2024-03-31-accounts - Wadsworth Community Association

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Set out below is the Trustees’ Annual Report 2023 – 2024. We are also able to present an Observer’s report for last year by our Observer, Jane Morris, whose role it is to oversee the work of the Trustees and ensure we are discharging our work for the Association professionally and in the interests of the local community. At the end of the document, you can find a short summary of our aims and vision.

Trustees’ Annual Report April 2023 – March 2024

Our structure:

The Association currently has a Board of eleven Trustees who have met monthly throughout the year.

The current Trustees are:-

Ian Vickridge (Chair)
Nigel Sagar (Treasurer)
Jude Lancaster (Secretary
Julia Maybury (Membership Secretary)
Christine Brown
John Butterworth
Louisa Clarkson
Carol Hayward
Pat Hill
Heather Levene
Julia Maybury
Jane Morris (Observer)

Representatives from affiliated bodies include Sally Smith – Old Town School and Marcella Walsh – Parish Council and Environment Group.

The Association works in close partnership with the local Old Town Primary School and with FOOTS, their Parent/Teachers Association. The Bowling Club’s activities run during the summer months. Other close stakeholders include Wadsworth Environment Group,

Wainsgate Chapel, Old Town Cricket Club and of course the Parish Council who lease the centre to the Association.

The Association also has an Observer whose role is to receive minutes of Trustee meetings, attend when she wishes, take an active part of the business of the Association and ensure that the Trustees’ work is undertaken diligently, lawfully and consistent with our constitution.

The Association has relied wholly on volunteers to run and develop the centre for use by the local community.

Association activities April 2023 – March 2024

Achievements and Performance:

Over the past year, the Association has hosted a range of community activities including:-

Bowls
Yoga
Pilates
Table Tennis
Boxercise
A monthly Book Club,
Textile Tuesdays
Warm Wednesdays
Home worker mornings
FOOTS (Friends of Old Town School) and school events,
Private parties and celebrations.
Highly successful Walking Markets in June and November organised by FOOTS members.

Our thriving partnership with BGR Events continued and in all we staged nine gigs, including a successful Cragg Vale Coiners event as well as some of the great names in the national folk scene. We feel truly honoured to have earned our reputation as a popular music venue and thank BGR for their wonderful support.

A local rhythm and blues band, the 844s, put on two fundraising gigs for us during the year, one in July and another in December. The 844s have been great supporters of the community centre by helping to raise funds for the Association and always providing great music for dancing the night away.

A ceilidh with Peaceworks was held in April to raise funds for the Turkey-Syria earthquake. We raised £446.00 which the Association raised to £500.00 from our own funds.

There were two Food for Thought events during the year. These are well attended events where a speaker makes a presentation on an interesting topic, a cheap evening supper is provided, and the bar is open. In May Richard Searle gave a talk on creating pollinator friendly neighbourhoods and in September John Butterworth spoke on greener energy for households.

One of the most exciting developments this year has been the creation of a new sub-group, Greening Wadsworth, whose aim is to raise awareness and engage Wadsworth residents in helping to tackle climate change, limit the damage we are doing to the planet, and save some money in the process. Our ultimate though ambitious aim is to make Wadsworth the greenest Parish in the country. The group has bid successfully for funds from Northern Powergrid which has been used to buy two thermal imaging cameras, offering a free service to the community to help them identify unnecessary heat loss in their homes. The group holds regular monthly meetings and we have heard from several impressive speakers. A further sub-group, the Wadsworth Guerrilla Gardeners, have completely renovated and planted up the patch of land below the centre and their work continues; all work done by local volunteers.

Work of the Trustees and the Volunteers

To spread the load of work of our Trustees and volunteers, the Board has four working groups which also include other interested volunteers who are not on the Board.

Website and Social Media Group – Further improvements have been made to the web site and various WhatsApp groups are used for communication between the volunteers and the Trustees.

Bar Management and Support Group – There are now 19 members who help run the bar and provide food at BGR events. During the year the bar license was transferred from the previous licensee , Derek Williamson, to the Board of Trustees, and volunteers have continued his work to the best of our ability. The Bar group looks after the volunteers needed to run the bar and provide food at events, maintains the cellar, and ensures that the bar is fully stocked for each event. A new till system has been purchased and installed, new beer pumps have been installed in the cellar to reduce the amount of heavy lifting that was previously required, and a new sink and glass washer have been installed. Many thanks to Rotary for providing a grant of £1000 to help pay for these improvements.

Centre Development, Gardening and Greening group – In addition to the bar improvements mentioned above, a number of other significant improvements have been made to the centre over this year. A new celling and improved lighting have been installed in the main hall. Finally, after much difficulty in obtaining a suitable contractor, the toilets have been upgraded, and thanks are due to Drew Forsyth for persisting in organising and overseeing this work. A CCTV system has been installed to cover the bowling green and the main entrance to the centre, and a TV monitor has been purchased to enable presentations to be made and seen clearly by the audience. Various ancillary works to repair and maintain the building and the grounds have also been carried out. A special thank you to Richard Jones, who tirelessly maintains the centre grounds to a fantastic standard as well as looking after the beer cellar.

Centre and Community Activities - Major activities during the year have been outlined above. The method of co-ordinating and booking all events is undertaken by our Bookings Secretary. Many thanks to Christine Brown who resigned from this post this year after many years of great service to the Association. We have been very fortunate in finding a replacement in Lucy Ellis who now continues to provide excellent support as the new Bookings Secretary.

The Trustees awarded a grant of £1700 to the bowling group to help in the purchase of a much-needed new mower for the green.

