Saltford Lawn Tennis Club Annual Report Charity number: 1183060
Year ended 31 March 2025
The club has had another busy and successful year, which is detailed below in the Annual Report and accounts.
Objective
Our objective is to promote community participation in healthy recreation by providing facilities for playing tennis to the benefit of the public in Saltford and the surrounding area.
Overview
The club has three outdoor all weather floodlit courts with a clubhouse. The club is an open, friendly, and inclusive 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.
We have 15 (2024: 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 an in-house tournament, managing club sessions, holding Open Days at the club, supporting the local Primary School fair, supporting the coach with the weekly inclusive tennis sessions, organising fundraising events, managing the membership database, financial record keeping, social media, project management, safety and welfare, maintenance and clubhouse cleaning. These members have been supported by a further 63 members. We are very grateful to all members who volunteer and have enabled the club to have another successful year both on and off court. One of the highlights of the year was in April 2024 when Sandi Proctor, the LTA President visited our club to see what we have achieved with public hirings, walking and inclusive tennis sessions. A further highlight was when our Head Coach Andy Gray was awarded Coach of the Year for Avon Tennis and then went on to be a National LTA Finalist.
The Club Committee has continued to work closely with the Bath & North East Somerset (BANES) Council through our Business Plan, Partnership Agreement and Lease - all of which were established as part of a Community Asset Transfer in 2020. The Club completes an annual report to BANES to demonstrate compliance with the provisions of these documents; in particular reporting on the performance measures and targets contained in the Business Plan. As at 31 March 2024, we met all requirements and surpassed many of the agreed targets.
On Court activities
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On 31 March 2025 we had a record 198 members (2024: 164). Improved facilities and a wider range of coaching classes has boosted membership. We continued to discount first year membership for adults and families as this gives a low-cost entry point to encourage more people to access tennis and has been a good way to attract new members. Membership allows free court booking, discounts on group coaching sessions, participation in the five club social sessions weekly and the annual in-house tournament.
Court Hire
Courts are available to hire by the public through our website and the mobile Clubspark Booker App using the LTA Smart Gate facility. All three courts are available to the public. Court hire per hour is £6 or £11 with floodlights. We had a record 340 hours of Public Hire (2024: 306) which brought in £2,645 (2024: £2,102) demonstrating that we are an open community club. We are registered with LTA Rally which increases our profile as non-members can find and book local courts.
Open Days
We held one LTA open day in June which was a great success with approximately 50 attending in total.
League
We fielded three Men’s and three Ladies teams in the Summer League and two mixed teams in the Winter League and welcomed new players into the teams.
Fundraising Tournaments
A number of tournaments were arranged over the year including a mixed doubles fundraising event. Raising more than £750 for hearing aids for a deaf school in Tanzania.
On World Suicide Day we had a Men's doubles tournament in memory of a former coach Russ Simmons which raised £600 for a prevent suicide charity.
In House Tournaments
Our annual in-house tournament attracted many members to participate, and the finals day was attended by a large number of spectators. In addition, several Senior Tournaments have been held across the year and for the first time a very successful fun Christmas Triples ‘Tinsel’ Tennis fundraising tournament was held.
The start of 2025 saw a series of 6 singles box ladders for men and women of all abilities to promote competitive singles play.
Coaching
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We aim to offer a wide variety of coaching sessions, which proved to be a very successful strategy attracting our highest programme capacity of 120 weekly participants. The group courses cater for ages ranging from 4 to over 80 years old, which are run throughout the year. In January we were delighted to hear that our Head Coach Andy Gray, had been awarded Avon Tennis Coach of the Year, and he later became a finalist in the National LTA awards. A terrific achievement for him and the club.
Walking tennis has remained as our most popular part of the programme with three sessions weekly each term which includes a Parkinson’s Tennis group. We also hosted our first walking tennis tournament with 15 participants and will continue to run these in between coaching terms.
Our inclusive sessions for children with special educational needs have continued throughout the year with 8 regular players. These sessions are supported by a group of amazing volunteers.
In school holidays we organised tennis camps and tournaments for children aged 7 to 16 and plan to expand this to younger children including toddlers.
Charitable Activities
We supported the village Primary school fundraising fair, providing free tennis for families at the school using mini nets. It was run by volunteering members and was very busy throughout the afternoon.
We supported the village community association with a stand at their Open Morning to talk tennis to the public and we also held a fundraising quiz raising £1,545 with funds split 50/50 with the community association
The village Sports club had a fun day, and we contributed by providing an afternoon of free tennis, which was very popular and run by volunteer members.
