2022-01-31-accounts - Ditchling Village Hall

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Ditchling village Hall Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday 2nd November 2022 19:00 Charity number 1175123

Chair of Ditchling Village Hall AGM report from Victoria Ingham

Welcome to this year's annual general meeting of Ditchling Village Hall and thank you very much for attending and for your continuing support of the hall. Last year’s AGM was on Thursday 5th August 2021 and it was almost at that time that all covid related recommendations were removed, so we are now 15 months on.

During the last year there's been a steady increase in hires, both to locals and non-residents.

Many village societies have resumed their events including the Ditchling Players’ productions in November 2021 and May 2022. The DVA coffee meetings have resumed, the wines and film society events along with other groups like the local toddlers have resumed meeting in the hall. This is all very good news for the local community and the hall. Other non-resident activities have taken place including the FITC hires, and a number of exercise and other classes. Then there has been the invigoration of private parties and private events both by local and no local residents.

During 2021 35% of events in the hall were held by local residents and this has increased again this year to 42% of hires by local residents. This is rising closer to the pre covid figures. Hires still remain below those seem prior to the Covid-19 pandemic but are slowly increasing and hence our revenue continues to slowly increase. More details will be given of this by our treasurer Laura Hemsley later tonight.

We have also set up a backup system for when Allan is unavailable, and a local resident Hayley Mathias has been doing some cleaning for us. Felix Craven also a resident in the village has helped us with set ups and set downs. This strengthens our resilience to provide all year cleaning and hall care.

Greg from Glass to Grass is now doing our external window cleaning and Liz Pope continues in her role as the village hall gardener managing our external space.

Lorna Hemsley took over as our treasurer at the AGM last year and has been doing amazing work in managing our finances and budgeting. She's managed to get some favourable deals with our utility providers which is helping but we definitely recognise that these bills are increasing. She has also been a wealth of common sense and guidance for all things related to the hall over his last year and would not have managed without her. She will give her report later.

We very much also indebted to Phil Smith who has continued in his role as vice chair, he continues to manage our insurance with Allied Westminster. He also helps with charity returns to the Charity Commission and Phil continues to contribute to all activities related to the hall and is an invaluable member of the team.

Ian Chapman also trustee who is sadly stepping down tonight, has continued with his hard work supporting the caretaker with hall maintenance, repairs and refurbishments. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank him on behalf of DVH for all his dedication and hard work at the hall over many years. He will be missed.

Jamie Fries has continued as a hall trustee and helping to manage the website.

One very important person who the hall could not run without is Catherine Hinchliffe, who has taken over as the booking secretary during 2022 from our previous booking secretary James Butler. She had a lot of work to do when she took over this role in getting the bookings and calendar up to date and did a sterling job. We also owe many thanks to Gemma Rice for helping and supporting Catherine in the beginning with her superior skills using Hallmaster. Catherine has managed to be extremely accommodating to all hirers and is very organised. It’s a big volunteer role she has and we are all very grateful.

Gemma Rice, as I've already mentioned, helped Catherine very much with bookings and Hallmaster in the beginning and continues as a member of our management team leading on Facebook and publicity. She's also been a great source of general common sense helping to guide the hall through this difficult last year. She will be proposed as a hall trustee later tonight.

Roy Burman continues as Designated Premises Supervisor and is happy to continue in this role.

We also have to thank Colin French who continues in his role as the independent examiner of our accounts.

It has been a tough year for the trustees and management team as there's not many of us to manage this great community asset. Everybody has put in much hard work and dedication to keep the hall running. I'm indebted to them all for their support. We have put out calls and publicity over the last year to try and encourage other local residents to support the hall, maybe as a trustee or to join the management committee with the running of the hall. In particular, we really need somebody to help support our caretaker with the general maintenance and repairs. It would also be helpful to have somebody else to support more office-based activities. Without additional people the hall will struggle and so i really put out a plea for you to ask people within your societies or your groups to come forward if they can, even for smaller roles within the hall which will really help us to keep going.

