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← Spark

2025-01-01-accounts

Registered Charity no: 1171214

SPARK

REPORT AND UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2025

SPARK

CONTENTS

Page Page
Legal and administrative information 1
Report of the Board of Trustees 2 - 6
Receipts and payments account 7

SPARK

LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Name of charity SPARK
Also known as Southill Play Area Recreation for Kids
Registered charity number 1171214
Registered address 5 Sutcliffe Avenue
Weymouth
Dorset
DT4 9SA
Board of Trustees James Symonds
Pete Barrow (Chair)
Stacey Wilks
Rachel Taylor
David Harris
Helen Lainsbury
Sarah Polkinghorne
Accountants N/A
Banker Santander
St Thomas Street
Weymouth
Dorset
DT4 8EL
Lawyers Porter Dodson Solicitors and Advisors
53 High West Street
Dorchester
DT1 1UX

SPARK

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2025

Objectives

The objectives of the charity are to promote for the benefit of the inhabitants of Southill, Weymouth and the surrounding area the provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time occupation of individuals who have need of such facilities by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disablement, financial hardship or social and economic circumstances or for the public at large in the interests of social welfare and with the object of improving the condition of life of the said inhabitants.

Main activities

SPARK now has five areas of activity and the work of each is outlined below.

i. SPARK Environmental

The Team is largely self-organising and SPARK’s role is to support the group with any grants it might want to apply for and to provide governance. The Team’s aim is to make improvements to the open spaces in Southill by carrying out a range of activities. These have included planting wild flowers along the new cycle path and replanting the flower bed outside the shops.

ii. SPARK Community Bus

Bus services in Southill have been an issue for years with many changes and reductions over time. This came to a head in July 2017 when DCC removed most of its bus subsidies and as a consequence Southill lost its bus service completely. As a way of mitigating the impact of the cuts, DCC offered grants to community groups who wished to set up and run community bus services. SPARK successfully applied for such a grant, and we were awarded £2,000, which we matched with £2,000 of our own. Unfortunately, we had to suspend the service during COVID and it has not yet restarted.

iii. SPARK Play Area

The local council have recently revamped the play area and installed some new equipment, which we are very pleased about. However, there are still many things we want to do to improve the play area further. We have carried out a survey of local children so we have a good idea of what they would like, and we will be working towards providing their ideas. We are determined to make further improvements, so we are continuing with our fundraising.

iv. SPARK Wellbeing Centre (WBC)

Dorset County Council closed all of its youth clubs, including Southill’s, in 2016 and offered to lease the buildings to community groups who wished to use them for community purposes. SPARK submitted a business case to DCC suggesting that we could use the old youth club as a Wellbeing Centre, which local groups could use to provide healthy activities. The most important issue was that we had to prove that we could meet all the costs of operating the building. This unfortunately ruled out using the building as a youth club in the way it had been done previously as it just did not raise anywhere near enough revenue. Our business case was successful and we have now been running the building since 2016. Initially our main tenant was a dance school, with other tenants being a local musical group, and a local radio club. The dance school has since moved to larger premises and has been replaced by a group offering various activities for young children. We have also been awarded a number of grants from DCC to improve the building.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2025

v. Events

We are not just about raising money to fund facilities; we are just as much about giving Southill residents the opportunity to get involved in community events. The SPARK in the Park events in the summer holidays and the annual Halloween Walk are two examples of SPARK community events. We have also run a bingo session in the local pub and coffee mornings in the Church. This past year has seen a reduced number of public events due to time restraints on the organisers.

Public benefit

The Trustees have given due regard of the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit. We believe that all the activities we engage in support our objects.

The environmental group provides an opportunity for people to engage in a healthy activity and at the same to enhance the appearance of the area.

The community bus ensures that non-drivers still have an affordable means of getting into town for essential visits, such as going to their GP. The bus also helps to prevent social isolation.

The improvements to the play area will ensure children can gain all the proven health and social benefits that come from engaging in a good play experience.

The Wellbeing Centre provides facilities for people to engage in exercise and social activities.

SPARK community events provide an opportunity for residents to come together and socialise, helping to strengthen the community and reduce isolation.

All of our facilities are accessible to everyone who wants to use them, and all our activities are open to anyone who wishes to be involved.

