2021-04-30-accounts - Guru Nanak Gurdwara, Prospect Street, Huddersfield.

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Guru Nanak Gurdwara, Prospect Street, Huddersfield

Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts

For the period 1[st] May 2020 to 6[th] May, 2021

Reference and administrative details

Charity Name: Guru Nanak Gurdwara, Prospect Street, Huddersfield Charity Registration Number: 1176712

Correspondence Address: Prospect Street, Huddersfield, England, HD1 2NX

Trustees:

Jarnail Singh Uppal (President) Lakhvinder Singh Johal (Senior Vice President) Mohinder Kaur Kang (Vice President) Jasbir Singh Mahil (General Secretary) Balhar Singh Sandhu (Assistant General Secretary) Inderpal Singh Randhawa (Stage Secretary) Paramjit Singh Punia (Assistant Stage Secretary) Harjinder Singh Johal (Treasurer) Balwinder Singh Pawar (Senior Assistant Treasurer) Rajdeep Singh Randhawa (Assistant Treasurer) Jaswant Singh Sohanpal (Education Secretary) Sewa Singh Khela (Assistant Education Secretary) Makhan Singh Sadhra (Social & Cultural Secretary) Piara Singh (Storekeeper) Jaswinder Kaur Sohal (Assistant Storekeeper) Kundan Singh Aujla Rajinder Kaur Bhullar Mukhtiar Singh Hans Santokh Singh Johal Stephen Singh Mattu Dr Jasbinder Singh

Structure, governance and management

Governing document:

CONSTITUTION ADOPTED 10 SEP 2017 AS AMENDED BY RESOLUTION DATED 14 JAN 2018

The Gurdwara is managed by a Management Committee, who are also the charity trustees. The Committee is helped by numerous volunteers, without whom it would be impossible to run the Gurdwara. In addition to the 21 Trustees of the charity, there are 3 separate “holding trustees” who hold the properties of the charity.

The “holding trustees” are appointed for a 4 year term by the committee but must be approved by the Sangat. The Management committee (charity trustees ) is chosen every 2 years in April, usually by an election by registered members of the Gurdwara.

The management committee meets at the beginning of each month to discuss any ongoing issues as well as planning for the future. Sub-committees are formed when required.

Objectives and activities

The Guru Nanak Gurdwara, Prospect Street, Huddersfield was built in 1975 in response to the increase in the Sikh population of Huddersfield and surrounding districts. Prior to 1975, the Gurdwara was a small building on Elmwood Street, Huddersfield.

The present Gurdwara was built with donations from the congregation. The Gurdwara was registered as a charity with the Charity Commission on 17 January, 2018. The Gurdwara serves the Sikh Community of Kirklees and Calderdale.

The charity's objects are, for the public benefit, to advance the Sikh religion, in particular but not exclusively in Huddersfield by:

➢ managing and running the Gurdwara according to the Sikh rites (Sikh Rehat Maryada);
➢ arranging for the celebration of Birthday, Martyrdom day and anniversaries of Sikh Gurus with great dignity and reverence;
➢ arranging for marriage ceremony according to the Sikh rites and the prevailing law of this country;
➢ the holding of prayer meetings, readings from the guru granth sahib (scriptures), lectures, teachings;
➢ arranging for the teaching of Punjabi for interested Sikhs and other students and to promote sports, youth clubs and social organisations; and
➢ providing public celebrations of religious festivals.

When planning our activities for the year, the trustees have considered the Commission’s guidance on public benefit and, in particular, the specific guidance on charities for the advancement of religion. In particular, we try to enable Sikhs living in Huddersfield and Calderdale to practise their Sikh faith by providing buildings and resources so the following activities can take place:

Daily Prayers each day, in the morning and evening
Provision of Langar daily
Sikh wedding ceremonies, blessings and funeral services
Celebration of Birthdays, Martyrdoms of Sikh Gurus and other key events of the Sikh religion
Specific Religious services (e.g. Akhand Paath) requested by individual families

During the reporting period, normal activities and attendance were severely impacted by Government restrictions due to COVID. Gurdwara was fully closed from 23 March 2020 to 14 June 2020. Gurdwara was open for private prayer From 15 June 2020 to 3 July 2020.

Gurdwara was open from 4[th] July 2020 for communal worship but the rules changed again later in year to private worship.

