**Bampton LARC - Chairman’s Report April 2024 to March 2025** 

## **Scope** 

This report highlights the activities of Bampton LARC and does not include details of the Library, run by Libraries Unlimited. 

## Visitors, volunteers, and general usage 

- Usually 3 open sessions per week 

- Noticed a decline in open session visitors 

- We’ve retained our core group of very reliable volunteers who deserve enormous thanks for their time 

- Improved usage of LARC during 2024 to 2025 

   - Income from bookings was up on previous year 

   - More independent regular sessions were booked 

   - Some new users for one off meetings, such as AGMs 

## Fund raising and community events 

- 2 major fund-raising events in 24 – 25 

   - Plant swap in May 24 

   - Book sale at Bampton Fair Oct 24 

- Significant funds were raised from these events 

- Popular summer reading challenge in conjunction with the library 

## Successes and Challenges 

- Successes 

   - Most groups who use LARC are very positive about it; they really like the space 

   - Monday is always a busy day at LARC, Wellbeing walks, LARC open sessions and library open late afternoon 

   - Bookings increased over previous years 

   - Generous donations received 

   - Positive feedback about our use of Signpost and Facebook 

   - Craft sessions (championed by Jo and Gen) started, and were well received and successful (and have continued this year) 

   - Library organised events proved popular (summer reading challenge, storytelling, and drumming workshop) 

- Challenges 

   - The Meet & Chat initiative ran for a while but failed to generate enough attendees to justify the organiser’s time 

Page 1 of 2 

Oliver Courtney Chair Bampton LARC Trustees 



**Bampton LARC - Chairman’s Report April 2024 to March 2025** 

- LARC continues to be an expensive building to heat, our electricity bill is one of the major expenses 

- Repairs and renewals can be costly and are increasing as we approach the 10 years since opening (e.g., the outside shutter repair) 

- Booking LARC is generally biased towards the start of a week, from midweek onwards to the weekends are sparsely used 

- We rarely get new ideas or initiatives suggested for LARC, but we do encourage them 

## Trustees and management team 

- No major changes in 2023-4 

- Existing LARC trustees (Oliver Courtney (Chair) David Graham and Kelvin Holdom) have been joined by Monica Nichol 

- Geoff Girdlestone has been our Treasurer and Derek Webster helps the management team 

## Thank You 

- Stan and Sarah Vincent 

- Pam Wheeler and Libraries Unlimited 

- LARC Volunteers 

- Geoff Girdlestone for managing our accounts and finances 

- Management team at LARC 

- All LARC users and supporters 

Page 2 of 2 

Oliver Courtney Chair Bampton LARC Trustees 



**Bampton LARC Year to 31 March 2024** 

## **LARC Published Accounts 2024-2025** 

|**Receipts & Payments 2024/25**|**Receipts & Payments 2024/25**|||2023/24|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||||**Total**|Total|
||Donations||**952.88**|295.50|
||Grants||**0.00**|1035.00|
||Fund raising||**820.02**|479.50|
||Lettings & events||**3481.00**|3648.95|
||Licence fee LU||**2730.00**|2000.00|
||Electricity LU||**941.85**|718.86|
||Computer usage||**0.00**|2.00|
||Printing & Photocopying||**66.52**|81.20|
||Calenders & Books||**1.00**|2.00|
||Youth Club||**0.00**|0.00|
||Bank Interest||**393.24**|163.73|
|**Total Receipts**|||**9386.51**|8426.74|
|**Payments**|||||
||Fundraising costs||**0.00**|0.00|
||Event costs||**0.00**|0.00|
||Rent||**1000.00**|1000.00|
||Business rates||**0.00**|0.00|
||Insurance||**449.46**|392.43|
||Heat, light & power||**2942.33**|2932.04|
||Water||**274.67**|242.06|
||Cleaning/Covid supplies||**570.00**|531.38|
||Repairs and renewals||**626.78**|286.76|
||Holiday Club||**0.00**|0.00|
||Telphone & Internet||**462.80**|591.18|
||Printing & stationery||**25.00**|34.16|
||Wellbeing Group||**0.00**|0.00|
||Youth group||**0.00**|0.00|
||Miscellaneous||**129.28**|45.00|
|**Total Payments**|||**6480.32**|6055.01|
|**Larcs net receipts**|||**2906.19**|2371.73|
|**Statement of Funds at 31/03/2024**|||||
|Nat West bank balance||6029||3247.00|
|treasurer||117||258|
|float||15||15|
|**Cash at bank and in hand**||6161||3520|
|**Investments**|||||
|United Trust Bank||5768||5503|
|Fidelity Funds Network|see below *|5000||5000|
|(Artemis strategic Bond Fund)|||||
|Total Investments||10768||10503|
|**Total funds**||**16929**||14023|
|value at 31/03/22 was  £7472|||||
|£2000 sold on 6 Jan 2023.|||||
|value at 31/03/23 was  £4985|||||