## **DITCHLING VILLAGE HALL TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2025** ## **Reference and Administration Details** **Name of charity:** Ditchling Village Hall **Principal address:** 18 Lewes Road, Ditchling, Hassocks, East 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 February 2024 to the date of this report, unless otherwise stated: Mrs V. Ingham (Chair) Mrs L. Hemsley (Treasurer) Mrs C Hinchliffe Mr J. Owen Mrs G. Sawtell Mr P. Smith **Bankers** : Lloyds Bank, 99-101 South Road Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 4ND **Independent Examiner** : S. Cole, 33 Shirleys, Ditchling, East Sussex BN6 8UD ## **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. Coopted 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 1 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** We are very lucky to have this hall within Ditchling, for use by our residents and those living in the surrounding area. It is such a great facility, be that for local society events and meetings, commercial exercise classes to maintain our wellbeing, or if we want a celebration, the hall is here and used by us all. The hall trustees who look after the hall on behalf of the village really want to make sure the hall continues to be this place. We must maintain it to a high standard with appropriate facilities but also ensure its competitive and as affordable as we can make it for all groups. ## _1. Hirers_ Hall hires, and hence hire income for the financial year to 31 January 2025 was higher than the prior year, and we expect the current financial year to be on a par with 2024/25. This annual income has never since reached that of the 2019-2020 period pre-Covid but is around 90% of that value, and currently the split between resident and non-resident hires is about 50:50. We also continue to rent out the room in the lower hall area as the office to the Parish Council. We are currently more than matching our outgoings, with a small surplus, and are managing to maintain healthy reserves in the bank, despite significant spends on maintenance over the last years. We feel it is very important to maintain significant reserves for any large projects that may arise, along with any unexpected spends that might be required to keep the building functioning, on this aging large building. We amended our pricing schedule at the start of 2025 to allow kitchen v no-kitchen use and for the vast majority of people we did not materially alter the rental they paid. ## _2. Trustees and Committee_ The village hall could not function without its dedicated volunteers to whom the village is indebted, and they have continued unchanged again over this last year. Their commitment to the hall is so important to ensure the hall remains this great community asset for all to use. Lorna Hemsley has continued as our treasurer over the last year, and we all feel we are in very safe hands here, striking the balance between ensuing adequate income v making us affordable to hire. She also contributes considerably to the safe and efficient running of the hall, beyond the treasurer role and we thank her for this. Phil Smith also continues in the vicechair role and brings a lot of experience with his long time commitment to the hall. He is currently helping to look at the audio-visual system we have at the hall and how this might be upgraded. Catherine Hinchliffe has been our in our bookings secretary for a number of years now and also trustee. Without her, the hires would never run as smoothly and efficiently as they do. We all owe her a huge thank you for the significant amount of time and commitment she puts in with such enthusiasm and will always go the extra mile to help the hirers. Gemma Sawtell continues to know more about the Hallmaster booking system and also manages the website and publicity, so all our technical IT related issues. She always willing to help. Jonathan Owen has been with us since 2023 and the closest trustee geographically to the hall. He ensures the routine maintenance schedule is up to date and completed and manages the 2 insurance and charity returns. He is very practical and is really valuable to ensuring the hall continues in great shape. Stephen Cole has for the second year now been our independent examiner, reviewing the accounts of 2023/24 and 2024/25. He continues to be as diligent as ever and we thank him for doing this for us. Roy and Diane Burman have continued as our premises supervisors for this last year, without whom we would have struggled, so a big thank you to them both for their support in this role. They have agreed to continue in this role for the next year. ## _3. Self employed contractors_ Ben Inman joined us in March 2024 and continues as our caretaker. Ben manages the day to day maintenance and safety of the hall and coordinates with our contractors to arrange and support maintenance and repair work when we need to get outside help. He is crucial in the hall’s smooth running. Hayley Mathias has now been our cleaner since July 2023, and she continues to do a brilliant job fitting in around our hirers to keep the hall very clean and tidy. Liz Pope is also contracted to do our