As I said earlier lots of different resident and non-resident groups, including village societies, private enterprises and private parties have started back at the hall. We are grateful for these people choosing the hall as their venue for their events. Since we last had the AGM, we've dropped any Cobvd-19 specific recommendations. We still ask all hirers to ensure they leave the hall in a clean and tidy state after use, ready for the next hire which may be directly after them. People should sweep the floor and wipe down any surfaces they have used. We've taken the decision to cut back on the additional payment set-ups we will offer as this has become quite complicated. Therefore, going forward will offer these to FITC, the Players, the DVA coffee morning and the Film Society and not offer these more widely to other societies and groups.

It's important to us that we keep hirer rates as low as possible but with ever increasing inflationary costs and utility costs there will be inevitable rises. We normally review our hirer rates every two years and had already publicised a rate increase which is very modest for 2023. We've decided to review the rates again for 2024, so only in one year, given the uncertain economic environment.

adequate temperature when arriving in the hall and throughout your hire but the heating will be dropped back when the hall is not in use. You can override the system for a short period to boost the heating if you require this during your hire but please ensure it is again turned down on leaving the hall. Please make sure all windows and doors are shut when you are using the hall when the heating is on. Closing the hall stage curtains helps to contain heat as does closing the back curtains.

During the last year we received ongoing government Covid-19 grants which have now stopped. We also received a grant from the Ditchling village ball which we bought the new fridge with.

During the last year we've done quite a lot to try and improve the health and safety of the hall. We had an independent evaluation, and this recommended we have banister’s on all stairways, which we have installed. They also suggested a chain to be across the front of the stage when the stage is in use, to prevent people falling off the front of the stage. This is in progress. Another suggestion was the removal of the small radiators at the rear of the hall, as they could be a trip hazard, and given that the heat output on an exterior wall is not efficient, we've decided to remove these. We have also independently restored all the tables to being stored below the stage to prevent them falling. We've also continued in our mission to declutter the hall of all unnecessary items and make sure that all things are safe and securely stored in an appropriate location. I continue to attempt to re home the piano and have met with a number of interested parties but so far nobody has yet taken it, but it has been tuned in this process!

We have reported two incidents to the insurers one of which is ongoing.

During this last year we've continued to maintain and update the hall. We are keen both to maintain the fabric of the building as well as the cosmetic and aesthetic appearance of the hall. We have replaced the fascia’s on the outside of the hall which has been our main expense over the last year. Externally we have also repaired and painted all the external ironwork which looks very neat. Cosmetically have replaced the hall curtains and have a new notice board outside. Anything that you would like to display in this notice board just needs to be put into the hall post box and will be displayed by Allan at intervals. We are also in the process of replacing equipment within the bathrooms, both hand towel dispensers, toilet roll dispensers, bins and soap dispensers, along with the bins throughout the hall. We will talk a little later about other ideas we have for hall improvements in the coming year

I think all that remains of my report is to thank everybody for attending tonight and thank all the hirers for choosing DVH for their events and very big thank you to all the trustees and management team who keep this great building running. I am also very grateful to Allan our new caretaker.

DITCHLING VILLAGE HALL (Charity Dumber 1175123) Accounts for the year ended 31 January 2022

DITCHLIING VILLAGE HALL Atcounls for the year ended 31 JxDuary 2022 Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees of Ditehling WIllAge Hgll I report on the attacbed Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Receipts and Payments Account for the year ¢nded 31" January 2022. 1 have reviewed the accounting records kept by the tharity from whidi the accounts have been prepared. In my opinion proper accounting records have been kept and there are no further matter5 to which attention should be drawn io enable a prow undetstanding of the accounts to be reached. C. G. French FCA The Garden House, Ditchling Date..

DITCHLING VILLAGE HALL Accounts for the year thded 31" January 2022 Stalement of Assets and Liabilities Unrestricied Funds 31st 31st January Januydry 2022 2021 CASH FUNDS Bank balance. currait acLX)unt COIF Charities deposit fund Total Cash Funds 18,221 9,165 33,233 33,228 42 51,454 3 OTHER MONETARY AssErs Hire income debtors 125 NON.MONrARy ASSETS Permanent endowment - tand and budthngs used by the Charity The Village Hall (proiw vested in the Offlcial Custodian for Charitie5) Contents of the HaIl.' stsg< piano. table& Chairs. kitchen fitsngs and equipment Note.. The building and Contents a iL8uroJ £2,130.208 and £44.104. respectsvely Key dep05itsldeFrfJsits received for future ev& L. A. Hemsley. Treasurer For and on behalf of the Management Committee Z21

