2020-12-31-accounts

Annual Report of Meole Brace Peace Memorial Hall Charity Reg no. 1170090 January 1[st] to December 31[st] 2020

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Address: Meole Brace Peace Memorial Hall, Upper Rd, Shrewsbury SY3 9JP Trustees: Urszula Baugh (as Chair – resigned July 2020, as Trustee resigned December 2020), Jane Williams (Treasurer), Andrew Hulme (Facebook), Anne Davies, Peter Dunhill (Chair from July 2020 and Meole Brace Garden & Allotment Club Rep), Barbie Holden (Booking Secretary and Trustee from June 2020) Management Committee Attenders: Barbie Holden, Maggie Jones (Minutes Secretary – died March 2020), Ruth Jones (Nobold WI Rep), Frankie Crane (Minutes Secretary from June 2020)

Contact for bookings: Barbie Holden 07944 673648, email [e-mail]

Banking: Nat West, Telford Town Centre, Telford

Insurance cover: Village Guard (Allied Westminster) – Property Damage, Employers Liability, Public Liability, Legal Expenses, Trustee Indemnity Local authority areas: Shropshire Council and Shrewsbury Town Council - - - - - - Facebook page: https://en gb.facebook.com/pg/Meole Brace Peace Memorial Hall 538869346237711/about/

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/meolebracememorialhall/home

Our facilities

The main hall (12.5 x 6m + Stage: 4.8 x 6m) is equipped for a variety of uses including film-shows, dance, drama, parties, luncheons and indoor recreation

• Stage with lighting and curtains.

• Side dressing/green room

• Adequate supplies of tables and chairs.

• Maximum Capacity: 100 people standing, 90 seated

• Wide door and wheel chair access

• Heating

An entrance lobby

A meeting room (4 x 5.7m) that is suitable for committee meetings or refreshments - a partition wall can be opened onto the side of the main hall,

A modern fitted kitchen with

• Hot water boiler for drinks

• Fridge

• Electric Cooker

• • Microwave

Toilets (male, female, accessible for people with disabilities) and cloakroom area

Plenty of storage space

Off road parking for 7 vehicles + on road parking – we are located in a built up area

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Chairman’s Foreword

This year has inevitably been overshadowed by the Covid 19 pandemic and associated lockdowns of various degrees of severity which has resulted in the Hall being closed between early March and mid September. When we did re-open there were restrictions in place and the number of bookings was seriously reduced. Financially we were able to keep our head above water thanks to a government support grant of £10,000 and a grant of £500 from Shropshire RCC.

Not everything stopped though and we have made progress with our plans to consult our local geographic and ‘hirer’ community about options for either refurbishing or rebuilding the Hall which though much loved is ‘tired’, to use a kind word.

I took over the role of Chairman from Sula Baugh in June. Sula has now moved to Much Wenlock and resigned as a Trustee in December. My thanks go to her and her husband George for everything they have done for the Hall over the years.

On a sadder note I must also pay tribute to Bob Mills and Maggie Jones who both passed away at the beginning of the year. Bob had been an active and practical Chairman in both heart and soul for many years preceding Sula’s tenure. Maggie had been our Minutes Secretary for two years and was also a creative inspiration when it came to decorating the Hall and running fund raising craft courses. Both will be greatly missed.

I am delighted to have been able to welcome Barbie Holden as a new

Trustee, Frankie Crane as our new Minutes Secretary and also the practical advice of local resident Jane Pittaway who has extensive architectural experience as a former employee of Shropshire Council.

In order to re-open the Hall in September we ‘deep’ cleaned certain areas of the Hall, put limits on the type and levels of occupancy (17 in the main Hall and 8 in the side room – also no parties), drafted some additional terms and conditions and a risk assessment, and provided instructions and signs to ensure physical distancing. In addition we purchased adequate supplies of hand sanitiser and sterile wipes for Hall users.

This Annual Report also features the unravelling of a bureaucratic knot concerning the Land Registry, some impressive pieces of DIY maintenance and an ‘Antiques Roadshow’ style booking.

As I write this we are in our second lockdown but we are optimistic that the roll out of the vaccination programme will give both local residents and The Peace Memorial Hall a welcome shot in the arm.

Peter Dunhill

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History

Meole Brace Peace Memorial Hall was the product of many years’ work by a committee formed to try to create a Peace Memorial in memory of the sacrifices made by local people during the First World War.

