Saltford Lawn Tennis Club Annual Report Year ended 31 March 2024
Charity number: 1183060
This Club has had another busy and successful year which is detailed below in the Annual Report and accounts.
Objective
Our charitable objective is to promote community participation in healthy recreation by providing facilities for playing tennis for the benefit of the public in Saltford and the surrounding area.
Overview
The club has three outdoor all weather floodlit courts with a clubhouse which has been replaced during the year. The club is an open and friendly community club which is run by volunteers. There were no paid staff during the year as we contract with our coach on an hourly basis.
This year we have continued to invest in the Club following the completion of the clubhouse which is double the footprint and is now suitable for the number of members and players in our coaching programmes. The clubhouse has a disabled toilet, kitchen facilities and more space and has enabled us to run community events, which we have fully utilised this year.
We have 15 (2023: 15) main volunteers who are either committee members or hold specific roles within the Club. They have volunteered time and skills across a wide range of activities including organising the in-house tournament; managing club sessions, holding Open Days at the Club, supporting the local Primary School fair, supporting the coach with the children’s weekly inclusive tennis sessions, organising and running fundraising events, managing the membership database; financial record keeping, social media, marketing, project management of the fencing and floodlight replacement projects, safety and welfare, maintenance and clubhouse cleaning. These members have been supported by a further 25 members. We are grateful to all the members who volunteer and have enabled the club to have a successful year both on and off the court.
On Court activities
Membership
At 31 March 2024 we had 164 (2023: 191) members which is a small decrease, however, as a result of retention of first year members renewing the Club has had a record membership income in the year of £14,765. Following the improvement in the Club’s facilities the membership rates were increased to reflect the additional overheads as one of our main objectives has been to ensure the Club remains affordable and accessible but also financially viable.
We benchmarked our membership costs with other clubs in the region, comparing rates and facilities. This showed that we have the lowest rates compared to other similar sized clubs and facilities as well as providing excellent access to courts, no extra charges for club nights, nor do we have joining fees.
In addition, we do provide a discounted first year membership for adults and families which gives a low-cost entry point to enable more people to access tennis. Members are able to book courts for free, gain discounts on group coaching sessions, participate in club nights and the annual in-house tournament as well as represent the club in league matches.
Court hire
Our courts are available to hire by the general public through our website and the mobile ClubSpark Booker App using the LTA Smart Gate facility. All three courts are available for the general public to hire (when not in use by the Club) at a very competitive price of £6, or £11 with floodlights, per hour
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Saltford Lawn Tennis Club Annual Report Year ended 31 March 2024
Charity number: 1183060
per court. We are registered with LTA Rally which increases our profile as non-members can find and book local courts.
We had a record 306 hours (2023: 176) of general public court hire which generated a financial income of £1,882 (2023: £1,062). This increase is attributable to the new LTA Smart Gate which was installed in February 2022 as well as a drier winter. This demonstrates that the Club is open and accessible to the general public.
League
We fielded three Ladies and two Mens teams in the Avon Tennis Summer League which enabled more members to play competitive league matches. We entered two teams into the Avon Tennis Mixed Winter League which ran from November to the end of March.
In-house tournaments
A key part of our annual calendar is the inhouse tournament which was again a huge success and really brings the whole Club together with a great spirit of competition and it sees new playing partnerships develop.
This year the Club organised a men’s doubles tournament titled, “Creating Hope Through Action” in honour of our former coach and member Russ Simmons. The tournament was made up of Russ’s former friends and Club members and took place on World Suicide Prevention day. A committee member gave a moving speech ahead of awarding the trophy and prizes. The event raised an amazing amount of £1,000 for the Charity Prevent Suicide in Bristol.
Coaching
We started the year with our new coach running just three hours on a Monday night, having had no coaching at the Club for the previous 3 months, and the coach has grown the coaching programme to cover Monday and Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings together with three Walking Tennis sessions during the week, as well as Tennis Camps and tournaments in the holiday.
We now have the largest tennis coaching programme the Club has had with 13 hours and an average 90 participants attending each week aged between 5 and 79, which is a great turnaround.
Open days
We held one LTA open day in May which was a great success with 56 attending in total. With support of Avon Tennis as well as the LTA Open Court representative, we introduced Walking Tennis and had a great turnout from the Saltford Parkinson’s group. Following the success of this free taster we introduced two tennis sessions on a Thursday morning, one open to all and the second session for People with Parkinsons.
We grew the interest through advertising, attending Saltford Hall open morning and presentations to local Parkinson’s groups as well as local WI groups. We had a very positive response so established a third open session on a Wednesday morning. The coach runs the sessions with the support of a few members who volunteer to help by joining in, to even up the numbers and also making tea and coffee afterwards. These groups have a great community feel to them and are a real success, thanks to the coach and the volunteers.