external gardening. She continues with the wildflower meadow down the side of the hall and hanging baskets throughout the year which makes the hall look great. ## _4. Who are our hirers_ Our hirers continue to be the same mix. We have the local organisations/societies and we thank them for their ongoing support in using the hall for their events and meetings. There are events to bring our community together manged by the Ditchling Village Association with their monthly coffee mornings and annual newcomer event. We have been entertainment by the Ditchling Players with their twice yearly productions, and then we have the large number of societies which hold their events with us including the Ditchling Wine and Film societies. The toddlers group is important to bring the younger members of the community with families together and for those with green fingers the Horticultural society members continue to wow us with their produce three times per year. As importantly we have commercial hirers that run activities mainly, but not exclusively, for local residents. Garet Newell runs Feldenkrais and continues to be a big supporter of the hall, using our facilities to hold her courses. Lots of exercises classes help to keep our mind and body in shape. We have new hirers Alison Cowlyn and Heather Deaville doing pilates and yoga, along with our regulars Russell, Brian and Suzy. We have a new theatre school hiring by Drusilla Duffil. The Attic art group also continue to hire twice a year during the Art Wave events to showcase and sell their work. On-top of this, we continue to hire for celebrations parties and other events. What is great is that we see new groups hiring the hall every year, each with different things to bring to this rich and vibrant community we live in. ## _5. Refurbishments and expenditures_ We are continually trying to ensure that the hall remains both safe and well maintained. It is an old building and there are multiple internal and external repairs to keep up with. Our main maintenance expenditure this last year has been the repair and revarnishing of the main hall floor and stage. This was looking tired and in particular the stage was in some disrepair. This has transformed the hall and improved the look significantly. We also had cavity wall insulation installed, the cost for which was fully covered by HKD energy, for which we are very grateful. ## _6. Donations_ We have been very generously supported by the Ditchling Parish Council this year to contribute to the hall floor repairs and revarnishing, and HKD Energy for the cavity wall insulation. The Ditchling Parish Council also continues to allow public access free Wi-Fi within the hall building for the benefit of our users. 3 ## _7. Incidents and complaints_ In terms of misadventure, we've had no insurance claims and only one accident in our accident book this last year, where thankfully no one came to significant harm. We've had a number of small complaints but no significant issues, all of which have been remedied to the satisfaction of the hirer and the village hall team. ## _8. In closing_ We've had a good year: people continue to enjoy the hall and the events they have here, people are coming back and new people are joining us to hire. We continue to have healthy numbers of hires and we believe we are manging to keep up with the repairs to make the hall look a welcoming place to have events. ## **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 2025, the Charity had a surplus of receipts over payments of £7,561 (2024: £422 deficit), comprising receipts of £40,716 (2024: £33,169) and payments of £33,155 (2024: £33,591). Receipts comprise hire income of £35,788 (2024: £30,793), donations of £53 (2024: nil), restricted grant income of £2,256 (2024: £250) and investment income of £2,619 (2024: £2,126). After taking into account net deposits received from and repaid to hirers, the Charity’s cash funds increased in value by £6,436 (2024: £647 decrease) during the year, resulting in cash funds held at 31 January 2025 of £66,748 (2024: £60,312). After taking into account hire income debtors, payments in advance and deposits held at the end of the year which are repayable to hirers, the Charity had net reserves carried forward of £65,171 compared to £58,037 at the start of the year. Of the Charity’s reserves, £250 is restricted and the balance of £64,921 is unrestricted. The Trustees consider unrestricted reserves of £64,921 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: 30 October 2025 4 DITCHLING VILLAGE HALL (Charity number 1175123) Accounts for Ihe year ended 31￿ January 2025 D￿CHLING VILLAGE HALL Accounts for the year ended 31* January 2025 Independent Examiner's Report to th¢ Tn￿ee5 of Ditcbling Village Hall I report on the attached Statement ofAssets and Liabilities and Receipts and Payments Account for the year ended 31" January 2025. 1 have reviewed the accounting records kept by the charity from which the accounts have been pr¢paral. In my opinion Pro￿ accounting reconls have been kepi and there are no furtber matters to thich attention should be drawn to enable a proper understsnding of the accounts to be reache