## **HIVE Trustees’ Report**
For the year ending 31 March 2025
## **Administrative Information**
Hive is a charitable incorporated organisation, registration number 1165566.
## Registered office: **Hive Community Hub, School Street, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2HA.**
## _**Trustees**_
Tony Platt (Chair) (Appointed November 2024) Shirley Moore (Resigned November 2024) Lesley Ford-Platt Robin Hodgkinson (Secretary) Andrew Welsh (Resigned August 2024) Robert Spivey (Treasurer) (Resigned August 2024)
## **Treasurer**
Luke Wiseman was appointed as the new Treasurer in January 2025. He is not a trustee.
## **Structure, Governance & Management**
## **1. Nature of governing document**
The activities of Hive are governed by a Constitution approved by the Charity Commission on 12[th] February 2016.
## **2. Recruitment and appointment of trustees**
The trustees and staff are always on the lookout for potential new trustees who can bring their skills and expertise to assist in the organisation’s governance. Potential trustees have access to the chair to discuss their involvement. When recruited, new trustees are inducted through meetings and an induction pack, which not only covers information about the organisation but their roles and responsibilities as trustees. At present the search for new trustees to fill vacant slots is ongoing.
## **3. Review of the financial position**
The accounting year this year runs from April 1st 2024 to 31[st] March 2025. Total income for this period was £31,866 (including £ 18,345 restricted funding) and expenditure £23,508 (including £6,723 restricted expenditure).
The net result was a surplus on the year of £8,358 thus leaving a fund balance of £38,245, including restricted funding. There was however a net loss of £3,267 on unrestricted funds.
## **4. Financial Management**
Hive finances are managed by a Treasurer who reports to the Trustees at their regular meetings, currently every six weeks.
The Bank account is now held at NatWest PLC. All cheques and internet banking transactions require authorisation by a designated trustee.
The systems of internal control include reports submitted by the Treasurer at the regular Trustee Board meetings. Also, consideration of the financial results and forecasting of possible funding shortfalls are discussed in detail at Trustee meetings.
## **5. Reserves Policy**
At present Hive has no reserves policy. If, however, sufficient surpluses are made in the future, the Trustees would designate a proportion of these as a general reserves fund.
## **6. Risk analysis and plan**
There are a number of areas that the Trustees consider as potential risks. These include the following:
Inability to raise funds for existing activities Inability to recruit trustees in the future
Lack of interest in the activities and services offered by Hive
With the purchase of the URC Church and Hall, there are also additional risks of managing an old building and ensuring that this is:
a) fit for purpose
b) that income from hiring, events and fundraising activities meets the expenditure costs.
The trustees develop and refine a risk register annually.
## **7. Funding**
Funding was received from a variety of sources. These are listed in the Achievements and performance section of this report.
## **8. Objectives and Activities**
Hive’s objects are primarily for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Sudbury and District area to:
- a) provide training and learning activities and resources to local voluntary and community groups;
- b) provide information services to local groups;
- c) provide opportunities for local groups to work in partnership with other agencies; and
- d) offer funding or funding advice to help local groups to develop
- e) provide a building and space for local organisations to hire for their activities and services.
Hive has fulfilled its objects in a number of ways:
- Redesigning its website to contain more information about local groups and online resources.
- Developing an e-bulletin sent out to its mailing list of 80 groups, with news of events, service and resources
- Providing quarterly **forum** meetings giving groups the opportunity to discuss local issues and exchange information. Several new groups have found these a very useful way to establish contacts and learn about potential funding
sources. This activity has been suspended for a while, but plans are afoot to re-activate forum meetings in the Autumn 2025.
- Developing a programme of free training courses, in normal times, in subjects as diverse as 1[st] Aid, Social Media, Trustees’ Roles and Responsibilities and Managing Volunteers
- Purchasing the URC church and hall as a venue for local charitable organisations to hire at reasonable rates, less than commercial rates. Commercial hirers are welcome, but they pay higher fees.
