GILLINGHAM YOUTH FOUNDATION
Chairman’s Report for 2024/25
The 2024/25 financial year has remained steady for Gillingham Youth Foundation. There has been a healthy increase in the level of hire income, compared to the previous year and more enquiries are coming forward. The continued regular hire of the garage workshop, music centre (Platform 1), the storage workshop and the two upstairs meeting/office rooms has ensured a reliable income. When clearing out the old garage workshop for a new hirer, some redundant vehicle maintenance items were sold for a total of £1,400 but a number of old tyres had to be disposed of properly at a cost of £312.
However, as with all older buildings, there were a couple of unexpected major repairs required during the year. Firstly, after weeks of heavy rain, a leak was discovered in the workshop roof, which prompted further investigation. The roof was found to be very rotten in parts which lead to an immediate repair cost of £2,630.00, but in the knowledge that this is just a ‘sticking plaster’ to tide over until there is the funding to address the repair and new bitumen coating. Also, urgent repairs were needed for the second time to a damaged manhole in the front car park, costing £380.00. And then Highways informed the Foundation of the need to fell a dead Ash tree overhanging the pavement along Le Neubourg Way, costing £650.00. These unexpected costs have knocked our potential profit, but we have continued to attract regular and one-off hirers (birthday parties) and much larger regular groups, including a regular Sunday Pentecostal Church group, necessitating a need to purchase another 40 fold-up chairs with a storage cradle for £838.86 and to replace the old dishwasher, costing £249.00.
We have a good cross-spectrum of local community groups using the facility, from toddlers to the more mature generation, with new regular hirers coming on board to replace the ones we lost in the previous year for a variety of reasons. New hirers include a weekly basket ball group and a weekly Pentecostal church group on Sunday’s. Youth Justice used our facilities more regularly during the year. For a while we hosted yoga and circus skills for young people but unfortunately there was a very small take-up of the sessions and they stopped after three weeks, despite widespread advertising. Likewise, a new pickle-ball group ran a few sessions, but lack of take-up rendered this a short-term initiative. Rendezvous, a weekly support group for young families, sadly stopped in March 2025, due to funding, which was a blow to the local families they supported. One-off hire has increased with more enquiries for birthday parties. It is an ever-changing hire scenario but taken as a whole, the numbers remain on the upward trend.
You can imagine that the general maintenance cost of these old buildings is high, just to keep the roof, and gutters clean and maintained, let alone internal repairs as necessary. But we are grateful to Squeaky Clean for keeping our windows sparkling. As always, Health & safety is top of our agenda. The contract with BIFFA for waste disposal is going well, embracing the new waste disposal regulations within the youth centre and I thank all hirers for their cooperation with this, putting the ‘right thing in the right bin’. My sincere thanks to Alan Waistell, for his attention to maintenance, which keeps the buildings safe and up to standard for our hirers. Utility and insurance bills are the constant drain on the Foundation’s finances and, again, I thank Alan Waistell for securing the Foundation the best possible prices.
So What is new, what is next? We will continue to increase our regular hirers through promotion of the centre. Through our website, www.gillinghamyouthfoundation.co.uk. We shall continue to consider further cost-effective ways to make the buildings more sustainable for the future. We are aware for the need of sound-deadening in the sports hall and will keep this on the forward plan, but as things stand at the moment, this expense is unfortunately not within our budget. We also have a problem with the floor in one of the ladies toilet cubicles, and again, this is on our list but not our budget for the forthcoming year.
Sadly, I feel I need to mention at this point that equipment for hirers use within the centre has sustained a significant amount of damage over the past year, some accidental, including the television, popular with youth groups, but also the games tables, stools and our new chairs. Could I please ask all hirers to be vigilant and report damage immediately to the trustees. As a Foundation, we inherited stools, games equipment and the tv’s with the takeover of the centre, but we do not have the spare funds to replace the same. Should hirers wish to take it upon themselves to find funding/donations to replace such items, then this would be welcomed by the Foundation. I see the success of this centre as working together to keep this fantastic facility available for the people of Gillingham and the surrounds. However, after saying that, this year, 2026, is the 10[th] anniversary of Gillingham Youth Foundation. This is a significant milestone and I would like to thank all groups and individuals who have continued to support us and we are really pleased to be able to continue to accommodate you going forward.
I would like to mention and minute our thanks to Eric, our Caretaker and his wife, Angela, for their conscientious duty to the youth centre. It has become a full-time job for them both! The centre is kept exceptionally clean and tidy. I would also like to minute our thanks to our trustees: Belinda for carrying out all the admin and bookings, Alan for keeping the buildings fit for purpose.
It has been a pleasure to work as part of this committee and look forward to the coming year with excitement and optimism.
David Walsh, Chair of Trustees, Gillingham Youth Foundation
April, 2026
GILLINGHAM YOUTH FOUNDATION
1[st] September 2024 - 31st August 2025
PROFIT AND LOSS STATEMENT
| This year |
Prev. year | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/2025 | 2023/2024 | ||
| INCOME: | £ | £ |
|
| Sales: hire of rooms Sales Type | A 4000 | 27,230.25 | 23,846.75 |
| Sale of Assets: 4200 | 1,400.00 | 0 | |
| Other Income: 4900 donations, | sponsorship, tombola | 5.00 | 3,365.75 |
| 28,635.25 | 27,212.50 | ||
EXPENSES AND OVERHEADS |
|||
| Gas, water, electric |
7200 |
6,376.55 | 6,978.56 |
| Rent & Rates | 7100* | 0 | 0 |
| Office costs | 7500 | 1,349.83 | 1,206.82 |
| Fire & Safety | 7503 | 792.14 | 1,629.65 |
| Health & Hygiene | 8201 |
3,686.21 | 3,732.31 |
| Legal and professional | 7600 | 60.00 | 60.00 |
| Insurance | 7610* |
1,867.20 | 3,583.53* |
| General expenses | 8200 |
2,392.71 | 1,847.48 |
| Repairs and renewals | 7800 | 3,010.00 | 0 |
| Payroll costs | 7001 |
258.00 | 240.00 |
| Marketing | 6200 | 891.92 | 0 |
| PAYE (HMRC payments) |
2210 |
1,922.40 | 1,841.40 |
| Net Wages | 2220 |
9,930.24 | 9,155.83 |
| 32,537.20 | 30,275.58 | ||
| NET PROFIT/(LOSS): | (3,901.95) | (3,063.08) | |
| Reserves policy: | |||
| Based on total expenditure £32,537.20 divided by 12 months= | |||
| £2,711.44 x 3 months = £8,134.32 | |||
| Lloyds Opening Account Balance: |
17,878.29 | 21,064.37 | |
| Lloyds Closing Account balance: | 13,416.59 | 17,878.29 | |
| Variation | (4,461.70) | (3,186.08) | |
| Trade debtors | 1100 |
479.75 | 123.00 |
| Trade creditors 2100 | 0 | 0 | |
| Less Adjustment for Sage account balance: | 80.00 | ||
| (As agreed with Independent Examiner, Faith Butler) | (3,901.95) | (3,063.08) |
- 7100 Rates – 100% council tax relief awarded by Dorset Council
*7610 Insurance for 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial year.
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