2024-12-31-accounts - The Bishop's Waltham Society

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NOTICE OF THE 40[th] ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE BISHOP’S WALTHAM NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGSOCIETY 20[th] FEBRUARY

Registered Charity Number 1170683

In accordance with the Society's Constitution, section 5, notice is hereby given that the THIRTYNINTH Annual General Meeting of the Bishop's Waltham Society will be held on Thursday 20th February 2025 at 7.30pm at The Catholic Church Hall, Martin Street, Bishop’s Waltham.

AGENDA

Chairman’s welcome
Apologies for absence
Minutes of 3th Annual General Meeting held on 15[th] February 2024
Matters arising from the Minutes
Adoption of Trustees Report
Adoption of Financial Report
Election of Officers:
a. Chairman
b. Vice Chairman
c. Treasurer
d. Secretary
Election of up to eight Trustees
Appointment of Examiner of the Society’s accounts
Hypothecation of Gift Aid
Members’ Forum – Any Other Business
Closing remarks by Chairman

The meeting will be followed by cheese and wine and then a short talk from Ali Naylor of English Heritage.

NOTES

A. Only members who have paid their 2025 subscriptions are entitled to participate or vote in the meeting.

B. Election of Officers and Committee members. Nominations, complete with a seconder, and the  nominee’s permission, must be sent in writing to the Robin Shepherd, Oakdene, The Avenue, Bishop’s Waltham, SO32 1BP by 13th February 2025 (see form below) or by email to Bishop’s Waltham Society info@bishopswalthamsociety.org.uk. All nominators and seconders must be fully paid-up Nomination Form for: Chairman/Vice-chairman/Treasurer/Secretary/Trustee) members of the Bishop's Waltham Society, as must the person being nominated. C. Items for discussion under "Any Other Business" must be notified to the Chairman in writing to I, ................................................................................................. (your name), the address, above or by email to info@bishopswalthamsociety.org.uk, by 13th February 2025 and be of a non-controversial nature. nominate ..........................................................................................(their name)

to serve as Chairman / Vice-chairman / Treasurer / Secretary / Trustee * from 20[th] February 2025 to the date of the Annual General Meeting for 2026

I agree to this nomination...................................................................... (Nominee’s signature)

Signed by Nominator...........................................................................

Name of Seconder..............................................................................

Signed by Seconder........................................................................... (Seconder’s signature) Minutes of the THIRTY SEVENTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Date.............................................

Minutes of the THIRTY ninth ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the BISHOP’S WALTHAM SOCIETY *** delete those which do not apply held in the Church Hall, Free Street at 7.30pm on 15[th] February 2024**

Chairman Robin Shepherd welcomed members to the meeting and commented that it was nice to see so many people attending the AGM. He confirmed that he has now completed the year as Chairman he had agreed to, but more on that later.

APOLOGIES for absence were received from Sue Lowe, Vicky Cronin, Robin and Chris Breech, Ian Leesmith, and Debbie Crump.

MINUTES of the 38th AGM having been circulated to members with the agenda; there were no comments so Robin suggested that the minutes were accepted as a true and accurate record. Proposed by Gareth Morgan and seconded by Alison McNally.

MATTERS ARISING from the minutes: there were no matters arising.

ADOPTION OF THE TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR 2023 having been circulated to members with the agenda: Robin Shepherd asked whether anyone had any comments but none were raised. The adoption of the Trustees’ Report was proposed by Tony Kippenberger and seconded by Steve Forrest.

ADOPTION OF FINANCIAL REPORT: The Treasurer, Keith Fry, referred to the financial report and statement of account circulated with the Agenda and asked whether anyone had any comments. The only query came from Nick Whitehead who asked when the Gift Aid payment is received, how much this would be? Keith confirmed it will be around £500. The adoption of the financial report was proposed by Ann Riches and seconded by Margaret Pilling.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS: Robin Shepherd confirmed that he is prepared to continue in the role of Chairman for a further year, which was warmly welcomed by all. He hopes during this time that a new Chairman can be found and asked attendees to please consider the role themselves or perhaps they knew someone who would be able to take this on. In either case, please contact Robin for further details. The proposal for Robin to remain as Chairman was agreed nem con.

