## **Hawkesbury Hospital Hall – Chairman’s Year-End Report 2020 for February 2021 AGM** 

## **Charity Number 1176993** 

Here is my report for 2020, some might think it was a non-event at the Hall given the serious medical crisis which materialised, however, it was for some of the volunteers a very busy year, but more of that shortly. 

The Village Hall is run by the Hawkesbury Hospital Hall Charity for the benefit of the Parishioners of Hawkesbury and the objectives are as follows: 

_The objects of the CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) are to establish and run a village hall and to promote for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Parish of Hawkesbury (“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._ 

I emphasise this because many still believe the Hall is owned and run by the Parish Council, but that is not the case. The Village Hall should certainly be considered as a Community Asset, but it is self-funding and that fact has been brought home to the Trustees in a big way this year as the lettings figure is down from £15,447 to £6,964. Fortunately, during 2020 the Hall has had extra support of £12,501 from Government funding to cover such a situation due to the lockdown requirements. More has been forthcoming since. 

The actual accounts, as our Treasurer will explain, are distorted by the residue of grant income for the play park, which has also been spent and this overall produces a loss of £36,000. Fortunately, the situation is not as it would seem due to the imbalance of the play park funding. You may recall we were carrying a significant profit from the previous year due to grant funding, which was spent this year. We recorded in the year 2019 that the Hall was making a small underlying loss and that will be the same for the 2020 year. 

The issue this year is that from March the only use of the Hall has been for Pre-school and a limited amount of Badminton. Even when the lockdown restrictions eased most users declined to come back, partly because they were unable to operate under the guidelines and partly because their users were in the higher risk groups. 

At a time when many village halls remained closed the Trustee volunteers did everything they could to ensure our facilities were safe within the prescribed recommendations and could be open for legitimate uses. We provided hand gel both inside and at strategic places outside the Hall. In the dry summer months’ we did periodic disinfecting of the play area. We posted notices, painted 2 Mtr lines and set up guidance on how to use the Hall. Therefore, we consider we fulfilled the requirements expected and have been using the grant funds wisely. The recreation field has been well used, particularly the play park. However, we have suffered a spate of vandalism and this has had to be paid for out of already depleted funds. 

Our intention is to extend the CCTV surveillance as a deterrent to such activity, but also appeal to parents to try and have some influence over the children involved. 



In the previous year we advised that we would put an action group together to discuss how we could help the Hall to change to meet modern day needs. This resulted in a Business Plan and one of the recommendations was to produce a survey for the residents of the Parish to seek their thoughts on what they wanted from the Hall and to see how they could support it to make it a more sustainable community facility. The following should be borne in mind when formulating the answers. 

The crux of it is that the Hall costs are about as low as they can be, because where possible we use volunteers, however, the income is insufficient to cover all the costs. If we need to undertake maintenance for which we cannot get grant funding then we have a problem. The business plan shows 3 scenarios. The first relies on us putting up the rents quite substantially (25%) and then being able to organise sufficient big events throughout the year that generate in the region of an additional £5,000 profit. This has not happened for many years, indicative that the use of the Hall has changed. However, if we can achieve this then we have a viable option, with funding for essential maintenance. 

The second and a very speculative suggestion is to merge the community use with commercial uses. This would possibly involve building an extension to allow certain functions to run in parallel with others. There is included with this the suggestion that the village shop should merge with the Hall. There are numerous benefits to this, but also, for some, possibly a few negatives. A principal benefit is that by merging two such operations makes the enterprise more commercially viable and would allow for the employment of a manager/caretaker, who could drive the operation forward. Ironically this option will only be possible if we can get grant funding and it is more likely we will get grant funding for this than replacing the car park. 

The third option is to continue as we are but be reliant on some form of subsidy either from a benefactor or possibly raised through Parish Council from the community. As part of our fundraising activities and following the Air Ambulance decision to remove the clothes recycling bin, we have set up one that will give funds directly to the Hall. Each bin full should produce over £40 and this can happen at least once per month and possibly more. The other fund-raising activity now promoted more widely is the use of Easy Funding or Amazon, where anything spent would also add funds to the Hall. These ventures will help, but on their own they are not sufficient. 

Given the year we have just had it is impossible to be precise on what amount is being lost every month, but projecting our 2019 figures and removing the grants associated with the Play Park we were losing in the region of £400 each month. The grants supporting us through the covid crisis are helping alleviate an immediate problem. 

It has not been a year with no activity, we have started painting the interior of the Hall (but more to do), Louise Roberts has created a community garden by the basket ball court and not only were lots of flowers and shrubs donated but also a bench. Thank you to all concerned. 

After the hedge laying exercise along the western boundary, we needed to plant some more trees that could be incorporated into the hedge and so a small working party lead by Neil Fozard planted 110 saplings of many varieties, so thank you for that. 

