
| 7805 - Maintenance Services | £1,239.00 | Landscaping/gardening; sanitary services |
||
| 7810 - Cleaning Services | £7,180.00 | Window cleaning; cleaning contractors | ||
| 7910 - Banking error - expense | £0.00 | None noted | ||
| 1100 - Refund to BCA | £0.00 | |||
| Total expenditure for this period(D) | £24,397.31 | |||
| Bank balance carried forward on 1-4-2025(C)- (D) |
**-£ ** | 69,810.31- | ||
| Net surplus on 31st March 2025(B)-(D) | -£ | 1,100.44- | ||
| ’, ——-, sn |
~ | |||
| Signed | Signed | |||
| Printed Name Mary Speake | Printed Name | Ian Golding | ||
| PositionTreasurer, BCA | Position | Chair, BCA |
Acc0unL]Cs, and Book-keeping Services Peter Hodgkinson 136,Lindsell Road AltrinLli<lm Cheshire WA 14 5NZ Tel: 0161928 1710 Mob: 07960 535?99 e-niail: pgliodgou gmail.com l Oth December 2025 Broadheath Community Association Sinderland Road Broadlieaih Altrincliam Chesliire To tlie members of Ilie Board In accordance with your instruciions I Iiave undertc2ken an independenl audit of IliL books and records of Broadheath Community Association for the year ended 31st March 20?5. can confirm that froin the infonnaiion Inade available to me the year end finc1ncial report sliows a true aiid fair view ot" the company's financial posilion. Yours Sincerely Peler 140 ccountant kinson