Saltford has one of the most active Walking Tennis groups in the area which is great as it widens the use of the courts and also gets a wider diverse group of people enjoying the game.
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Saltford Lawn Tennis Club Annual Report Year ended 31 March 2024
Charity number: 1183060
Following the success of the Walking Tennis we introduced Inclusive Tennis for children in October 2023, with the support of the charity Access Sport and Avon Tennis representative.
Inclusive tennis is for children who are d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent together with their siblings to enable them to learn to play tennis and enjoy the time on court together as a family, whilst giving their parents a bit of a rest.
The Club coach and a group of volunteer members received an initial three-hour training session before we launched the initiative. The weekly Saturday coaching sessions are supported by a group of members who volunteer their time to ensure we have enough players on court to manage the different abilities and ensure everyone enjoys their time – including making the parents a cup of tea or coffee.
The Club has attended Open Court and Access Sport sessions, attended further training sessions and also shared our learning which had raised the Club’s profile.
We have a regular group of six children attending each week and we can see they get a lot from the sessions as well as enjoying them.
Charitable activities
In July 2023, we supported Saltford Primary School Summer Fair by providing an afternoon of free tennis activities on the school playground for approx. 50 children. This event supported the school and led to an increase in numbers on our coaching programme.
We provided a number of vouchers for free family membership as raffle prizes and auctions to Saltford Community Association, a local hospital and three schools to support their fundraising events. This raffle prizes, raises the awareness of the Club and at no cost to the Club.
Fundraising
During the year the Club run successful fundraising events including Christmas Jumper tournament, skittles, Petanque and a quiz night which has raised a surplus of £1,208. (2023: £2,368), working with both the Sports Club and the Saltford Community Association which also benefited from the events.
Off Court activities
The Off Court committee has continued to work closely with the Bath & North East Somerset (BANES) Council through Community Asset Transfer (CAT) and 99 year long lease. The Club completes an annual report to the Council to demonstrate compliance with the requirement of CAT and lease. As at 31 March 2024 we had met the requirements of the CAT and surpassed many of the agreed targets.
The Off Court Committee has continued it major improvement programme following the Clubhouse replacement, the courts have been repainted and early in the new financial year both the floodlights and a further stretch of fencing will be replaced. This will complete the major planned projects. The Committee will focus on maintaining the facilities, running the Club in a financially sustainable manner and ensuring that the Club utilises its facilities for the community and remains accessible and open to all to play.
The trustees completed an annual risk assessment and continue to mitigate the identified risks as well as improving the Club’s facilities and processes.
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Saltford Lawn Tennis Club Annual Report Year ended 31 March 2024
Charity number: 1183060
Review of financial results
The main income for the Club is membership fees which are paid annually on 1 April. This year we have achieved another record for membership income of £14,765 (2023: £13,205) as a result of membership retention and attraction.
Annually, we review the cost of all membership categories to ensure that all classes get value for money that the Club remains affordable and accessible to all who want to play whilst ensuring the Club is financially secure building sinking funds for future requirements.
The Club uses the LTA ClubSpark platform for its website, membership database, court bookings and coaching programme as it has an online card payment facility.
In February 2023 the Club commenced a new coaching programme, which resulted in Club receiving a net income of £7,700 (2023: £1,051) after deduction of coaching costs.
The Off Court Committee were successful in gaining CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) funding from the Council which totalled £38,000 to convert the halogen floodlights to LED and the replace a further stretch of fencing. In 2023 the Club received a total of £31,250 from Council CIL funding and a grant Enovert Community Trust to support the funding of the Clubhouse replacement project.
The Club has repaid £1,000 of the £10,000 Avon Tennis interest free ten-year loan of £10,000 and has a year-end balance of £8,250 (2023: £ 9,250).
The Club has continued to manage its financial position carefully through attracting and welcoming new members, being open and accessible for public hire, holding fundraising events, applying for grant funding, whilst carefully managing its costs.
The Club has spent £8,484 on maintenance this year with repainting the courts, together with £15,720 which covered the costs of an Ecology report required for the replacement of the floodlights and a deposit for the floodlights ahead of the working being completed in the new financial year. (2023: £84,357 was spent building the clubhouse, replacing fencing and installing the smart gate). At 31 March 2024, the Club’s assets of clubhouse and fencing, remains the same value £96,072. (2023: £96,702).
At 31 March 2024 the Club had cash funds of £66,387 (2023: £36,906). The cash funds have increased significantly as a result of the receipt of £38,000 CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) funding from the Council for the conversion of the halogen floodlights to LED and the replacement of fencing which was completed early in the new financial year.
