## **WEST HILL & DISTRICT COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION** ## **INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT** ## **BALANCE SHEET** ## **YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023 WEST HILL & DISTRICT COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION** Accountants Report to the Members : The Treasurer has approved the financial information for the year ended 31 December 2023, and has acknowledged responsibilty for it, for the appropriateness of the accounting basis and for providing all information and explanations necessary for its compilation. We have not verified the accuracy or completeness of the accounting records or information and explanations that have been given to us and we do not, therefore, express any opinion on the financial information. We can confirm that the Income and Expenditure Account and Balance Sheet annexed, are in agreement with the books and records provided to us. DAVID J WENHAM & CO Chartered Accountants ....... March 2024 **WEST HILL & DISTRICT COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION** ## **YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023** ## **INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT** ## **£ £** **Income:** Hire of Centre, net of refunds 24,035.50 Special Events 208.02 Donations & Grants 359.39 24,602.91 **Expenditure:** Security Alarm CCTV Maintenance 846.00 Advertising & Promotion 421.40 Community Events 569.29 Gifts from WHCC 196.76 Administration Expenses - Stationery & Postage 236.30 Cleaning & Washroom Materials 414.68 Insurances 1,303.47 Miscellaneous Expenses 71.28 General Rates - H B C 43.60 Rent 2,403.83 Repairs & Maintenance 3,570.65 Ground Maintenance 313.80 Utilities : Electricity 9,215.00 Water 388.55 Telephone, Broadband, Website & Internet 523.17 Capital Expenditure 59.00 Accountancy 300.00 Professional Fees : Legal 1,569.60 26,910.38 : Surveyor 1,344.00 Contracts : Cleaning 2,850.00 : Bookings Coordinator 270.00 ## **Deficit of Income after Expenditure -2,307.47** ## **BALANCE SHEET As at 31 December 2023** Cash in Hand 142.15 Lloyds Bank Account 62,838.68 ## **Total Assets 62,980.83** Represented by: Reserves brought forward 65,288.20 Net Deficit for the Year -2,307.47 ## **Total Reserves carried forward 62,980.73** The above Income and Expenditure Account and Balance Sheet for the year ended 31 December 2023 are in agreement with the books and records, and give a fair view of the Association's affairs. ....................... M Jenkins Treasurer 13 ....... March 2024 ## **West Hill & District Community Association** ## **Annual General Meeting** ## **1 June 2024 - Trustees Report** Before I begin, to request a copy of the WHDCC business plan, leave your name and email address and hand it to me at the end of the meeting. ## **Change of Guard** Changes over the past year have included: - ●Jim Ralley stepped down as Chair in February 2023. - ●June Pratley became Chair. - ●Meri Jenkins stepped down as Treasurer and became Chair in 2024 - ●June Pratley took over as Treasurer. - ●Gay Brown, who has acted as bookkeeper for many years, stepped back this April and our gratitude goes to Gay for keeping our money shipshape for such a long time, as well as volunteering on events. - ●Linda Jeal and Ant Davis remained as Trustees. - ●In this year, Jim Ralley rejoined the Centre as a Committee member. - ●Sally Paffard also joined as a Committee member and is responsible for overseeing bookings. Thank you, Sally! - ●Enormous thanks go to our many volunteers who have helped with running the Centre in any way over the past year. ## **Accomplishments in the past year include:** 1. Maintaining procedures, insurances, and safety certifications throughout the past year. 2. Reviewing and revising policy documents, including privacy, hiring, safeguarding and so on to ensure that we are following the correct procedures. 3. Maintaining bookings with usage at 76% which we will build on – more on this in the bookings report. 4. Continuing lease negotiations with East Sussex County Council and reaching agreement on the Heads of Terms which should lead to a new lease of 25 years by the end of 2024. We are grateful to our ward councilors for their continued advice and support this year in our discussions with East Sussex County Council as well as Steve Manwaring from Hastings Voluntary Action for his experience and advice. 5. The Heads of Terms includes language that would allow us to replace the current building which is 25 years past its shelf life and is kept going with persistent and careful maintenance. ESCC will be voting to approve the Heads of Terms in July and negotiations on the new lease will begin. More on this later in my report. 6. Our 2nd Summer Jamboree took place on September 2nd with more than 200 people attending. It was beautiful weather and we had singing, dancing, a raffle and other games, and of course, lots of tea and cake. The people who came told us they had a thoroughly good time. ## **Challenges and Opportunities include:** 1. The building, which has a limited life. It’s a prefabricated structure built in 1973, opened in 1974 with an expected life of 25 years. Fifty years later, ongoing maintenance by the Association has enabled the building to function for an additional 25 years. 2. Early last year, we conducted a surveyors dilapidations report which laid out the extent of repairs necessary to remediate some of the issues which amounts to 80K. In conversations with ESCC,our landlord, it was agreed that rather than use funds to shore up the building, we could explore and develop a plan to replace the building. The plan is to expand the footprint so that we can offer more to the community for generations to come. We are in the very early stages of thinking about a replacement building. We will be looking for funding, and later this summer, begin a round of focus groups to get input from the community. This is, after all, your community centre. 3. The Centre is entirely run by volunteers - our only paid person is our part time cleaner. The need for committee members and volunteers is vital and helps maintain a healthy balance in our operations. We want more community members to weigh in on decision making. We would love people who have some skills – bookkeeping, building and construction, publicity, good at decision making, opening and closing the building before and after events, team players, people who like people to join us. If you are interested please see any of the Trustees at the end of the meeting. 4. And I have to make mention of launching our 50th Anniversary year on Croft Road with a planned series of events: On February 24th we held the first event – “The History, the People, and the Place” with guest speaker and local historian, Steve Peak, and Tush Hamilton, a long time fisherman in Hastings. Tom Kelly sang sea shanties. The event was a huge success with standing room only and good press coverage. The 2nd event, “A Growing Community” took place on May 11 and focussed on growing, stewarding, and understanding our environment. In September, we will be having the Centre’s Birthday Bash and we want to make this a big splash – we also want to collect memories about the centre over the past fifty years. Events like this will become part of our calendar, but we also have other activities that have been, and continue to be, very successful. The Baby and Toddler Group and the Bowls Group are going well. I am now handing you over to other Trustees and Committee members who will give you their reports on various aspects of our operations, beginning with June Pratley with the Treasurer’s report.