As a result of Government restrictions due to COVID, the following annual events did not take place:

Vaisakhi Celebrations Bandi Chor Diwas (Diwali) celebrations New Year Celebrations Lohri Celebrations

Congregation numbers were significantly down as a result of COVID restrictions. This meant a significant drop in income. The impact of this was partly reduced by a drop in expenditure. There was also a very significant drop in income from the car park as many of the car park users worked from home.

Despite the drop in income, the Gurdwara congregation raised and donated £6000 to The Welcome Centre, a food bank in Huddersfield, and £20,000 worth of Oxygen Concentrators to a Gurdwara in Dehli, India.

As every year, a paath was held daily for 40 consecutive days in memory of the 40 “Mukte”. However, these were mostly without a full congregation.

The Gurdwara runs a Punjabi School at weekends, attended by over 150 children. The school teaches children Punjabi language, Sikh religion and culture.

The school is housed in its own building adjacent to the Gurdwara building and is run by 10 teachers and 2 of the Gurdwara trustees. A library, housed in the Gurdwara, is provided to be used by children and the congregation.

However, the school was closed from 28[th] March, 2020 in line with Government restrictions due to Covid. It reopened on 9[th] Oct 2021. There were 160 students at time of the school closure. When the school reopened, the number of students dropped to 105.

There were no formal exams in summer 2020. There were 11students due to take GCSE Punjabi Language exams; teacher assessed grades were awarded as follows:

Grade 9 (1), Grade 8 (1), Grade 7 (5), Grade 6 (3), Grade 5 (1).

All our services are available to the public in general but most of the users are from the local Sikh Community. In line with the teachings of the Sikh Gurus, everyone is welcome in the Gurdwara.

As well as the provision of religious services, the Gurdwara provides a place for people, especially the elderly, to meet and socialise after the religious services while sharing Langar. There is a women’s group that meets every Monday for prayers and Kirtan. There is a group of worshippers who meet on Wednesday evenings for worship.

Everything is provided free to the congregation and the running of the Gurdwara is funded by donations from the congregation, income from the car park and Gift Aid.

In the year covered by this report, visits from local primary schools and scout groups were severely impacted by COVID restrictions.

Each year, the Gurdwara is represented at Remembrance Day ceremony in Kirklees.

Achievements and performance

During the reporting year, the Gurdwara has been open to the congregation and the general public in line with Government restrictions due to COVID. However, attendances were lower than normal even when restrictions were lifted and as a consequence, donations were reduced significantly.

A new Management Committee was elected unopposed and took over in May 2021. Some of the committee members were members of the previous committee and this ensured continuity in the running of the Gurdwara.

A number of improvements to the Gurdwara infrastructure were made; Details of these are given below:

Repairs to the roof of the main building

Modifications were made to the extraction ducts in kitchen to allow for easy access for cleaning. The ducts were also cleaned thoroughly.

Langar is prepared and served from a dedicated kitchen run by volunteers from the congregation. We are lucky that we have a dedicated group of volunteers, majority of them women, who cook and clean daily.

We have 2 Granthi (priests) who read the prayers and perform all the religious functions.

Financial Review

The Gurdwara currently does not have a reserves policy. It has an overdraft arrangement with its bank, which currently allows the Gurdwara access to an overdraft facility of £50000. However, this facility is rarely used. In addition, some members of the congregation loan the Gurdwara monies interest free. The total amount of these at the end of the financial year was £122,700. Despite COVID, the Gurdwara had savings of more than £100k after allowing for the loans from the Congregation.

The charity expenditure was spent solely on the upkeep of the Gurdwara, staff wages and charitable activities listed above.

The Gurdwara owns outright 2 buildings and these can be used as security against bank loans if needed. Currently, the Gurdwara income is sufficient to cover the expenditure. As the Gurdwara is now registered as a charity, we get over £10k per annum from HMRC as Gift Aid. However, the coronvirus epidemic will have some effect on the income in the coming year. The current trustees control expenditure such that the overdraft facility with the bank has not been used in the last 4.5 years.

Gurdwara Accounts are examined by 3 independent examiners every 6 months and a summary of the accounts is announced to sangat as well as being posted on a notice board in the Gurdwara.

The independent examiners were:

Mr Ranjit Singh Sohal Mr Lakhvinder Singh Johal Mr Hardev Singh Ghakal

Approved by the Trustees at their meeting on 13[th] February 2022 and signed on their behalf by Dr Jasbinder Singh.