All SPARK activity is carried out by volunteers who give their time voluntarily and receive no remuneration or other benefit. SPARK is very lucky to have this support, and we are very grateful for all they do. The more volunteers we have the more we can do. We would love more people to get involved if you would like to please get in touch via the Facebook page or our website.

Achievements and performance

There is a small piece of Dorset Council owned land next to the Wellbeing Centre that was originally used as the site for a pre school. However, it has been abandoned for many years and is now derelict. We are now supporting a proposal to transfer the site from Dorset Council to Weymouth Town Council. Once done the site would be incorporated into the existing open space to provide an additional recreational area.

The environmental group continues to make improvements that enhance our environment.

The play area remains well used.

The Wellbeing Centre is well used by an organisation which aims to inspire a love of learning through play, discovery and science made simple.

Financial review

We operate a risk assessed approach to our reserves. This means we identify the likelihood and impact of any financial risk and hold a reserve commensurate with the risk. The outcome is that our reserves should be adequate without being excessive. This ensures we have the ability to spend as much as we safely can on achieving our objects.

Our main ongoing source of revenue is from letting the Wellbeing Centre and from fundraising. We have, in the past, also received a number of grants from DCC to enable us to improve the Wellbeing Centre and to support the community bus. These are unlikely to be repeated.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2025

Almost all our current expenditure has been on improving and running the Wellbeing Centre. This will change over time as we seek to make progress with our other activities.

Year end fund balances:

Unrestricted Restricted Funds Restricted Funds Restricted Funds Total
Funds WBC Community Play Youth Environment Youth Environment Funds
Bus Area Club
Brought forward 22,590 - 3,900 4,400 - - 30,890
Income 8,693 - - - - - 8,693
Expenditure (10,830) - - - - - (10,830)
Transfers - - - - - - -
Carried forward 20,543 - 3,900 4,400 - - 28,753

The trustees have chosen to designate some of the unrestricted funds for specific projects leaving £6,000 as general funds. The remaining unrestricted funds have been split as follows:

Structure, governance and management

The governing document is based on the Charity Commission’s model constitution for a “Charitable Incorporated Organisation with voting members other than its trustees”.

SPARK is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (entered onto the register on 19 January 2017).

The Trustees were all appointed as part of the registration process in January 2017 and retired at the AGM in 2018. They were all re-elected at the AGM in 2018. Rachel, Stacey and James were all appointed at the AGM in 2019 as additional trustees.

As the charity grows the trustees will continue to develop the policies of the charity.

SPARK is governed by an overarching Committee which makes all significant decisions. The members of the Committee are elected at the AGM.

The charity has no paid staff and all volunteers give their time voluntarily and receive no remuneration or other benefit.

SPARK has no formal relationships with any other organisation. However, we do work closely with a range of organisations who support our objects including Dorset Council (who we lease the Wellbeing Centre from) and Weymouth Town Council

We face a number of risks, and these are managed through standard risk management methods. Identified risks are recorded on the risk registered and are given a scoring based on current controls. Where necessary additional controls are developed to reduce the risk and then the risk is rescored. We have taken out insurance policies in line with our broker’s advice.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2025

The main risks are: -

• There is a risk of a sudden and significant reduction in Wellbeing Centre letting income should we lose the major hirer, and this could give rise to a cash flow problem where we would be unable to pay the Wellbeing Centre and other bills. Therefore, we will keep a financial reserve that is sufficient to enable SPARK to meet its running expenses for six months to give time to find new hirers.

• SPARK finds it difficult to recruit sufficient volunteers, we will continue to use a number of ways to try and rectify this.

• The reorganisation of all Dorset’s councils has led to various asset transfer issues affecting the land and buildings we operate from. This creates some uncertainty about future support for our Charity.

Statement of trustees' responsibilities

The Board of Trustees is responsible for preparing the report and financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

The law applicable to charities in England and Wales requires the Board of Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of its income and expenditure for that period.

In preparing these financial statements the Board is required to:

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the applicable Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations, and the provisions of the constitution. The trustees are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Approved by the Board on 09 December 2025

Signed on behalf of the Board:

Pete Barrow Chair

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2025

Signed by one or two of the trustees on behalf of all the trustees

Signature: S. Wilks Print Name: Stacey Wilks

Date approved 09 December 2025