DITCHLING VILLAGE HALL Aecounts for the year ended 31" J*nuary 2022 Rettipts and Payments Account 2022 Unrestricted Fund5 2021 Unrestricted Fund$ RECETrTS Donations, legacie8 & grants Donations Legacies Gratrt income 360 1.328 11,623 19,139 Trading activities Hire inu)me" Village 7.457 12.070 6.772 6,783 19.527 13.555 Investment income Interest on COIF Charitsts Dep)sit Fund TOTAL RECEIPTS EXCLUDING DEposrrs 70 31,155 32,764 PAYMENTS Repairs, maintsn2nce and wuipmtht Lightin& heating and water Caretaker and cleaning Licences InsutanL Adverttsing and marketing Other expenses. including posttge & stationery TOTAL PAYMENfs EXCLUDING DEPoSs 13.083 2.188 4.659 236 16.904 3.070 7,712 332 1,805 2.094 104 380 376 22,744 30,199 SURPLUS OF RECEIPTS OVER PAYMKKrs &411 Net deposits reL%ived froml(repaid to) hirtts NET MOVEMENf lly CASH FifNDS 650 259 9.061 2J06 CASH FUNDS Brought fonvard at start of year carri forward at end of year 42.393 40 087 51,454 42J93 Notes: This account has been prepared on a reIpts and rAyments bas The trustees receive no remuneration and no were paid to any trustees. (2021: nil)

DITCHLING VILLAGE HALL TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2022

Reference and Administration Details

Name of charity: Ditchling Village Hall Principal address: 18 Lewes Road, Ditchling, Hassocks, West Sussex BN6 8TT

Charity Registration Number: 1175123

Trustees and Management Committee

The following individuals were Trustees of the Charity and members of the Management Committee from 1 January 2021 to the date of this report, unless otherwise stated:

Mrs V. Ingham (Chair) I. Chapman (resigned 2 November 2022) S. Cole (Treasurer until retirement on 5 August 2021) J. Fries (resigned 2 November 2022) Mrs L. Hemsley (Treasurer effective appointment on 5 August 2021) Ms G. Rice, Booking secretary (appointed 2 November 2022) P. Smith

Other members of the Management Committee as at the date of this report comprise:

Mrs C. Hinchcliffe (bookings secretary)

Bankers :

Lloyds Bank, 36-38 Church Road Burgess Hill, West Sussex RH15 9AH

Independent Examiner :

C. French, The Garden House, Beacon Road, Ditchling, West Sussex BN6 8XB

Structure, Governance and Management

Ditchling Village Hall (“the Charity or “the DVH”) is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, governed by a constitution document dated 26 September 2017, although in previous legal forms the Charity dates from 23 July 1920. It is run by a Management Committee, comprising the Trustees and other individuals, who meet as and when required.

The Charity must have at least three Trustees. There is no maximum number of Trustees but the number of Trustees is considered and kept under review from time to time. The recruitment of new Trustees is targeted at those local to the Charity and with appropriate skills to assist in its management.

The elected Trustees must be elected at an annual general meeting at which all inhabitants of the area of benefit of 18 years and upward are entitled to attend and vote. The Trustees shall maintain a list of user bodies that they consider to be supportive of the CIO’s objects and which have indicated a wish to appoint a Trustee of the CIO. Each listed user body shall have the right to appoint one Trustee. Any such appointment must be made

according to the ordinary practice of the appointing body and must be notified in writing to the secretary. Co-opted Trustees must be appointed at a duly constituted meeting of the elected Trustees.

Objectives and Activities

The objectives of the Charity are to establish and run a village hall and to promote for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Parish of Ditchling and the neighbourhood (the “area of benefit”) without distinction of sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, nationality, race or political, religious or other opinions 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 conditions of life of the said inhabitants.

The Charity achieves its objectives through the hiring of the hall to a broad and diverse range of individuals and groups.

The Trustees consider that they have complied with the duty in the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to public benefit guidance issued by the Charity Commission.