The role of Vice Chairman remains vacant although Robin said he is hoping that an existing trustee, or perhaps a new trustee, will take on that position, not least because it means the person could then take on the role of Chairman next year.

Robin Shepherd commented that after many years, Keith Fry has decided to step down as Treasurer and a Trustee. A new Trustee, Teresa Pratt, has been appointed to fill the role of Treasurer and she and Keith have met to have a handover. Robin said he would like to use this meeting to formally appoint Teresa as a Trustee and Treasurer – this appointment was proposed by Ann Riches and agreed by Keith Fry. Agreed nem con.

Robin Shepherd confirmed that Eileen Rainey had stepped down from role as Secretary last August and that currently the position remains vacant. He said he has been taking the Minutes of the Trustees meetings himself but is looking for someone to take on the role, so again if anyone in the audience would like to consider this themselves or knows of anyone who might be interested to please get in touch.

ELECTION OF UP TO EIGHT TRUSTEES: Robin commented on the sad loss of Nigel Russell who had joined as a Trustee at last year’s AGM.

He confirmed the existing Trustees – Sandra Boyd, Sue Lowe, Mike Berry, Steve Forrest, Tamsin Withers and Tony Kippenberger (who is President of the Society as well as being a Trustee) - have all agreed to continue. Robin suggested that these were proposed and seconded en bloc – proposed by Tricia Morgan, seconded by Rupert Johnson; agreed nem con. Robin then confirmed that there has been a new Trustee appointment, Grace Cox – proposed by Tamsin Withers, seconded by Steve Forrest and agreed nem con.

APPOINTMENT OF THE EXAMINER OF THE SOCIETY’S ACCOUNTS: Robin asked Paul whether he is happy to continue in the role of Examiner and Paul confirmed he is.

HYPOTHECATION OF GIFT AID: Keith explained that each year, the Society receives an amount of money as a Gift Aid payment – this represents a refund by the Government of the tax paid by members on their subscriptions (it costs

members nothing to sign up to Gift Aid). He reminded members that five years ago the Trustees had proposed that rather than this money simply going into the Society’s general account, it should be used for donations to good causes. The members having agreed that proposal, we have each year since then paid the money to various local organisations. Robin said that last year’s Gift Aid payment of £400 had been donated to the Meon Valley Food Bank and the proposal is to do the same with this year’s payment, when it is received.

Robin also confirmed that over the past year the Society has made donations totalling £1,600 to four local charities/community groups. This money comes from members’ subscriptions as well as donations and he added that it is the Society’s intention to do the same again this year. He thinks this is a good use of the Society’s funds rather than simply building up a large amount in the bank account. All agreed.

MEMBERS’ FORUM – ANY OTHER BUSINESS: Keith Fry said he would like to take the opportunity to reiterate the remarks he’d made in his Treasurer’s Report. He genuinely feels that it has been both a privilege and a pleasure to have been a Trustee and Treasurer for over 10 years, working with some wonderful people and having lots of laughs. He added he wanted to thank everyone for their support and for laughing at his jokes!

Tony Kippenberger said that Hampshire County Council are looking to make savings of around £120 million from their budget and are currently carrying out a consultation on their proposals. One of these relates to the closure of the BW Household Waste Recycling Centre and Tony confirmed that the Society are working on a response which will be submitted to the Council. He commented that whilst completing the online consultation response himself he had found that one of the maps used by the Council was incorrect as regards the locations of other Household Waste Recycling Centres. He said that having told the Council about the error, within 48 hours this had been corrected. Tony suggested that if members had already completed the consultation, they may wish to do so again because of the change in circumstances.

Tony said he wanted to highlight some correspondence recently received by Keith Fry as Treasurer. It was a note from a long-standing member, Fred Butter, who lives in Southwold, Suffolk. During Covid, the Society held their monthly meetings on Zoom which had enabled Fred to join. He had sent Keith a cheque and a note saying “Keith – I am now 81 years old and pay for Life Membership. Covid brought Zoom and I saw and enjoyed being part of your enjoyable meetings”. Tony said he thought it was wonderful that Fred was applying for Life Membership at the age of 81!

