Burghfield & Mortimer Handybus
(Registered Charity Number 1170252)
Annual Report 2022/23
REMIT
We are a long established local organisation run entirely by volunteers. We provide community transport for elderly and less able residents from a number of villages in West Berkshire, many who have no access to, or are unable to manage, public transport. We operate two 12 seater minibuses that have been specially adapted for easy access and wheelchair use. We operate regular weekly trips to local supermarkets providing a door to door service with volunteer escorts to assist passengers on and off the minibuses and with their shopping. In addition we provide transport for our elderly residents to a number of local Social Clubs and also to Hospital or Health Care appointments.
OPERATION
Operating as a volunteer, not for profit Charity, we charge passengers nothing more than a notional fee per trip to cover our operating overheads. Other funding comes from Grants (West Berkshire Council, local Parish Councils, Dept. of Transport) and donations from other local supporters.
By providing our transport services we give many elderly members of the community access to shopping for themselves and also enables them to be part of a wider social community. This gives them a level of independence, often providing respite for their families and neighbours. For a few passengers we are providing specialist (wheelchair) transport to regular Hospital and Health Care appointments.
THE YEAR
This past year was all about re-establishing full services after the Covid Pandemic had caused the disruption and suspension of our services. Covid led to many of our elderly customers being isolated and bereft of any social contact. This past year, as a Charity, we made special efforts to increase the number of trips we made towards breaking the social isolation many of our elderly residents had fallen into during the pandemic. Our efforts paid off as we have managed to achieve passenger numbers back to pre-covid levels – around 3,300 passenger journeys spread over 450+ individual trips.
Some of the highlights included a number of trips to the seaside enabling many residents to have a “proper day out” for the first time in many years. Good company, the sea air and fish & chips on the seafront does wonders to revitalise many of our local communities’ elderly residents. We also had the opportunity to provided transport for a group of Ukraine refugees and their children, who were being housed locally, to enjoy a day out at Legoland.
Being a not for profit charity we are dependent on local volunteers providing all the services to keep us going. Recruiting volunteers proved to be successful this year as we were able to bring on board an additional 5 volunteers to help us out. This brings the total number of volunteers to 24 all who freely offer their time and efforts to ensure the service can continue.
FINANCE
See accounts.
The Charity is dependent on its funding from grants, donations and contributions from the passengers we carry. Once again West Berkshire Council provided us with a generous Community Transport Grant and we were able to claim the Department of Transport Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG). Additional Grants from local Parish Councils plus donations from other Charitable organisations helped increase our revenues from previous years. With the increase of passengers being carried our passenger contributions have increased by 30% from the previous year. Whilst total Revenues have increased so have the costs of operating our two minibuses. Not only minibus servicing and maintenance cost increases but the considerable increase in diesel cost, coupled with the additional mileage we are covering means much higher operating costs compared to previous years. However we still managed to increase our Reserves towards the cost of replacing our minibuses in the future.
FUTURE
With the continued financial support from West Berkshire Council in the form of a Community Transport Grant and with passenger services now operating back at pre-pandemic levels, the outlook, both financial and operationally, is encouraging for the future.
Burghfield and Mortimer Handybus are extremely grateful to all its funders, supporters and volunteers without whom we would not be able to continue with providing this service. We thank you all and hope that you will continue this valuable support into the coming year.
P.I.CHURCH Chairman of Trustees January 2024
BURGHFIELD & MORTIMER HANDYBUS
RECEIPTS & PAYMENTS ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31st MARCH 2023
| 2022 6,102.00 5,845.56 2,143.75 2.83 |
Receipts Passengers Fares Grants Donations Deposit a/c interest Accumulated surplus 01/04/2022 Add surplus for the year ending 31/03/2023 Advance Payment of Fares |
2023 9,485.00 9,365.56 4,181.90 82.06 23,114.52 £23,114.52 59,564.69 3,113.57 198.00 £62,876.26 |
2022 2,288.50 1,995.03 2,348.90 898.23 542.90 7,400.00 |
Payments Bus Expenses Fuel Insurance Operational Expenses Volunteer Expenses Minibus Depreciation Deficit/Surplus for year Current Account Balance at 31/03/23 Savings A/c (Bus replacement fund) Invoices not yet paid Cash Float Fuel Genie Deposit Minibus Asset DK67 CVN Minibus Asset YF59 YVA |
2023 4,949.49 4,228.77 2,624.94 710.98 1,026.77 6,460.00 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14,094.14 | 15,473.56 -1,379.42 |
20,000.95 3,113.57 |
|||
| £14,094.14 | £14,094.14 | £23,114.52 | |||
| 60,944.11 -1,379.42 |
8,926.60 30,870.17 0.00 637.92 750.00 18,180.00 200.00 |
8,619.11 36,452.23 20.00 114.92 750.00 13,180.00 3,740.00 |
|||
| £59,564.69 | £59,564.69 | £62,876.26 | |||