Charity Registration No: 1163835
Trustee’s Annual Report
and Accounts for the Year Ended 31 March 2024
Vyner Park Charity
Charity Registration No: 1163835
Trustees annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024
Introduction
The Charity was registered on 5 October 2015 and has as its sole trustee Newton on the Moor and Swarland Parish Council.
Whilst, the Charity’s objects are the support or promotion of any charitable purpose, including the provision of recreational facilities and activities for the benefit of the community of Swarland and surrounding area in the county of Northumberland, the main focus is the management and development of the recreational facilities, other land, amenities and fixed assets within Vyner Park, Swarland.
Management Committee
The Charity has an appointed management committee which oversees its day to day running. The management committee comprises 3 members of the parish council and up to 5 members of the local community.
The following served on the management committee during the year:
S Woolfrey (Chair), Parish Council member
A Cowan
B Fergie (Treasurer)
A Ferguson
A Hastie
K Howard-Row, Parish Council member
J Richardson
R Simpson, Parish Council member
In addition, L Simpson is secretary to the committee.
Review of the Year
In August 2023 Jan Anderson retired as committee secretary after eight years in the role with Liz Simpson taking over. A special thank you to Jan, who has guided us through some very complex situations at times, from everyone concerned.
The aim of the Charity is to manage and develop the Vyner Park recreational facilities for the Parish. The users are many and varied and range from the local football team to regular bowls, tennis and walking netball groups on the sporting side complimented by the more casual dog walkers and fresh air seekers. The children’s play park is also well used and Nelson’s at the Park continues to be a success, attracting people from outside the area, as well as locally from within the Parish. Last summer we opened up the park for a weekend Brownies camp and, although it was a very wet weekend, it went well. Brownies also installed bird and bat boxes around the park, an initiative which was awarded a Love Northumberland Award.
The Trustee and the committee are very grateful to the many individuals (volunteers) who help run the Park, particularly those who undertake regular maintenance such as cutting the grass and those that also help out with larger ad-hoc projects, such as the installation of a digger in the play park. These people save the Charity a lot of money and allow the Committee to concentrate on improving the facilities.
Improvements carried out in the year included: electrical works and installation of a wood burner in the Pavilion, installation of steps on the east side of the field, the purchase and installation of a children’s digger, as well as laying additional bark in the Play Area. The costs of the wood burner and digger were generously supported by grants from Northumberland County Council, with additional help from the Parish Council. About 50 trees were planted in various locations around the park and more recently an ecology survey was carried out on the meadow area.
Not everything, however, went to plan. Unfortunately, the early part of 2023/24 was spent dealing with a burglary at the Pavilion. Although the damage was minor, the costs were significant, requiring an insurance claim. As a result, the Charity accelerated the installation of a CCTV system and, with the help of the Parish Council, installed a burglar alarm. So far, we have not had another burglary. The problem with sewage spilling from the manholes in the park during periods of heavy rain has continued. The Charity regularly complains to Northumbria Water, but so far, no significant improvements have been carried out. Our view is that sewage spills in a public park on paths that are used by walkers, children and pets and that filters into the Swarland burn is a serious health risk, unfortunately Northumbria Water do not seem to share this view.
Each year groups of dedicated volunteers run a Village Show and Bonfire on behalf of the Community. These events are major fundraisers for the Charity. The 2023 Show was a great success attracting an increasing number of visitors with profits shared with local charitable good causes. The Bonfire, however, was not as lucky with the weather. Although everything was organised for the event, very wet weather forced a cancellation, a fate that a number of organised bonfires suffered.
Financially, with receipts of £36,750 and expenditure of £36,295 the Charity made a small surplus of £455 in the year. The main sources of income were our annual grant from the Parish Council and Swarland Show. The success of the Show deserves special mention as it not only contributed in excess of £5,000 to the Charity it also made donations to five local charitable community groups.
The year was planned to be one of significant maintenance expenditure, the pavilion electrical works and stove installation along with the play digger and bark in the play park have already been mentioned and cost a combined £9,000. Add to this the cost of the regular grass cutting and general maintenance coupled with CCTV system and burglar alarm installations gives a total maintenance cost of £17,000 for the year.
Whilst the Charity has been running less than 10 years the pavilion and recreational facilities are over 20 years old and meeting their maintenance demands is expected to be a significant focus of the Charity over the coming years.
Trustee
(Newton on the Moor and Swarland Parish Council)
VYNER PARK CHARITY
(Regd Charity No. 1163835)
Receipts and Payments Account for the year ended 31[st] March 2024
| Receipts Parish Council Grants Nelson's (Swarland) Ltd Other Grants Swarland Show Events Donations & Bookings Other Total Receipts Payments Maintenance Utilities Swarland Show Events Sundry Total Payments Excess of receipts over payments Bank balance 31st March 2023 Add: Excess of receipts over payments Bank balance 31st March 2024 |
£ 7,950 6,510 2,300 16,275 - 3,000 715 36,750 17,205 6,550 10,536 1,206 798 36,295 455 31,689 455 32,144 |
|---|---|
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