## **9. Meeting the Principles of Public Benefit**
Hive meets the Charity Commission’s Public Benefit Principles in a number of ways:
- It has helped new and small groups to establish contacts and learn about current projects and developments through the regular steering group meetings. A regular email newsletter is also sent out
- through providing support to new groups through one-to-one meetings on issues ranging from business planning to setting up as a charity, training courses and online resources
- Through the purchase of the URC Church and Hall and managing this building as a place for hire and for staging events including concerts, meetings and local activities.
## **10. Achievements & Performance**
Having bought the URC Church and Hall in November 2021 and carried out sufficient remedial work to make the building usable again, this year has been one of consolidation, in particular finding funding to install a new boiler and heating system and raising money to fund this and other remedial work including electrical modifications.
During the year the building continued to be used by a number of hirers including Sudbury Choral Society who use the building for regular rehearsals, The Befriending Scheme, various classes including low impact exercise classes, a WI group, U3A Portrait Artists, Newstalk (a recorded newspaper for the blind), and the Jesus Reigns Ministry. Due to the problems with the heating system over the year, hirings were down on the previous year, the main reason being that during the winter the heating in the building had been erratic, with the old boiler only working at less than half capacity, hence the need to purchase a new, improved and reliable heating system.
During the Summer, Hive ran a series of weekly lunchtime concerts organised by Lesley Ford-Platt. This included 11 concerts featuring a mixture of musical styles including folk singers, choral groups, classical instrumentalists and vocalists. In addition, there were a number of evening concerts during the year including a concert by Piano A Deux, The Accidentals and the Djangoliers in the Autumn.
In the year under review, donations and grants for the Community Hub were received from a number of sources, for particular aspects of the venue refurbishment. These fall under a number of categories:
- Raising money for the Mechanical and Electrical Report - £2,000 Belstead Ganzoni Charitable Settlement, £3,000 from the Tudwick Foundation.
- Raising money for the purchase and installation of a new boiler and heating system, which would cost over £35,000. In the year under review, the following donations
were received towards the cost of the new heating system for the Friars Hall area of the building: Cllr Laura Smith Locality Grant (£375), Rotary Club of Sudbury (£220), Suffolk Community Foundation - JA Fund (£4,297), The Belstead Ganzoni Charitable Settlement (£2,000), David and Jane Mann (£5,000), The Tudwick Foundation (£1,500).
- Hive is also grateful to all the musicians who generously gave of their time and talents to take part in the fund-raising concert programme, which raised £1,943 towards the new heating system.
- As a result of these generous donations, the purchase of a new heating system has gone ahead.
- Towards the cost of the bicycle racks: Cllr Philip Faircloth-Mutton Locality Grant (£500). This grant completed the funding required and the bicycle racks have been purchased and installed.
- A Bluthner grand piano has been donated on indefinite loan to Hive to facilitate our regular concert programme. This piano belonged to Michael Tubbs, who was Director of Music at the Royal Shakespeare Company, whose widow has generously loaned it to Hive to help with our fund-raising concerts. The piano was built in 1912 and has been restored to concert pitch since it arrived at the Hive Community Hub in July 2024.
- For the Bluthner piano appeal: Philippa Barker (£250), Pam Hunter (£200), A. Morrison (£100) and a total of £70 in named personal donations; and The Masonic Charitable Foundation - Stour Valley Lodge (£150) to purchase an adjustable piano stool. Another piano stool was kindly donated by Linda and David Lee.
With the resignation of the paid administrator, steps were taken to form a management committee of interested individuals who could take on the day-to-day running of the facility. In early 2025 under the very able leadership of Philip Richardson, this committee was formed, and various people took on responsibilities for the bookings system, the cleaning and the general maintenance of the building. Julie Winger, a committee member took on the bookings, Kathryn and Duncan Becker have helped considerably with the maintenance and cleaning of the building supported by Sandy Maynard and Mike Killoran. The organisation has also been strengthened by the recruitment of Luke Wiseman as our new Treasurer.
