HEADINGTON ACTION - ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDING December 2020
Headington Action’s aim as set out in our constitution is to benefit those who live, work and study in Headington. We do this by working with residents, together with voluntary, commercial and other organisations and local authorities to promote the area, increase civic pride, undertake community projects and make environmental improvements.
The year started with priorities in our forward plan continuing from 2019, which were:
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Support the Headington Neighbourhood Forum on the formation of the Headington Community Council.
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Give increased focus to community matters especially through the Connected Communities project which envisaged a launch in the summer of 2020 to coincide with Headington Festival.
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Improve the environment of Headington, especially through the greening project and floral displays.
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Continue business as usual activities such as Headington Market, Headington Festival, Christmas lights, giving of grants and involvement in local ad-hoc matters etc.
In March 2020 our attention to the above completely changed to focus on the role HA might play in the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on our core activities. The key outcomes were:
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Headington Market . It was no longer possible to operate the market in its normal location due to social distancing restrictions. The immediate task was to move the market on-line. The next task was to move the physical market to a different location. Both tasks had challenges but the outcomes were very successful. The market is the main source of revenue for HA so its absence for a number of weeks and subsequent relocation costs made a significant hit on our finances. Despite that we were delighted to provide weekly food gifts to staff at Sobell House for about 6 weeks. (Sobell House is a local hospice, part of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.) These gifts were procured from market traders thus helping the traders in addition to supporting some of our key health workers.
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Coordination and communication . We played a significant role in exchanging information about Covid-19 impacts between different groups in Headington, communicating matters of concern, forwarding advice from agencies, and also promoting uplifting activities and events. We accepted a chairing role of a newly created partnership between local health, education and local government in Headington with a focus on problem identification.
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Street champions and volunteering . Many street networks were rapidly implemented to provide support to those in need as a result of the pandemic, especially through local resident groups and Oxford Together. Headington Action provided support to these networks including an element of liaison between primary care and other agencies. A noteworthy outcome was the identification of over 10 volunteer counsellors to support one of our GP surgeries with patients suffering from mental health issues.
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Headington Festival and Connected Communities week. With much regret these were cancelled because of the pandemic. The value of such community activities was however highlighted by the pandemic resulting in a determination to build on them in the future.
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Impact of pandemic on HA’s forward plan. The pandemic had an impact, at least short term, on the public’s attitudes to community and environment. To gauge the impact of this, HA held a series of conversations during the summer on the themes of community, environment, the local commercial centre and transport. This resulted in a new HA forward plan which was agreed by the full committee in November. It will provide the basis of our activities during the next few years.
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Governance. In March the City Council formally announced that the proposed Community Council for Headington would not go ahead. The implications of this decision on HA, on Headington Neighbourhood Forum and on ‘political’ governance in Headington was explored
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with Councillors and with senior executives at Oxford City Council. Conclusions were unclear. There was a view that existing Headington groups should continue, even be strengthened. One positive outcome from HA’s point of view is that we now have good informal contacts at officer level into the City’s communities and development directorates.
Regular activities such as Christmas lights, floral displays, provision of grants, responses to community matters continued as usual. Our website was much improved in attractiveness, as well as usefulness to reflect the Covid pandemic.
As a committee we continued to meet (on-line) every other month, with Exec meetings monthly. The Trustee group was expanded through the addition of one new member (Viv Miles). We identified a weakness in our management, membership and projects concerning lack of diversity and inclusiveness and set up a task force to examine this, bringing in some external expertise to help us. This is continuing.
As Trustees of Headington Action, during the past year we have had first class support from many in the community. We are well connected with local City and County councillors. We have developed good links with local government officers and the primary care sector. Brookes University is a keen supporter of HA. Our thanks to you all. There are many we could mention, but we are hesitant to name names for fear of omissions. However, Cari Morningstar and Jason Smith followed by Theresa and Keith Frayn should be mentioned for guiding the market through such difficult times and making it the success it is.
In summary 2020 was an exceptionally busy and eventful year. We remain financially sound despite taking a hit from the impact of the pandemic. We had the capacity to respond to the pandemic and built on changed public attitudes to develop a revised forward plan for the next few years.
HA Trustees March 2021
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| ACCOUNTSFORTHE YEAR0lJ | anuary2020to31 | December20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | SeENote1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YEAR 01/01/20 YEAR | 01/01/19toYEAR | 01/0'1/18toPERIOD01/12/16PERIOD 01/04/16 | ||||
| to31112120 | 31t12119 |
311121A@31n2t17 | to30/1tlt5 | |||
| See Nole2 | ||||||
| RECEIPTS | e | f, | e | e | e | |
| Festival | 3,411 | 10,026 | 12,148 | 12.152 | 7,741 | See Note4 |
| ilarkei | 4,297 | 10,105 | 9,715 | 12.135 | 5,4'13 | |
| Grants | 0 | 0 | 70 | 1,070 | 100 | |
| Headington Neighbourhood Forum | 0 | 75 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Christmas | 2,000 | 650 | 250 | 780 | 0 | |
| 0 | 2,471 | 2,467 | 2,410 | 1,615 | S€e Note5 | |
| Calendar | 0 | o | 388 | |||
| HRAfunds | 0 | 9,000 | ||||
| lnterest | ||||||
| TOTAL RECEIPTS | ||||||
| ExcludingHRAfunds | ||||||
| PAYMENTS | e | e | € | f, | ||
| 222 | 11,412 | 12,345 | 10,146 | 9,095 | ||
| 5,363 | 3,413 | 4,497 | 5.964 | 4,351 | ||
| Expenses | 465 | 424 | 1,149 | 1,838 | 1,6,{4 | |
| Granls | 1,272 | 169 | 1,900 | 1,075 | 593 | |
| Headington Neighbourhood Forum | 247 | 259 | 1,026 | 0 | 0 | |
| 906 | 796 | |||||
| Chrislmas | 1,449 | 1,314 | 1,519 | 4,779 | 366 | |
| 0 | 2,325 | 3,328 | 2,202 | 2,377 | ||
| 0 | 346 | |||||
| Calendar | 0 | 0 | 633 | |||
| 1,000 | 700 | 576 | Note 6 | |||
| HRAtunds-Transfer | q175l).t | |||||
| TO]ALPAYMENTS | ||||||
| ExcludingHRAFunds | 21,558 | |||||
| NET RECEIPTS/(PAYMENTS}INTHE YR | -891 | 1,943 | -1,739 | 2,ao7 | -3,557 | |
| SummarybyActivity,2020 | Difference | |||||
| F6stival | 3,1E9 | See Note3 | ||||
| I\,,larket | -1,066 | |||||
| Expenses | -465 | |||||
| -906 | ||||||
| -1,000 | ||||||
| GIants | "1,272 | |||||
| HNF | -247 | |||||
| Xmas | 551 | |||||
| 0 | ||||||
| Connectivity Proj€ct | 0 | |||||
| Greening Project | 0 | |||||
| Tlansrer | 0 | |||||
| lnteaest | 0 | |||||
| Iotals | -1,257 | |||||
| MONETARY ASSETS | 3'v1212020 | 31t12120't9 | 3',I12J2019 | 31t12t2017 | 31t03120'17 | |
| Co-op Deposit Account | 88,597 | €8,231 | 87,E83 | €9,669 | €9,426 | |
| Bank current account | €4,038 | t3,702 | e3,635 | f1,09't | s€eNote4 | |
| TOTAL ASSETS | f12,635 | f,13,526 | €11,585 | 213,324 | 110,517 | |
| ASSET CHANGE | '€891 | e1,94'1 | €-1,739 | 22,AO7 | €-3,557 |