Cullompton John Tallack Youth and Community Centre Meadow Lane Cullompton, EX15 ILL info@johntallackcentre.org.uk
Charity Number: 1164465
The John Tallack Youth and Community Centre
Chair of Trustees’ Annual Report - 2024
It’s hard to believe that it’s been a whole year since I prepared my Chair’s Report for 2023 but, looking back, 2024 has been another productive year for the John Tallack Centre. Thanks to the ongoing work of our dedicated trustees, and the huge investment of time and funds that the centre has seen over the last few years, the running of the building and charity now feels more stable; systems are working well, and our day-to-day affairs have been running smoothly. This puts us on a strong footing to further enhance our offering in 2025.
A number of key milestones and achievements are worth noting:
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➢ Day to day running has stabilised: Following the introduction of a new booking system, new policies, and new procedures in 2023, we now have an established system for most day-today happenings at the centre. Things are running smoothly, reducing workload for trustees and streamlining our offer to the community.
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➢ Bookings have increased, working toward a more sustainable income: Towards the end of 2023 we lost a number of our long term regular hirers, and in March 2024 Action for Children ended their hire of the Main Office due to their own budget cuts. Since then, after a few ‘rocky months’, we received a number of new enquiries and our number of regular short-term bookings has now improved. We are currently in talks with a number of new long-term hirers, who are looking to begin using our office spaces and hall in 2025, which will bring further stability to our finances and enable us to rebuild some financial reserves.
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➢ Cullompton Youth Club goes from strength to strength: In 2023, following ongoing collaboration across the community we were pleased to welcomed Involve Mid Devon and their newly formed Cullompton Youth Club to the centre. CYC’s provision has gone from strength to strength in 2024, with their Junior and Senior sessions growing in popularity. As trustees, we are delighted to have had youth work return to the centre, and look forward to seeing CYC’s offer for the community grow further in 2025.
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➢ Antisocial behaviour and issues in the immediate area have reduced: The Autumn and Winter of 2023 saw a period of serious antisocial behaviour in the immediate area around the JTC, resulting in damage to our building, disruption to youth clubs, and anxiety for some hirers. Thankfully, with support from the police and our neighbours, this has now reduced.
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➢ Upgrades to CCTV and other repairs and maintenance: This year has seen an extra CCTV camera installed, repairs to guttering, a replacement window, replacement roof tiles, painting and decorating, and annual maintenance and services.
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➢ New office created for CYC: The old sound room has been repainted and converted into a new office for Cullompton Youth Club, freeing up the Main Office as a hirable space to bring in income for the charity.
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➢ Welcoming a new hirer to the Main Office: The trust are looking forward to welcoming a new hirer to the Main Office following a number of vacant months since AfC’s departure. We are currently advertising and are in talks with a number of local businesses, with meetings planned for early in 2025. Trustees hope that hiring the Main Office will be a new ‘engine’ for the centre, raising much needed funds to facilitate running of the rest of the building. This will also help recover some of the ‘rainy day’ backup fund we lost to fuel costs in 2023.
The centre continues to support a number of local groups and organisations through the hire of our Main Hall, office spaces, and building:
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Involve Voluntary Action In Mid Devon continue to use the building two nights a week for their youth sessions, and will soon be moving into their newly decorated Youth Work Office.
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Culm Valley U3A’s Art Group and Drawing Group hire the building fortnightly for sessions, and The Third Age Trust hire the centre quarterly for their South West regional meetings.
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Culm Valley Probus Group have begun hiring the centre for their monthly sessions.
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Unite Carers have returned to the centre after several years away. They hire the building fortnightly for their carers’ coffee group.
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The Towersey Foundation have recently begun hiring the centre for their fortnightly music therapy sessions for adults with learning difficulties / elderly members of the community.
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Healthy Appetite and Activities hired the centre throughout the Summer Holidays for their children’s holiday club, and will run their Christmas holiday club here in the next few weeks.
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Mid Devon District Council Polling took place at the centre for both elections held in 2024.
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- Mid Devon Councillors, Lloyd Knight and Sue Robinson, and Mid Devon Liberal Democrats continue to hire the building for their monthly surgeries and regular meetings.
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Action for Children continue to use the centre on an ad-hoc basis for groups and meetings.
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Devon Mediation Service uses the building for occasional mediation sessions.
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DCC Children’s Services have begun occasionally using the centre for their family conferences, one-off events, and meetings.
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Cullompton Ace Majorettes have begun using the hall for their fundraising discos. They had a successful Halloween event, and are also booked in for a New Years Disco next week.
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Empower Family Group recently held their annual event for foster families at the centre, and are looking forward to returning next year too.
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The centre continues to be used increasingly regularly for private birthday parties and events , one-off business meetings , and for community activities .
While bookings have increased dramatically in recent months, several ‘poor’ months in the spring following AfC’s departure hit our finances hard. Trustee efforts to advertise for a replacement long-term hirer will bring sustainable income and rebuild our depleted reserves.
As a Trust we continue to search for additional trustees and/or volunteers who might be able to lend a hand and support the smooth running of the centre., taking some of the day-to-day weight from our three trustees and freeing up more time for developing our offer further.
With my thanks as ever to fellow Trustees and volunteers, Sue Robinson, Judy Morris, and Ray Ursell,
George Munn
Chair of Trustees
December 2024
John Tallack Youth and Community Centre Accounts 2024
| Item | Income | Item | Expense |
|---|---|---|---|
| brought forward | 7,005.89 | cleaning | 2,321.28 |
| hire | 4,718.92 | grant delivery | 53.00 |
| repayments | 3,384.41 | repairs | 554.15 |
| IT and web services | 214.80 | ||
| maintenance | 671.15 | ||
| MDDC services | 625.00 | ||
| insurance | 1,066.00 | ||
| telecomms | 798.76 | ||
| utilities | 5,429.95 | ||
| sundries | 368.39 | ||
| Carried forward | 3,006.74 | ||
| Total | 15,109.22 | 15,109.22 |