## **11. Future Plans**
Future plans include the installation of the new heating system (to be completed by August 2025), work on refurbishment of the building to meet further fire regulations and increase the capacity of people within the building. The new boiler has been fitted with an improved and reliable system. it has been specifically designed to run at a temperature of about 46C – this is the preferred system for users, particularly for children and vulnerable adults. This should lead to an increase in the number of bookings and programmed events and concerts within the building.
I would finally pay tribute to my fellow Trustees, who have discharged their duties and responsibilities as Trustees and Directors with pragmatism and good sense. Thanks should
also go to those trustees who, for a variety of reasons, had to resign from the Board, in particular Shirley Moore who served as Chair for a number of years and helped to ensure a high profile for Hive within the local community. Thanks should also go to Sudbury Rotary Club for their continued support and assistance, not only did they provide Hive with numerous donations, but also helped at Hive events running the bar. Huge thanks should also go to Philip Richardson and his band of helpers for ensuring that maintenance and cleaning duties were undertaken and for taking a number of refurbishment tasks forward.
Tony Platt Chairman
Date: October 2025
## **Annual Accounts 2024/5**
|**Section A Receipts and payments**|**Section A Receipts and payments**|**Section A Receipts and payments**||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**
**10,484**
**-**
**1,034**
**-**
**-**
**11,518**
**11,518**
**4,213**
**3,945**
**8,373**
**-**
**1,688**
**18,219**
**18,219**||**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**20,348**
**-**
**20,348**
**20,348**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**6,723**
**-**
**-**
**6,723**||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**||**Total**
**funds**
**to the**
**nearest £**
**10,484**
**-**
**1,034**
**20,348**
**-**
**31,866**||**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|General Funds|**10,484**||||||||**14,620**|
|Adminstrator|**-**||||||||**15,000**|
|Maintenance|**1,034**||||||||**4000**|
|Refurbishment|**-**||||||||**10,507**|
|Organ|**-**||||||||**1,118**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_|**11,518**||||||||**45,245**|
|||||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales, (see**
**table).**||||||||||
|**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**||||||||||
||||||**-**||**31,866**||**45,245**|
||||||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**||**4,213**
**3,945**
**8,373**
**6,723**
**1,688**
**0**
**24,942**|||
|Salaries and support|**4,213**||||||||**6,272**|
|Office Costs|**3,945**||||||||**4,503**|
|Premises Costs|**8,373**||||||||**16,702**|
|Refurbishment Costs|**-**||||||||**14,401**|
|Misc|**1,688**||||||||**68**|
|||||||||||
|**_Sub total_**|**18,219**||||||||**41,946**|
|||||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment purchases,**
**(see table)**||||||||||
|**_Total payments_**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**||||||||||
||||**6,723**||**-**||**24,942**||**41,946**|
|||||||||||
||**-6,701**||**13,625**||**-**||**6,924**||**3,299**|
||**4,722**||**-4,722**||**-**|
|**-**||**-**|
||**11,476**||**18,591**||**-**||**30,067**||**26,768**|
||**9,497**||**27,494**||**-**||**36,991**||**30,067**|
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
**Categories Details** Bank Balances **B1 Cash funds** _**Total cash funds**_ (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))
## _**Total cash funds**_
## **Details**
Sundry Debtors
## **B2 Other monetary assets**
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Details
**----- End of picture text -----**
**B3 Investment assets**
**Unrestricted Restricted Endowment funds funds funds to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £ 9,497 27,494 - - - - - - - 9,497 27,494 -** OK OK OK **Unrestricted Restricted Endowment funds funds funds to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £ 1,729 - - - - - - - - Fund to which Cost Current value asset belongs (optional) (optional) - -**
**-**
## **Details**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Hive Building
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Details
Sundry Creditors
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **B5 Liabilities**
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
## Signature
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Fund to which Cost Current value
asset belongs (optional) (optional)
Restricted 265,000 265,000
- -
- -
- -
**----- End of picture text -----**
**Fund to which Amount due When due liability relates (optional) (optional)** Unrestricted **In 30 days -**
Date of Print Name approval Tony Platt, Chair of Hive 13/11/2025 Robin Hodgkinson, Trustee and 13/11/2025 Secretary