The Board continues to plan activities and events at the centre. Anyone interested in joining any of these Working Groups and of course the Board would be warmly welcomed.

Financial review

This is provided under a separate document from the Treasurer.

Risks

Our Centre’s financial reserves and the diligence of our treasurer, Nigel Sagar, continued to ensure our economic stability. The capacity of the Board and willing volunteers remains an issue of concern as the success of the centre is fully dependent on their commitment to continue to give their time to provide the range of services to meet the needs of local residents. However, more trustees are needed to ensure the sustainability of the Association and the centre.

Aims of the Association

Wadsworth Community Association aims to maintain and develop a well-run, friendly centre in the heart of the parish of Wadsworth that understands and responds to the Wadsworth community’s needs.

Objects:

a) To promote the benefit of the inhabitants of Wadsworth Parish and the
immediate neighbourhood beyond the Parish boundaries (hereinafter called the ‘area of benefit') without distinction of sex, political, religious or other opinions by associating with the local authorities, (mainly Wadsworth Parish Council and Calderdale M.B. Council), voluntary organisations and inhabitants in a common effort to advance education, and to provide facilities in the interest of social welfare for recreation and leisure-time occupations with the object of improving the conditions of life for the said inhabitants.
b) To establish or to secure the establishment of a Community Centre (hereinafter called ‘the Centre) and to maintain and manage, or to co-operate with any local statutory authority in the maintenance and management of, such a Centre for activities promoted by the Association and its constituent bodies in furtherance of the above objects.

Vision:

Our vision is:

to run a lively, well-used centre that is at the heart of the Wadsworth community
for everyone in Wadsworth to understand how the centre runs, what it’s for and feel a sense of ownership
that the WCC (Wadsworth Community Centre) is everybody’s centre.

Values:

Our values underpin everything we do and these are to be inclusive, welcoming, transparent, responsive and imaginative.

Observer’s report to March 31st 2024

Community Association Charities are legally bound by their charitable purposes, and some charities are constituted to have an Observer, whose task is to report on whether the Trustees are acting in accordance with their charitable purposes, as described in the Trustees’ report and outlined on the last page of that report. In summary, it is evident from their report that the charity can be confident that it is meeting its aims and objectives, and my experience of meetings, events and other contacts at the centre is in accord with this view. The report outlines the hard work and many activities and events that WCA has achieved this last year. Relationships with other local organisations are lively and positive, and it is clear that WCA provides a high quality and reliable service locally, as well as attracting people from further afield to concerts, birthday parties, classes, workshops, sports, welfare, and many more activities. I live locally and know how much this is valued. Committee meetings are well administered, run and recorded. Appropriate thought and care is given to financial oversight and to continuing to improve the building and facilities, and to stay within the spirit of the community. With the exception of youth work, there have been good developments, and the question of involving young people and establishing activities for them is still hoped for. There is no doubt that WCA is guided by their charitable purposes, and that its values of transparency, inclusion, responsiveness and imagination guide their decisions.

Jane Morris

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Wadsworth Community Association Charity Number: 1171791 Address: Wadsworth Community Centre, Billy Lane, Wadsworth, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX7 8RY

Year to

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Income & Expenditure Account

Year to

Wadsworth Community Association Charity Number: 1171791 Address: Wadsworth Community Centre, Billy Lane, Wadsworth, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX7 8RY

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for the year to 31st March 2024 31-Mar-24 £ BAR & FOOD ACCOUNT Bar & food sales 21,757.04 Less cost of sales 11,026.36 Gross proft 49.3% 10,730.68 Licences 935.87 Bar equipment, services, etc 1,494.54 Less profts to DEC 500.00 BAR & FOOD ACCOUNT SURPLUS 7,800.27 CAFÉ ACCOUNT LOSS 0.00 CENTRE INCOME Bookings 6,006.30 Special eforts 0.00 Membership subscriptons 61.00 COVID support grants 0.00 Donatons & Other Grants 3,013.20 Other Income 100.41 CENTRE INCOME 9,180.91 OVERALL CENTRE INCOME 16,981.18 CENTRE RUNNING COSTS Utlites 2,945.65 Insurance 1,130.24 Repairs & maintenance 3,244.35 Cleaning & Hygiene 5,852.57 Grant spend 2,321.60 Other expenditure 3,131.24 TOTAL CENTRE RUNNING COSTS 18,625.65 OPERATING PROFIT / (LOSS) -1,644.47 IMPROVEMENTS TO CENTRE Improvements to toilets, bar, ceiling & lights 22,026.28 INCOME AND EXP A/C LOSS/SURPLUS -23,670.75	31-Mar-23
	£

	22,585.05
	10,465.65
	53.7% 12,119.40
	576.68
	1,294.48
	0.00
	10,248.24

	0.00


	5,223.50
	305.00
	59.00
	0.00
	7,029.61
	110.91
	12,728.02

	22,976.26


	2,387.94
	1,052.87
	2,217.14
	4,224.46
	6,546.40
	844.77
	17,273.58

	5,702.68


	10,496.80

	-4,794.12

Wadsworth Community Association Charity Number: 1171791 Address: Wadsworth Community Centre, Billy Lane, Wadsworth, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX7 8RY

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GRANT SPENDING £ REGEN SW grant 3,376.00 Less spending 1,321.60 Grant remaining at 31st March 2,054.40 Hebden Bridge Rotary Club 1,000.00 Less spending 1,000.00 Grant remainingat 31st March 0.00	£
	0.00
	0.00
	0.00
	0.00
	0.00
	0.00

Wadsworth Community Association Charity Number: 1171791

Address: Wadsworth Community Centre, Billy Lane, Wadsworth, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX7 8RY