Chair’s Report on Achievements and Performance

During the last year there's been a steady increase in hires, both to locals and nonresidents. Many village societies have resumed their events, including the Ditchling Players’ productions in November 2021 and May 2022. The DVA coffee meetings have resumed, the wine and film society events along with other groups like the local toddlers have resumed meeting in the hall. This is all very good news for the local community and the hall. Other non-resident activities have taken place including the FITC hires, and a number of exercise and other classes. Then there has been the invigoration of private parties and private events both by local and no local residents.

During 2021 35% of events in the hall were held by local residents and this has increased again this year to 42% of hires by local residents. This is rising closer to the pre covid figures. Hires still remain below those seen prior to the Covid-19 pandemic but are slowly increasing and hence our revenue continues to slowly increase.

We have had some changes to the self-employed people, which are the caretaker and cleaner of the hall, over the last year. When we last met Steph Dickins-Shone was our caretaker and cleaner, cleaning through Lainey’s Angels. From early January 2022 until May 2022 Carl Churchman was our caretaker, with Lainey's Angels continuing in the cleaning role until March 2022 when Carl also took on this role too. In May 2022, he left us and since this time we have been very fortunate to employ Allan Nicholson who is working for us as the caretaker and from June took on the role also as our cleaner. Some of you may also know him as from his other work as a hall hirer doing gong therapy classes. Allan has really helped us both in the caretaker and cleaning roles and is full of enthusiasm and practical common sense which we very much value. He really supports the trustees and management team. We have also set up a backup system for when Allan is unavailable, and a local resident, Hayley Mathias, has been doing some cleaning for us. Felix Craven also a resident in the village has helped us with set ups and set downs. This strengthens our resilience to provide all year cleaning and hall care. Greg from Glass to Grass is now doing our external window cleaning and Liz Pope continues in her role as the village hall gardener managing our external space.

Lorna Hemsley took over as our treasurer at the AGM last year and has been doing amazing work in managing our finances and budgeting. We are fortunate to have some favourable deals with our utility providers which is helping but we definitely recognise that these bills are increasing. She has also been a wealth of common sense and guidance for all things related to the hall over his last year and would not have managed without her. We are very much also indebted to Phil Smith who has continued in his role as vice chair, he continues to manage our insurance with Allied Westminster. He also helps with charity returns to the Charity Commission and Phil continues to contribute to all activities related to the hall and is an invaluable member of the team. Ian Chapman, who is sadly stepping down as trustee tonight, has continued with his hard work supporting the caretaker with hall maintenance, repairs and refurbishments. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank him on behalf of DVH for all his dedication and hard work at the hall over many years. He will be missed. Jamie Fries has continued as a hall trustee and helping to manage the website. One very important person who the hall could not run without is Catherine Hinchliffe, who took over as the booking secretary during 2022 from our previous booking secretary James Butler. She had a lot of work to do when she took over this role in getting the bookings and calendar up to date and did a sterling job. We also owe many thanks to Gemma Rice for helping and supporting Catherine in the beginning with her superior skills using Hallmaster. Catherine has managed to be extremely accommodating to all hirers and is very organised. It’s a big volunteer role she has and we are all very grateful. Gemma Rice, as I've already mentioned, helped Catherine very much with bookings and Hallmaster in the beginning and continues as a member of our management team leading on Facebook and publicity. She's also been a great source of general common sense helping to guide the hall through this difficult last year. She will be proposed as a hall trustee later tonight. Roy Burman continues as Designated Premises Supervisor and is happy to continue in this role. We also have to thank Colin French who continues in his role as the independent examiner of our accounts.

It has been a tough year for the trustees and management team as there's not many of us to manage this great community asset. Everybody has put in much hard work and dedication to keep the hall running. I'm indebted to them all for their support. We have put out calls and publicity over the last year to try and encourage other local residents to support the hall, maybe as a trustee or to join the management committee with the running of the hall. In particular, we really need somebody to help support our caretaker with the general maintenance and repairs. It would also be helpful to have somebody else to support more office-based activities. Without additional people the hall will struggle and so I really put out a plea for you to ask people within your societies or your groups to come forward if they can, even for smaller roles within the hall which will really help us to keep going.