Early Committee minutes from 1920 record the failure to raise sufficient funds a very ambitious proposal –spare cash for donations was short at the time

The plan was then changed to building a hall on a piece of land opposite The Sycamores (now known as Millford Lodge) to be donated by the Bather family - Lords of the Manor for many years who had provided the vicars of Meole Brace almost continuously between 1778 and 1931. On the back of this donation it was not long before £180 had been raised.

The committee agreed to purchase a hall built of concrete from a Mr Edwards at a cost of £650. It would contain a room 60ft x 20ft wide, a 20ft x 20ft square club room adjoining, a kitchen equipped with a boiler, and ladies’ and gentlemen’s cloakrooms with lavatory accommodation.

Bell ringers in Meole Brace c 1920

The building was soon erected and an opening concert arranged for Thursday

October 20[th] 1921 followed by a whist drive and dance on Friday 21[st] October. Invitations were sent out to all householders and ex-servicemen who had lived in the area.

There was a dispute with Mr Edwards about a significant disparity between the original estimate and the final cost. Eventually the matter was resolved amicably through negotiation.

The list of committee members over the years includes the surnames of many well known Meole Brace families: Aris, Ashton, Bather, Burd, Chambers, Cox, Edwards, Evans, Griffiths, Harris, Jones, Massie, Purslow and Tanner

This is an A-Z of just some of the groups and functions that the Hall has hosted over the years:

Alexandra Players - Art Classes - Arts Alive - Auction Sales - Boy Scouts - Bridge Club - Child Welfare Clinic - Choirs - Coronation parties for children - Dancing Classes - Gardening Club - General and Local Elections - Girl Guides - Jazz Band - Martial Arts - Men’s Institute - Play Groups - Rummage Sales - Salinka Stars - The Women’s Institute - Whist Drives

In 2002 many of the Hall Trustees had lost heart and it seemed as though the Hall might close. Even though there were plenty of bookings this was not matched by any enthusiasm to contribute to the running of the Hall. However a public meeting resulted in the election of a new committee and a great number of improvements were made especially to the entrance and cloakroom areas which had a new concrete floor and also to the heating system.

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Hall usage

Regular Users

Meole Brace Garden & Allotment Club – Normally club talks and Committee meetings during the year plus the big Garden Show in August

Nobold Womens Institute – Normally 11 evening meetings a year

Watercolour Art Classes – Normally 10 Autumn morning sessions and 10 Spring morning sessions

Tap, Ballet and Private lessons Normally one evening per week during term time Craft meeting – one session (1.30-3.30) per month

Salinka Stars (young and teenage dance troupe) – Normally 4.00-9.00 pm every week

Shrop Sings – Normally evenings, weekly, term time only

Puddles Playgroup – Normally one morning (Friday) every week

Shropshire Musical Singers – Normally one evening per week (Sept till end of June)

Anderson Art Group – Normally every Friday

New Users this year

Italian for children - weekly Yoga (2 different sessions Zumba – weekly

Action for Children after school club – weekly Antiques valuation day

Occasional Users

The hall is used as a polling station for local and general elections Normally 4 x Severn Hospice events – Severn Hospice is our special charity and we give 4 free bookings per year Normally 25 x Parties including New Year's Eve

Normally 2 x Fund raising event for the Hall – Shropshire Musical Singers/1940s group

Normally 3 x Arts Alive Shows (subsidised touring entertainment)

2 x Music practice/rehearsal

1 x Music concert from a private teacher 1 x Macmillan Cancer Support coffee morning

Closure

While the Hall was closed we complied with our Insurer’s requirements by undertaking weekly inspections.

Booking rates (to be reviewed in 2021):

Groups: £ 7 per hour, £21 for half day /evening session

Parties, events (eg Arts Alive): £28, 12 hr session: £50, double (2x 3hrs) session: £35

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Maintenance + Cleaning

Over the course of the year repairs and maintenance work has been undertaken on, the sliding doors, the toilets and drains, the emergency exits, the heating and the kitchen. Peter Williams (husband of our Treasurer Jane Williams) has made a particularly active contribution this year in sorting out the external lights, replacing a rare internal fluorescent tube and mending persistent leaks in our front guttering. Thanks must also go to local resident Wendy Taylor who scraped up barrow loads of moss from the car parking area and down the sides of the Hall. Rumour has it that the Chairman occasionally turns his hand to miscellaneous repairs.

Anne Davies has, as ever, been a stalwart in overseeing the supply and distribution of cleaning, refuse and hygiene materials

Plans for Hall improvements

Having replaced the floor and ensured that the Hall could safely continue to be used for regular and occasional bookings we have now turned our attention to a major refurbishment or rebuilding project designed to ensure the structural stability of the building, improved energy efficiency and comfort and in general creating a modern and welcoming

ambience while retaining the traditional feel of a village hall.