Independent Examiners Report to the trustees of Guru Nanak Gurdwara, Prospect Street, Huddersfield.

We report on the accounts for the year ended 06/05/2021.

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiners

The charity's trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year (under section 43(2) of the Charities Act 1993 (the Act)) and that an independent examination is needed.

It is our responsibility to:

examine the accounts (under section 43 of the Act),

to follow the procedures laid down in the General Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 43(7)(b) of the Act), and

to state whether particular matters have come to our attention.

Basis of independent examiners report

Our examination was carried out in accordance with General Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair’ view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

Independent examiners statement

In the course of our examination, no matter has come to our attention:

which gives us reasonable cause to believe that in, any material respect, the requirements: to keep accounting records in accordance with section 41 of the Act; and to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the 1993 Act; have not been met; or
to which, in our opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding the accounts to be reached.

Ranjit Singh Sohal 18A Edgerton Green, Huddersfield, HD1 5RD

Lakhvinder Singh Johal

9 Prince Wood Lane, Huddersfield, HD2 2DG

Hardev Singh Ghakal

9 Heaton Road, Huddersfield, HD1 4HX

13[th] February, 2022

Charity Name No (if any) Guru Nanak Gurdwara, Prospect Street, Huddersfield 1176712

Recei ts and a ments accounts p p y

CC16a

For the period from	01/05/2020 Period start date	To	06/05/2021 Period end date

Section A Receipts and payments

Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total funds Last year funds funds funds to the nearest to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ £

A1 Receipts

A1 Receipts	esce funds to the nearest £	esce funds to the nearest £	owe funds to the nearest £	Total funds to the nearest £	Last year to the nearest £
Donations	120,923	-	-	120,923	186,268
Refund from utilities	12,121	-	-	12,121	21
Carpark income	8,369	-	-	8,369	28,910
HMRC Gift Aid	14,350	-	-	14,350	8,963
Loans from congregation members	38,000	-	-	38,000	9,000
Palki refund	12,000	-	-	12,000
Covid BI insurance	25,000	-	-	25,000
Bank charges refund/Lloyds Bank A/c		-	-	-	3,819
*Sub total*(Gross income for AR)	230,763	-	-	230,763	236,981

A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
*Sub total*	-	-	-	-	-

*Total receipts*	230,763	-	-	230,763	236,981

A3 Payments

	A3 Payments
CCXX R1 a	Expenditure, inc priest wages	81888.83 843.43 10000 1260 20000	-	-	81,889	181,490
	Bank interest and charges		-	-	843	1,662
	Loans repaid to congregation members		-	-	10,000	21,500
	Teachers wages		-	-	1,260	12,580
	Donation O2 concentrators ccounts(SS)		- 1	-	20,000

Exam fees		-	-	-	424
		-	-	-
		-	-	-
		-	-	-
**Sub total **	113,992	-	-	113,992	217,656

A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
	-	-		-	-
	-	-		-	-
**Sub total **	-	-		-	-	-

*Total payments*	113,992	-		-	113,992	217,656
*Net of receipts/(payments)*	116,770	-		-	116,770	19,325
A5 Transfers between funds	-	-	-		-	-
A6 Cash funds last year end	111,945	-	-		111,945	92,620
*Cash funds this year end*	228,715	-		-	228,715	111,945

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Details *Total cash funds* (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Details Barclays a/c 00828203 Barclays a/c 30934070 Cash float	Unrestricted funds to nearest £	Restricted funds to nearest £	Endowment funds to nearest £
	218,186	-	-
	9,925	-	-
	604	-	-
	228,715	-	-
			OK
			Endowment funds to nearest £
	-	-	-
	-	-	-
	-	-	-
	-	-	-
	-	-	-
	-	-	-
Details	Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)	Current value (optional)
		-	-
		-	-
		-	-
		-	-
		-	-
Details	Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)	Current value (optional)
3		-	-

B4 Assets retained for the CCXX R3 accounts (SS) h it ’

charity’s own use

B5 Liabilities

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

-		-
-		-
-		-
-		-
-		-
-		-
-		-
-		-

Details	Fund to which liability relates	Amount due (optional)
Security held	Unrestricted	-
Loans from congregation members	122700	-
		-
		-
		-

Date of Signature Print Name approval Dr Jasbinder Singh 13/02/2022

CCXX R4 accounts (SS)