As I said earlier lots of different resident and non-resident groups, including village societies, private enterprises and private parties have started back at the hall. We are grateful for these people choosing the hall as their venue for their events. Since we last had the AGM, we've dropped any Covid-19 specific recommendations. We still ask all hirers to ensure they leave the hall in a clean and tidy state after use, ready for the next hire which may be directly after them. People should sweep the floor and wipe down any surfaces they have used. We've taken the decision to cut back on the additional payment set-ups we will offer as this has become quite complicated. Therefore, going forward will offer these to FITC, the Players, the DVA coffee morning and the Film Society and not offer these more widely to other societies and groups.

for 2023. We've decided to review the rates again for 2024, so only in one year, given the uncertain economic environment.

One of the very important things that we can all do to try and keep the hall rates low is to be respectful of the energy we consume within the hall. We have installed a Hive system which is programmed weekly by Allan the caretaker to coordinate the heating with all booked events. This will ensure an adequate temperature when arriving in the hall and throughout your hire but the heating will be dropped back when the hall is not in use. You can override the system for a short period to boost the heating if you require this during your hire but please ensure it is again turned down on leaving the hall. Please make sure all windows and doors are shut when you are using the hall when the heating is on. Closing the hall stage curtains helps to contain heat as does closing the back curtains.

During the last year we received ongoing government Covid-19 grants which have now stopped. We also received a grant from the Ditchling village ball, part of which we bought the new fridge with.

During the last year we've done quite a lot to try and improve the health and safety of the hall. We had an independent evaluation, and this recommended we have banisters on all stairways, which we have installed. They also suggested a chain to be across the front of the stage when the stage is in use, to prevent people falling off the front of the stage. This is in progress. Another suggestion was the removal of the small radiators at the rear of the hall, as they could be a trip hazard, and given that the heat output on an exterior wall is not efficient, we've decided to remove these. We have also independently restored all the tables to being stored below the stage to prevent them falling. We've also continued in our mission to declutter the hall of all unnecessary items and make sure that all things are safe and securely stored in an appropriate location. I continue to attempt to re home the piano and have met with a number of interested parties but so far nobody has yet taken it, but it has been tuned in this process!

We have reported two incidents to the insurers one of which is ongoing. During this last year we've continued to maintain and update the hall. We are keen both to maintain the fabric of the building as well as the cosmetic and aesthetic appearance of the hall. We have replaced the fascias on the outside of the hall which has been our main expense over the last year. Externally we have also repaired and painted all the external ironwork which looks very neat. Cosmetically, we have replaced the hall curtains and have a new notice board outside. Anything that you would like to display in this notice board just needs to be put into the hall post box and will be displayed by Allan at intervals. We are also in the process of replacing equipment within the bathrooms, both hand towel dispensers, toilet roll dispensers, bins and soap dispensers, along with the bins throughout the hall.

I would like to thank all the hirers for choosing DVH for their events and to especially thank all the trustees and management team who keep this great building running. I am also very grateful to Allan our new caretaker.

Financial Review and Policies on Reserves

As in previous years, the accounts of the Charity have been drawn up on a cash basis. For the year ended 31 January 2022, the Charity had a surplus of receipts over payments of £8,411 (2021: £2,565), comprising receipts of £31,155 (2021: £32,764) and payments of £22,744 (2021: £30,199). Receipts comprise hire income of £19,527 (2021: £13,555), donations and legacies of £1,360 (2021: £1,328), Covid-19 related grant income of £10,263 (2021: £17,811) and investment income of £5 (2021: £70).

After taking into account net deposits received from and repaid to hirers, the Charity’s cash funds increased in value by £9,061 (2021: £2,306) during the year, resulting in cash funds held at 31 January 2022 of £51,454 (2021: £42,393).

After taking into account hire income debtors and deposits held at the end of the year which are repayable to hirers, the Charity had net general reserves carried forward of £49,629 compared to £41,093 at the start of the year.

All of the Charity’s reserves comprise unrestricted funds. The Trustees consider net general reserves of £49,629 to be appropriate to meet short term requirements for the management of the Charity, being more than sufficient to meet ongoing expenses for more than six months in the event of there being no income for this period.

On behalf of the Trustees

Mrs V Ingham – Trustee/Chair Date: 2 November 2022