We also provided Vouchers for free family membership for three local school raffles.
Off Court Activities
The Off Court Committee has overseen a number of improvements to club facilities in recent years with the building of a new clubhouse, replacing old fencing and upgrading our floodlights to LED. This is now being rewarded with increases in membership and coaching as well as an increased hirings by the public.
We continue to monitor monthly accounts and mitigate identified risks to ensure that the club remains a going concern and provides both members and the public with a great
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tennis experience. In January 2025, we decided to streamline the Committee Structure and have just two Committees: the club Committee and the Playing Committee.
The Trustees completed an annual risk assessment and continue to mitigate the identified risks as well as improving the club’s facilities and processes.
Review of Financial Results
A total of £24,648 was spent on completing the improvement projects including upgrading the floodlights from halogen to LED and replacing a further section of fencing. This project was supported by the receipt of CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) money from BANES Council at the end of the last financial year. Following the considerable improvements to the club facilities the club is now thriving, and we have been able to repay our loan early, so we are now debt free. Membership Fees and Coaching are bringing in greater funds, and we have updated our five-year financial plan. We have a Sinking Fund, in accordance with LTA guidelines, and are adding £6,000 per year and on 31 March the balance is £40,770.
At the year end, we had £54,309 in cash reserves (2024: £66,387). The cash levels have reduced in 2025 as result of the completion of the LED floodlight and fencing upgrade this year. It is vital that the club has a good level of cash reserves to cover the future maintenance and replacement of assets including the courts and clubhouse.
Both Membership income of £15,845 (2024: £14,765) and Coaching income of £29,916 (2024: £21,751) were record highs for the club.
Court Hire and use of Floodlights amounted to £2,645 (2024: £2,102).
The club has demonstrated that good management by the Committees and improving club facilities has given us a well-utilsed courts and a popular community club. In addition, the expansion of the coaching programme has helped to make the club financially sound and a going concern.
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| Section B Staternent | ofassets and liabilities at | ofassets and liabilities at | the endofthe period | the endofthe period | the endofthe period | the endofthe period | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrestricted | Rntrlcted | Endowment | |||||
| Categoric!- | OotAlls | fund• | funds | funds | |||
| tonNrNt£ | tonN1"1£ | to'nN1Nt£ | |||||
| 81Cash funds | Ltoyd9 Current Account | 5,720 | |||||
| Ltoyds Regual Savings Account | 28,341 | ||||||
| Lloyds InstantSaverAccount | 34,328 | ||||||
| Total_cash_funds | 66,387 | ||||||
| (agreebalanceswithl1I09lptsaldpayments | I | II | |||||
| accotn(s)) | |||||||
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Endowment | |||||
| funds | funds | funds | |||||
| Details | tonNNSt£ | toneanst£ | tonearest£ | ||||
| 82Othermonetaryassets | |||||||
| Details | Fundtowhich assetbelonas |
Cost(optiolial) | Current value 1-~-JI |
||||
| 83Investment assets | |||||||
| Details | Foodtowhich assetbelongs |
Cost(optional) | Currentvalue (ootional) |
||||
| 84Assetsretainedforthe | Clubhouse | 69,363 | |||||
| charity'sown use | Fencing&Gate | 26,709 | |||||
| Fundtowhich | Amountdue | Whendue | |||||
| Details | liabilitvrelates | o I |
. I) |
||||
| B5Uabilities | LTAClubhouseLoan | 8,250 | |||||
| Signedbyoneortwotrusteeson behalfofallthetrustees |
Signature | PrintName | Dateof aroval |
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| f..AC\1f)€L | ~ | rJ"'1rv |
11/t/:1...5 | ||||
| P~rJ {'('Pr, |
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| Independentexaminer'sreportonthe | ||
|---|---|---|
| accounts | ||
| Section A | IndependentExaminer'sReport | |
| Report to the trustees | I Saltford Lawn Tennis Club |
I |
| Onaccounts for the year131 March 2025 ICharity no11183060 |
I | |
| ended | . (If any) '----------------...L..-----....._ __, |
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| Set out on pages | .I_N/a_.______ __,I |
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| I reporttothe trustees on my examinationofthe accountsofthe above | ||
| charity ("the Trust") for the year ended | ||
| Responsibilities and | As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparationofthe | |
| basisofreport | accounts in accordance with the requirementsofthe Charities Act 2011 | |
| ("the Act"). | ||
| I report in respectofmy examinationofthe Trust's accounts carried out | ||
| under section 145ofthe2011Act and in carrying out my examination, I | ||
| have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission | ||
| under section 145(5)(b)ofthe Act. |