Trustees' Annual Report for the period Period start date Period end date Day Year 1st October 2024 30[th] September 2025 From To
Section A Reference and administration details
Charity name OLD TOWN COMMUNITY LIBRARY Other names charity is known by OTCL Registered charity number (if any) 1181144 Charity's principal address 191 Victoria Drive Eastbourne East Sussex Postcode BN20 8QJ
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 |
Trustee name | Office (if any) | Dates acted if not for whole year |
Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee(if any) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JeremyDaly | Chair | |||
| Pamela Starling | ||||
| Kate DalyBEM | Secretary/GDPR | |||
| John Ungar | ||||
| John Masters | ||||
| Heidi-MayMurphy | ||||
| Jackie Cornish | Health & Safety | |||
Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)
| Name | Dates acted if not for whole year |
|---|---|
| None | |
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Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
| Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) | Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) | Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) |
|---|---|---|
| Type of adviser Name Address |
||
| None | ||
| Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information) | ||
Section B
Structure, governance and management
Description of the charity’s trusts
Constitution Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) How the charity is constituted (eg. trust, association, company) Appointed by Trustees Trustee selection methods
(eg. appointed by, elected by)
Additional governance issues (Optional information)
The Charity’s wider structure includes 20 volunteers for the day to day running of You may choose to include the library, who are trained and instructed in all of the library policies and additional information, where procedures by the Secretary and other volunteers with the required experience to relevant, about; do so. Records of the volunteers, having read and understood the policies and of their training, are kept by the Secretary. One of our trustees is nominated Health policies and procedures & Safety Officer and completes weekly records of fire safety checks and quarterly adopted for the induction and full H&S audits. The Secretary is also the GDPR Officer. training of trustees
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the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
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relationship with any related parties;
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trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.
Section C Objectives and activities
Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document
To advance the education of the public in general through the provision of a community-based public amenity, namely a public library situated in the Old Town area of Eastbourn, to include the surrounding area and communities. To promote, for the benefit of the residents, the provision of a library for recreation, learning and other leisure-time occupations for all those who have need of our facilities by reason of their age, youth, infirmity or disability, 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 lives of said residents.
Additionally the library will seek to work with local schools and other
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organisations to ensure the provision of such services to all without exception.
Our Main Activities: Providing a Community Library Providing laptops and printing facilities Liasing with local schools and arranging regular visits Running the annual Summer Reading Challenge Providing a private hire facility Fundraising
The trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit.
Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)
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Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)
The library has a total of 20 volunteers, including three trustees, who oversee the day to day running of the library. Their contribution to the library cannot be underestimated, they are invaluable to the smooth and efficient running of the library and the Trustees are grateful to all of them for their continued efforts and the skills they bring with them.
You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:
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policy on grantmaking;
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policy programme related investment;
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contribution made by volunteers.
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Section D
Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year
Achievements and performance
The library continues to open two full days and three half days per week throughout the year, closing only for Christmas, Easter and bank holidays. Customers using the library have access to borrow, free of charge, our fiction, non-fiction, large print and audio books, together with free WiFi and free use of laptops. Printing and scanning are available for a small charge as are teas, coffees and soft drinks.
The library continues to be available for private hire, thus providing a further service to the community. The library also took part in the the Summer Reading Challenge in conjunction with the County Library for 4-11 year olds, to encourage reading during the holidays. It is always popular and well attended. We also continued to work with local schools and have had regular school visits this year. Sale of duplicate books/old stock to raise much needed funds.
We have an optional ‘Friends of OTCL’ scheme where members of the library can donate a regular amount by standing order or cash which is a valuable source of income. We continue to work at improving Friends’ memberships, which has increased slightly this year. Private hire of the library has not increased over the year and we will continue to advertise this valuable resource. Our CCTV has continued to prove helpful to our local PCSO on numerous occasions over the year. Our fundraising activities included Christmas and Easter Fayres which both proved very popular. An Easter colouring competition was held for the children, winners receiving Easter eggs.
Following an update of the library computer system, and deleting old records, membership now totals 943. Footfall for the year totalled 7,101and books borrowed totalled 6,894.
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Section E
Financial review
Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves
OTCL agrees to maintain reserves that would cover a minimum of three years running costs.
Details of any funds materially in deficit
None
Further financial review details (Optional information)
You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:
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the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
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how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
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investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.
OTCL principal sources of funding are from:
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OTCL Friends’ scheme, where customers can join paying an amount of their choice by standing order (or cash) either monthly, quarterly or annually
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Sale of books sold both in-house, to Ziffit/World of Books, on Ebay and at local auctions.
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Printing and laminating.
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Private hire of library
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Christmas and Easter Fayres
Although all up on the previous year, the unfortunate doubling of our energy account from £2,567in 2023/24 to £4,491.84 in the current year resulted in a loss for the year of £1,560.87. When the current energy contract ends we will look to renegotiate better terms. At the end of the financial year the bank balance was £23,229.25 down slightly on last year
No grant applications were submitted during the year.
Our fundraising efforts enable us to continue offering our services free of charge to our our members and the general public.
The continued availability of four laptops, with free Internet access and printer facilities, is well used and the help of a computer buddy has been very successful.
OTCL has no investments and so requires no investment policy or objectives.
Section F Other optional information
Section G Declaration
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
Signature(s)
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Full name(s) Jacqueline Cornish Position (eg Secretary, Chair, Chair/Trustee etc) Date 29 June 2026
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OLD TOWN COMMUNITY LIBRARY
ACCOUNTS FOR OCT 2024 TO SEPTEMBER 2025
| INCOME | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PRINTING | 573.25 | |||
| BOOKS SOLD | 800.71 | |||
| DRINKS ETC SOLD | 20.80 | |||
| ROOM HIRE | 144.00 | |||
| DONATIONS | 1,955.71 | |||
| FRIENDS | 741.00 | |||
| FUNDRAISERS | 750.64 | |||
| EXPENDITURE | ||||
| WINDOW CLEANER | -84.00 | |||
| STAMPS | -2.20 | |||
| STATIONERY | -121.01 | |||
| CLEANING ITEMS | -38.37 | |||
| REFRESHMENTS | -161.39 | |||
| REPAIRS & MAINTENANCE | -206.99 | |||
| TRAVEL | -205.00 | |||
| MISC | -177.64 | |||
| BRITISH GAS | -4,491.84 | |||
| INTERNET | -126.00 | |||
| INSURANCE | -468.15 | |||
| TEMU (FOR FUNDRAISER?) | -49.14 | |||
| BOOKS? (VIA GERRY) | 26.38 | |||
| EBAY (BOOKS?) | -441.63 | |||
| LOSS FOR FOR YEAR | -1,560.87 | |||
| TREASURER'S NOTES |
This is a larger loss than 2023-24, but a smaller loss than 2022-23. As at 30.9.25 there was still £23,229.25 in the bank account, so even with this level of loss there is enough to keep us going for a good few years.