CLOSING REMARKS BY CHAIRMAN: Robin confirmed that he wanted to thank Keith – he said it’s been a lot of fun and Keith has done a superb job keeping the accounts and maintaining the membership details, as well as being an excellent prop at the Christmas parties!

Robin also wanted to thank Sandra Boyd who is relinquishing her role as Meetings Co-ordinator. In addition to arranging all the monthly speakers, Sandra has been key to arranging the Christmas Parties and refreshments at the AGMs. He is delighted to say however that Sandra is remaining as a “Trustee without portfolio” and will continue to contribute to the Society.

Both Keith and Sandra received thanks and applause from the members. Robin said at the last Trustees’ meeting, on behalf of members he had given both Keith and Sandra a gift to thank them for all their hard work and support over the many years they’ve been involved with the Society.

Robin then thanked the audience for being members and said he thought the Society is good and does good things. He commented that evidence of this is the posters on the hoardings at Malt Lane showing the history of Bishop’s Waltham – he said that every time he passes there are always a number of people reading them.

He thanked the existing Trustees for continuing with their roles and said he would like to reiterate the commitment to finding new Trustees, again asking if any members can help in this regard to please do so. This will ensure the Society continues into 2025, 2026 and beyond.

After the AGM members enjoyed cheese and wine. This was followed by a brief presentation by Robert Shields on the work of the Town Team, then a talk by Nick Whitehead of the Bishop’s Waltham Museum Trust on “How we belong; Society and Community”.

Trustees’ Report for 2024

Current Trustees

President: Tony Kippenberger

Chairman: Robin Shepherd Vice-chairman: vacant Treasurer: Chris Yates Secretary: Robin Shepherd (temp)

Trustees: Tony Kippenberger, Mike Berry, Sandra Boyd, Grace Cox, Steve Forrest, Tamsin Withers, Sue Lowe, Theresa Pratt, Chris Yates, Robin Shepherd.

Membership

At the end of 2024 our membership numbers stood at 345, but we know that the increase in membership fee may lead to lower renewals because it often means changing bank arrangements and that in itself may prompt some inactive members to reconsider membership. The increased membership was not updated in a timely fashion on the Paypal access from the BWS website and so there has been a deal of confusion over the year. This has now been regularised and messages sent to all members via email to ensure payment of subs by end January when a more accurate tally of members may be made. We estimate that we will start 2025 with around 300 members.

Members’ Meetings

We held 10 meetings during the year (including the AGM). The larger Roman Catholic Church Hall in Martin Street has proved to be popular as attendance at the monthly talks has averaged in the 80 members. The 2025 programme is complete and details are at

https://www.bishopswalthamsociety.org.uk/meetings. The Xmas party, which trustee Sandra Boyd had once more wonderfully delivered, was again very well attended.

Publications

‘The Early History of Bishops Waltham in Posters’ by Tony Kippenberger continues to sell well and the posters along Malt lane similarly continue to generate interest from passers by to and from the town centre.

‘We will Remember Them’ by Peter Ridley, Alan Inder and Tony Kippenberger are still selling albeit more slowly, as it commemorates the men from Bishops Waltham who laid sown their lives during the First World War.

Tony’s research into the life and Victorian times of Bishops Waltham resident and benefactor, George Garnett continues well and we hope to publish it later in the 2025. We will also be publishing, free to members, Tony’s pamphlets recording VE and VJ days to mark their 80th anniversaries.

House History project

The BW House History project is close to being relaunched by trustees Steve Forrest and Grace Cox. The renewed BWS house history project will hopefully go live in March 2025. The aim of the project, in conjunction with the Bishops Waltham Museum Trust, is to create a contemporaneous, social history of Bishops Waltham stretching from its earliest origins to today. The project will seek to attract, and support, volunteers who may live in an historic house and wish to research its history, or people who are interested in researching the history and development of Bishops Waltham and the people who lived or worked in it, or continue to live or work in it. The intention of the project is to create a volunteer fed, on line record of Bishops Waltham, accessible to all. Steve will be presenting the project to date to the membership at the April meeting

Planning

During 2024 the Society has been further involved in the scrutiny of planning applications. We objected to the first and second application to build a six town house style development on the Esso garage site, principally on the basis of inappropriate design; objection was also made to the Canine daycare proposal on the Botley road due to noise and hygiene; most critical perhaps was the objection by BWS made not simply to the proposed closure of the BW recycling centre by HCC but the misleading research methodologies employed by them in the presentation of their rationale. This paper produced by Tony Kippenberger on our behalf was sent to all other parishes affected as well as to HCC itself. BW members were much in evidence at the demonstration objecting to closure at the site in early autumn.