The cash funds are held across three bank accounts, the current account for the Club’s ongoing working capital requirements and two saver accounts for designated funds for planned projects and the Sinking Fund for the court resurfacing, fencing replacement other future maintenance obligations. The Club has a five-year forecast and with improved facilities it is now generating more income which will enable the Club to continue to improve its facilities and build the Sinking Funds for future projects.
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| CHARITY COMMISSION | Saltford Lawn Tennis Club | Saltford Lawn Tennis Club | 1183060 | 1183060 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FOR ENGLAND AND WALES | |||||
| Receipts and payments accounts | CC16a | ||||
| For the period from |
01/04/2023 | To | 31/03/2024 | ||
| Section A Receipts and | payments | ||||
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Endowment | |||
| funds | funds | funds | Total funds Last year | ||
| to the nearest | |||||
| £ | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | |
| A1 Receipts | |||||
| Membership income | 14,7651 | 14,765 | 13,205 | ||
| Visitor/Guest Fees | 79 | 79 | |||
| Public Court Hire | 2,103 | 2,103 | |||
| Miscellaneous | 13) | 13 | 686 | ||
| Bank interest | 405) | 405 | 98 | ||
| Fundrasing Events | 1,612 | 1,612 | |||
| Grants | 38,2501 | 38,250 | 31,250 | ||
| Loans | 0 | ||||
| Club Coaching | 21,7511 | 21,751 | 1,734 | ||
| Match Fees | 675 | 675 | |||
| Lights | 0] | 70 | |||
| Bath Universtiy coaching | 0 | ||||
| Sub total (Gross income for AR) |
79,6521 | 79,652 | 61,572 | ||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, | |||||
| (see table). | |||||
| Sub total | |||||
| Total | 79,652) ^ | -][. | 3L | 79,652 I | 61,5721 |
| A3 Payments | |||||
| Avon LTA | 54; | 545 | 500 | ||
| Tennis Balls | 99i | 994 | 362 | ||
| Gate | 751 | 751 | |||
| Insurance | 1,091 | 1,091 | 1,327 | ||
| Electricity | 1,797 | 1,797 | 853 | ||
| Miscellaneous | 2,577 | 2,577 | 1,567 | ||
| Additional Court Hire | 75E | 756 | 468 | ||
| Saltford Memberships | 3ie | 316 | 530 | ||
| Club Maintenance | 8,484 | 8,484 | 687 | ||
| Loan Repayment | 1,OOC | 1,000 | 1,750 | ||
| Payment Processing fees | 1,26S | 1,265 | 498 | ||
| Project Work | 15,72C | 15,720 | 84,357 | ||
| Club Coaching | 14,051 | 14,051 | 850 | ||
| Water | 277 | 277 | 182 | ||
| Marketing | 547 | 547 | 166 | ||
| Bath University Coaching | 0 | 9,416 | |||
| Sub total | 50,17(1 | 50,170 | 103,513 | ||
| A4 Asset and investment | |||||
| purchases, (see table) | |||||
| Sub total | |||||
| Total payments ^ | 50,170 I ^ | -IL | -K | 50,170 | I |
| Net of receipts/fpayments) | 29,482 | 29,482 | 41,941 | ||
| A5 Transfers between funds | |||||
| A6 Cash funds last year end | 36,906 | 36,906 | 78,847 | ||
| Cash funds this year end | 66,387 | 66,387 | 36,906 |
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Endowment | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (:;lil>(i()li0'; | l)l-.,!il'; | funds | funds | funds |
| to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | ||
| B1 Cash funds | Lloyds Current Account | 5,720 | ||
| Lloyds Regual Savings Account | 26,341 | |||
| Lloyds Instant Saver Account | 34,326 | |||
| Total cash funds | 66,387 | |||
| (agree balances with receipts and payments | ||||
| account(s)) | ||||
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Endowment | ||
| funds | funds | funds | ||
| Details | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | |
| 82 Other monetary assets | ||||
| Details | Fund to which asset belongs |
Cost (optional) | Current value (optional) |
|
| B3 Investment assets | ||||
| Details | Fund to which asset belongs |
Cost (optional) | Current value (optional) |
|
| B4 Assets retained for the | Clubhouse | 69,363 | ||
| charity's own use | Fencing & Gate | 26,709 | ||
| Fund to which | Amount due | When due | ||
| Details | liability relates | (optional) | (optional) | |
| B5 Liabilities | LTA Clubhouse Loan | 8,25C | ||
| Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees |
Signature | Name | Date of approval |
|
| t< (^^^ | ^CW<TC | -T^^inJ | ixA/^ | |
| '}QK^ | Pe-^^2 ^pr^f | \^))Z ^ | ||
| "7—^"' .' |