HRCA Chair’s Annual report, AGM May 2023
This year has seen Haywood Road Community Centre maintain running at almost full capacity and continue to welcome regular new users. We are ending our latest year in a very healthy financial position, which given the rise in costs we have all seen this year, it has been very reassuring that we have been able to continue to thrive.
The Hall and its place in the community
We are a community centre for the community and have regularly asked for feedback from the community. We did this years ago, asking what the community wanted from the centre and the provision we offer. We have gone to great lengths over the years to update the centre and are delighted that we have been able to complete this vision with the laying of a new floor throughout this year. We feel the community centre is now in its strongest position to continue to thrive as a place for events for our community.
The preschool continues to be our main user throughout the year and with Val taking a role in ensuring that user is well maintained and building a strong relationship with their leaders, it ensures we continue to secure a robust relationship and important income stream. We are delighted that the community centre is well used by all ages of the community through various user groups. As it stands, Friday evening and Saturday are still the only times we don’t have a regular booking. However we continue to take regular bookings for parties and there continues to be frequent booking requests coming through and managed by Val.
We have made decisions to limit the finishing time of parties this year, to ensure the impact of noise for our local residents is limited and ensure we remain a good neighbour. We are embedded in our community and run by a group of local volunteers who understand the importance of having such a wonderful resource in our neighbourhood and want to impact our local community respectfully.
The Management Committee and Trustees
We continue to have a committed group who ensure the running of the centre and its provision to the wider community. We would also like to invite people to join our group of trustees and steering group, we are a small group and would welcome the input of other members of our community. Our members of our steering group continue to support the centre throughout the year, offering wonderful fundraising opportunities and using the centre as a meeting point.
The building and services
As I mentioned, you will notice our beautiful new floor, and way it lifts the space we have to offer. After the disappointment of the delay in floor fitting and the struggle to resolve that, it has been a huge relief to see this realised and in place. We are very proud of the impact we have been able to have on the centre in our years in managing the spaces we have to offer.
After the changes to décor, blinds and refitting of kitchens and bathrooms over the last couple of years, the floor really has been the icing on the cake in how the centre looks. It now is very
much more modern in appearance and much more presentable for our users and I hope somewhere they are proud to hold their events. We have listened to feedback from day one and hope that you all can benefit from the centre being in a more pleasant state.
We are not stopping there though. As we improve things, it highlights other fittings that might be looking a bit tired. As a committee we have decided that the chairs are next on our list to be replaced, so we can provide something that fits with the ascetic of the new look centre and will add to the overall provision for our users.
We have been able to further reduce some of the running costs we inherited, thanks to Val’s management. A huge expense this year along with the floor, has been the instalment of a new boiler. This obviously brings us up to date, allowing us to manage the building more efficiently, saving us money at a time when it is really needed. It also allows our caretaker Val more flexibility in managing the heating controls remotely, which has been great.
The provision of Wi-Fi access continues to be well received and ensures we are kept up to date with the expectations of modern users, allowing us to remain competitive with other community centres.
Fundraising
We are so grateful for all the fundraising done for the centre. Last year it was great to see another successful and much anticipated silent disco. The event was well received amongst the local community and ticket sales sold out within hours. Paul Drury and the silent disco team do such a fantastic job organising and promoting the event for, which means it continues to be a much anticipated event in our local community, and gives us an event that spans generations and really allows our community to get together. This event each year has brought a great amount of money to the centre through profit on ticket sales and bar sales. Such events really are vital for the centre to raise much needed funds, and we are delighted that there will be another this summer, which again saw tickets sell out in a few hours.
We are so fortunate to have many avid supporters, and delighted that Bob Collis has very kindly and generously donated to the centre and the pre-school again this year and we continue to be grateful for his support.
The future
In the year ahead we look forward to supporting our continued user groups, welcoming new users, and seeing community events like the Silent Disco happen in July, as well as see the community centre continue to thrive and ensure we remain a place at the heart of our community.
Thank you
We continue to be blessed with avid supporters, loyal users and along with our committee, ensure our centre continues to be well run and used by our community. Thank you to our committee and steering group for their continued enthusiasm and our users for ensuring our centre is so well used, you are the reason the community centre goes from strength to strength each year.
Again I must give a special thanks to Val, who as caretaker continues to ensure the day to day running of the centre is as smooth as possible, as well as managing all bookings. As well as this, Val has overseen the installing of the boiler and flooring, which whilst all decisions are made as a committee group, it really is with huge thanks to Val that these things have been organised and managed so well.
Leona Dunleavy
Trustee and Chair, Haywood Road Community Association 2nd May 2023
| HRCA Receipts and Payments for the | Period April 2022-March2023 |
|---|---|
| Receipts | |
| Room Hire | 23286.60 |
| Events/Donations | 8447.60 |
| Total income | 31734.20 |
| Payments | |
| Gas | 2057.90 |
| Electricity | 1337.73 |
| Water | 690.48 |
| Caretaking | 5160.00 |
| Insurance/accounting | 155.65 |
| Cleaning/Sundries | 599.64 |
| Virgin Media | 563.46 |
| Maintenance | 19056.41 |
| Events | 2057.14 |
| Total expenditure | 31678.41 |
| Surplus for year | 55.79 |
| Balance sheet at March 31st 2023 | |
| Current asset | |
| Cash at bank | 31822.50 |
| Accumulated fund | |
| Balance brought forward | 31766.71 |
| Add surplus for year | 55.79 |
| 31822.50 |
These accounts have been scrutinised and approved by our Independent Examiner, Russell Byers.
| HRCA Receipts and Payments for the | Period April 2022-March2023 |
|---|---|
| Receipts | |
| Room Hire | 23286.60 |
| Events/Donations | 8447.60 |
| Total income | 31734.20 |
| Payments | |
| Gas | 2057.90 |
| Electricity | 1337.73 |
| Water | 690.48 |
| Caretaking | 5160.00 |
| Insurance/accounting | 155.65 |
| Cleaning/Sundries | 599.64 |
| Virgin Media | 563.46 |
| Maintenance | 19056.41 |
| Events | 2057.14 |
| Total expenditure | 31678.41 |
| Surplus for year | 55.79 |
| Balance sheet at March 31st 2023 | |
| Current asset | |
| Cash at bank | 31822.50 |
| Accumulated fund | |
| Balance brought forward | 31766.71 |
| Add surplus for year | 55.79 |
| 31822.50 |
These accounts have been scrutinised and approved by our Independent Examiner, Russell Byers.