At the end of last year we commissioned architect Steve Hayward to produce outline drawings, both internal and external, for consideration. He has attended three meetings to date and we now have a general committee consensus on both the proposed internal layout and also a new entrance. We have been able to finance this work thanks to two grants (£750 and £250) from Shrewsbury Town Council. We are grateful for the support that Gwen Burgess, our local Councillor, has given us.

Currently we have sent our draft plans to Shropshire Council as a ‘pre-application submission’ to garner some early feedback before embarking on a local area wide consultation about the proposals. Following appropriate amendments we will begin to seek funding and support. A conservative estimate of around £250,000 has been suggested as a likely target.

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Payments	2020	2019 £ 966 2142 538 774 361 708 1200 800 361 297 8147 5202 7577 12779 130 96 21152
	£	£
Electricity	818	966
Gas	1774	2142
Water	414	538
Insurance	762	774
Licences/Subs	189	361
Maintenance/Repairs	138	708
Renovationcosts	1540	1200
Cleaning	790	800
Fundraising costs	161	361
Admin/Printing	548	297
Total expenditure	7134	8147
Current account c/f	13549	5202
Reserve account c/f	7584	7577
Total carried forward	21133	12779
Cash in hand c/f	264	130
Stock held	-	96
Overalltotal	28531	21152

Land Registry

Having completed the labyrinthine paperwork to transfer the Land Registry registration from the old unincorporated charity trustees to the new Charitable Incorporated Organisation, we are optimistic that the new registration will be in place early in 2021. Our case was hampered by the unnecessary imposition on the Hall of the formal status of an ‘Asset of Community Value’ which we undoubtedly are but did not need the legal complexities that this brought with it. That issue was resolved by dogged perseverance in pursuit of common sense and a Conveyancer’s certificate.

Summary of Annual Accounts

Receipts 2020 2019

We are grateful for the expertise of our volunteer inspector of accounts – Gary Howorth.

Receipts	2020	2019
	£	£
Hire of Hall	3604	6710
Donations	10	121
Interest	7	15
Fundraising	370	1248
Electricitymeter	35	35
Grants/other	11500	36
Total income	15526	8165
Current account b/f	5202	5260
Reserve account b/f	7577	7562
Total brought forward	12779	12822
Cash in hand b/f	130	146
Overalltotal	28531	21153

The full inspected accounts are available as a separate document and can be viewed on request.

Income from Hall hire has dropped as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic. The impact of this was alleviated by grants from the government via Shropshire Council and the Rural Community Council.

Our Gas and Electricity is now supplied on a fixed rate deal rather than the variable rate that applied during 2019.

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The Meole Brace Peace Memorial Hall

(Registered Charity Ref 1170090)

Financial Statement for the Period 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020

Receipts Hire of hall receipts Donations received Interest received Fundraising proceeds Electricity Meter Grants/Other Total Receipts Bank Balances brought fwd Current Account Reserve Acccounts Bank totals brought fwd Cash in hand brought fwd Stock held Grand Totals	2020 2019 3,604 6,710 10 121 7 15 370 1,248 35 35 11,500 36 15,526 8,164 5,202 5,260 7,577 7,555 12,779 12,815 130 172 96 28,531 21,152	Payments Electricity Gas Water Insurance Licences/Subscriptions Maintenance and Repairs Renovation Costs Cleaning Fundraising costs Goods & Consumables Admin Costs/Printing Expenditure from Grants Total Payments Bank Balances carried fwd Current Account Reserve Acccounts Bank totals carried fwd Cash in hand carried fwd Stock held Grand Totals	2020 2019 818 966 1,774 2,142 414 538 762 774 189 361 138 708 1,540 1,200 790 800 161 361 - 549 297 7,134 8,147 13,549 5,202 7,584 7,577 21,133 12,779 264 130 - 96
			28,531 21,152

Notes

Income from hall hire has dropped this year as a direct impact of the COVID19 pandemic, forcing the hall to be closed from mid March.

The hall temporarily re-opened during Sept to December with only a small number of regular hirers returning, and no parties were held

Prices were last revised in 2014, price review being considered now

Cash held - Bank and in hand totals £21,352, an increase of £8,443 from the end of 2019. Main reason is despite hall closure we received grants of £11,500 from Shropshire Council and RCC in response to the pandemic

Stock held from recent events - stock held of £136, less £48 wine purchased by Trustees and the remainder valued as £88 was written off in the accounts as no further events can be held and stock expiry dates do not allow to be kept