On a different note we are pleased that the Society’s arguments for the retention of Abbey Mill, made in late 2018, were successful. Beechcroft’s final, approved application states it will be turned into flats. The development is now well underway. We are also pleased to report that the Malt Lane development has

now started. Copies of all the Society’s relevant letters are available under ‘Planning Matters’ on our website (Planning Matters | BW Society (bishopswalthamsociety.org.uk). Please take a look.

Grants and Donations

These are briefly covered in the Treasurer’s report, but we are pleased that we were able to continue making donations to local charities and community groups during the year. Notable among these groups were Bishops Waltham Youth Club, BW Gateway club and joining with BW Junior School in the purchase and distribution of Christmas food vouchers to appropriate families.

Website

Our website is designed to attract new members and to be an easy place for current members to keep in touch with what we are doing. It can be found at https://www.bishopswalthamsociety.org.uk/

Subscriptions

The annual subscription will remain at £10 and £16 respectively.

Trustees

The chairman again wishes to express his gratitude for the hard work and dedication shown by the Society’s trustees during the year, all of whom have assumed active roles and responsibilities. I am also especially grateful to Tony Kippenberger who maintains energy levels far exceeding historians and writers half of his age.

Treasurer’s Report to the Annual General Meeting 2025

This is my first report as Treasurer following Keith Fry stepping down from the post at the start of January 2024. I would like to thank Keith for his time as Treasurer with the Society and for the excellent job he carried out in the post, over many years.

I have enclosed with this report the Statement of Financial Information which sets out how all the financial business of the society has been transacted during the last 12 months.

If we look first at the income figures, you will see that there has been an overall reduction in income despite similar figures for Subscriptions. The largest decrease in income has been from a drop in Donations to the Society, with, this year, no income from Grants for the posters on the green wall opposite the Palace. Publications income has also declined. An application for Gift Aid for both 2023 and 2024 will be submitted to H.M.R.C in April this year.

If we now look at the expenditure figures, administration costs have decreased this year, stabilising from the increases of last year. As in most years, the society gave £400 and £500 grants to a number of worthwhile village organisations. Purchases, including the cost of the posters are considerably less than last year and the Society’s’ meetings costs remained fairly constant.

The Special Projects account has had little movement this year. Overall, the Society starts 2025 in a good financial position.

Examiners comments on the above

"I confirm that the Statement of Financial Activities for the year ending 31 December 2024 is correct based on the information provided"

Paul Emmerson Examiner January 2025

~~Bishop’s Waltham Society~~ Past - Present + Future	~~Bishop’s Waltham Society~~ Past - Present + Future	~~Bishop’s Waltham Society~~ Past - Present + Future
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES YEAR ENDING 31st DECEMBER 2024	BALANCE SHEET YEAR ENDING 31st DECEMBER 2024
2024 INCOME £ Subscriptions 2,905.03 Donations 40.00 Gift Aid 0.00 Meetings 0.00 Publications 81.00 Refunds 557.55 Paypal fees Total 3,583.58 EXPENDITURE £ Administration 1,080.70 Grants 1,225.00 Posters 671.00 Meetings 1,444.25 Subscription 54.00 Purchases 0.00 Website 0.00 Palace Guide Transfer to SP 500.00 Total 4,974.95 Excess of income/expenditure -1,391.37		2023 £ 1,096 3,000
		4,096
		4,096 £ 6,524 -2,428
		4,096 4,096
Special Projects Fund

S ecial Pro ects Fund p j

2024 £ 15.00 500.00	2023	2024 £ 2,286.12	2023
	£		£
			2,321


	2250
515.00 £ 50.00 500.00	£2,250
		2,286.12 £ 2,321.12 -35.00	£2,321


	£		£
			2651
			-330
	2580
550.00 -£35.00	2,580	2,286.12 2,286.12	2,321

	-330		2,321