I had hoped we could start 2021 in a more optimistic mood and there is a lot to be cheerful about, but with a touch of realism creeping around the future finances of the Hall. It is also my last Chairman’s report as I am retiring after 6 years in the role and 20 years on the committee, time for some new ideas. Many thanks to all the Committee members, Trustees and volunteers who have helped me fulfil the role. It 



has been both an enjoyable and “interesting” time and I have made some very good friends and many more acquaintances. 

Many thanks 

Chris Rispin – retiring Chair. 



## HAWKESBURY HOSPITAL HALL 

## **STATEMENT OF INCOME & EXPENDITURE** 

Year ended 31[st] December 2020 

## **Income** 

|31.12.2019<br>£2,884.20<br>**Donations**<br>£131.00<br>**Donations for H@P**<br>£618.00<br>**Grants**<br>£109,829.23<br>**Grants for H@P**<br>£15,447.47<br>**Lettings**<br>£802.72<br>**Fund raiser**<br>£1,293.86<br>**Fund raising for H@P**<br>£518.24<br>**Car park donations**<br>£12.37<br>**Interest**<br>£0.00<br>**Hire of Tables etc**<br>£4,418.26<br>**Bar sales**<br>£4,004.75<br>**Purchases**<br>£935.39<br>**Opening stock**<br>£1,234.39<br>**Less closing stock**<br>£712.51<br>**Bar profit**<br>£132,249.60<br>**Total income**|£2,087.20<br>£59.42<br>£12,501.00<br>£32,618.70<br>£6,964.78<br>£610.24<br>£0.00<br>£263.39<br>£5.42<br>£20.00<br>55,130.15<br>£<br>£139.68<br>£557.65<br>£1,234.39<br>£1,792.04<br>£1,294.79<br>£497.25<br>-£357.57<br>54,772.58<br>£|
|---|---|



## **Expenditure** 

||**Expenditure**||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|£1,220.90|**Rates & water**|£180.18|||
|£3,291.73|**Licences & insurance**|£2,265.27|||
|£0.00|**Accountancy**|£0.00|||
|£3,995.50|**Caretaker**|£2,681.93|||
|£7,446.04|**Cleaning & maintenance**|£4,486.08|||
|£1,189.91|**Bins**|£1,062.45|||
|£1,718.50|**Electricity**|£1,158.24|||
|£3,600.00|**Oil**|£1,489.71|||
|£0.00|**Phone**|£0.00|||
|£812.20|**Internet & website**|£641.33|||
|£0.00|**Bar expenses**|£0.00|||
|£1,978.75|**New equipment**|£653.04|||
|£0.00|**Car park refurbishment**|£0.00|||
|£72,963.66|**New Play Park**|£76,507.35|||
|£0.00|**Toilet hire**|£0.00|||
|£134.00|**Sundries**|£24.00|||
||||£91,149.58||
||**Difference between  Income and Expenditure**|||-£36,377.00|



## **Balance @ 31st December 2020** 

|Main Treasurers A/C<br>18,187.99<br>£<br>Skate Park A/C<br>5,326.59<br>£<br>23,514.58<br>£<br>**BALANCE SHEET AS 31st DECEMBER 2020**<br>Sum of all Accounts<br>Bar Stock<br>Accumulated fund B/F<br>Difference between  Income and Expenditure|£23,514.58<br>£1,294.79|
|---|---|
||£24,809<br>£61,186.37<br>-£36,377.00|
||£24,809|



**I hereby certify I have prepared the above figures in conjunction with the books and records submitted to me and that they are in accordance threwith as far as I am able to ascertain** 

**William J Cullen** 

**10 Hunters Mead, Hawkesbury Upton, Badminton, South Gloucestershire GL9 1BL** 



18 May 2021 

Dear Committee 

## – Hawkesbury Hospital Hall Statement of income and expenditure for the year ended 31 December 2020 

I have reviewed the Statement of income and expenditure for the year ended 31 December 2020 and the supporting monthly cash book spreadsheets, bank statements and financial file provided by the treasurer. I am confident that the statement correctly reflects the financial position of the Hall shown in the bank statements of the corresponding period. 

## _Accounting records_ 

I found the monthly accounting records and cash book to be extremely detailed, well-structured and very easy to follow. They appear to be well maintained and managed. I found the file with financial papers to be well organised, and complete with the exception of one missing receipt for £90. 

## _Income_ 

I noticed from the file that the process for collection of income from hiring the hall to both regular users and one-time hirers currently appears to be very manual (handwritten calculations on printouts of emails). This could lead to errors, missed income or the incorrect charge being made (although I found no evidence of this in 2020). I would recommend the process is reviewed and possibly a simple invoice system implemented which can be reconciled to the booking calendar in order to minimise the potential for missed income or errors. 

Yours faithfully 


Anna O’Brien ACA