Coddington Community Centre
Annual Report
2024
The Community Centre continues to be in demand with bookings coming in regularly. I would like to thank Ian Lawson for continuing to maintain the building and keeping it ready for our hirers. I would also like to thank Sally Briggs-Price for handling the bookings and finances for us amongst other things.
We continue to see weekend party bookings and enquiries come in which keeps us busy at the weekends. The rest of the time is taken by our regular hirers. Despite seeing some fall by the wayside, we are continuing to see new user groups make bookings.
Over the last few years we have carried out a considerable amount of maintenance which has reduced our bank balance. We will be reviewing our charges with a view to balancing our books. Everything has gone up over the last few years, we have not increased our prices since before Covid.
Following some complaints about the flooding of the car park we looked into the problem with the following results:
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1) The car park floods after a prolonged period of heavy rain.
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2) To install a different drainage system and tarmac the side of the car park closest to the road would cost around £20,000.
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3) If we closed the centre each time the car park flooded it would take us more than 10 years to lose £20,000.
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4) If you look at other county areas which flood after heavy rain you can see that no action has been taken to install additional infrastructure to correct the problem.
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5) The car park drains within 24 hours so not further action was deemed necessary.
We began to experience leakage from the Velux windows. A local Velux qualified builder was engaged to inspect them…. We also planned to install blinds to the windows to darken the hall for presentations.
When the builder went to fit the blinds, he found that Velux made 2 different models of our window and do not support the one we have. A third-party blind has been sourced and will be installed in October when we have the heating serviced as we will have the access equipment again. During the inspection the leak was found to have been caused by a build up of debris which was preventing them from closing. This has been added to our maintenance schedule.
The new gates have been installed and do not appear to be causing any issues. I am looking at our risk assessments to incorporate the gates into our systems.
In December we received an internet bill for just under £70 as opposed to the £10 per month that we had been paying. We suspected that this was caused by someone streaming video at the centre. The trustees agreed that it was time to
upgrade our internet to fixed line which would not have a download limit. This has been completed, we now have Wi-Fi throughout the building.
In January the W.I. hosted an evening with Prof Sir Johnaton Van Tam which went very well and highlighted a few things we need to address:
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1) 120 people is a workable number, but we do not have enough chairs. For the evening, we borrowed some from the village hall but to be self sufficient we would need to purchase 40 folding chairs ourselves. We have just taken possession of some second hand chairs of the same style to our existing ones but they are made of Steel as opposed to Aluminium.
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2) The external lighting around the back of the building is not working properly to provide emergency guidance around the building. This has been resolved.
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3) Our little speaker is not really suitable for this application, we will be looking at improvements.
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4) Our projector is rather old and not fit for purpose now.
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5) The emergency exit to the rear of the building is not paved to the safe refuge, while it may have been acceptable when the Community Centre was built, I am certain that it does not conform now. A path needs to be put in place from the rear doors to the muster area / school entrance path.
Last year we let our users down as we were not on the ball for the School Sports Day. This year we closed the car park in the morning to ensure that there were enough car park spaces for the Toddler Group who pay to use the centre. Normally the car park is full to capacity with parents’ cars on Sports Day. We have asked for communication with the school to allow us to manage this, but it has never really been set up. I will try to resolve the communication issue although the school did ask for the building to be open during the day to allow parents to use the toilets. This was declined as it would pose a Safe Guarding issue for the Toddler Group and there would be nobody responsible for the building when it was unoccupied.
Looking forward to the coming year, our focus will be to adjust our pricing structure to start seeing a positive change to our bank balances and look into Paving the escape route from the rear of the main hall to safety and the area to the side of the function room where the school parents gather. This will include providing paved access all around the front of the building for disabled users.
Final Statement of Accounts for Coddington Community Centre 2023-2024
The Final Statement of Accounts figures the current account:
Current account:
Opening Balance £3,827.15 Receipts £36,496.45 (including £11,994 transferred from the savings account) Payments £38,681.49 2024 £1,642.11.
The Final Statement of Accounts figures for the savings account:
Savings account: Opening £29,523.89 Closing £17,847.63 Total Interest £317.74 Transfers to Current Account £11,994.00.
Tnl) forthe PWK#I 1 2023 kn 31 Plarh 2024. Chty Ccml¥ under 8econ 14q5)(b) P 1. rnnting Tecords wBre not kqx in iesm of the Trust as by sectic 130 of the 2 the accounts do not xcord IIM>se rec. ( fequirOTTth thal the arA)unts give a true and faff vvw which is not a ¢onsKlered part of an I Iwe no corerS and have com8 across (ther matters winecknn wtth Ihe exaMInatK to c¢)unt8 to be reached. Accounts kn the year 2W21Q4. Skeky 10 May 2024.
The Final Statempnt of Accounts figures for the current account: Current aCC(nt. Openlng Balance £3,827.15 1 Aprll 2023 Closlng Balan £I,FA2.11 31 March 2024 ReiptS £36,496.45 {including £11,994 transferred from the savines atcountl Payments £38,681.49 The Flnal state.ment of Accounts flgure5 for the savlnps account.. Savlngs acC(nt. Opening Balance £29.523.89 1 April 2023 C105ing Balance £17,847.63 31 March 2024 Total Intprest £817.74 Transfers to Current Account £11.994.00.
31-Mar.24 PY•pared br. 10 May 2024 T(Aal £ £52652 £17047.63 £1,642.11 Saviw Account Main Account £0.( Net bank bftces as at 31411rd £iw.ii forihe year. asfollo. 827.15 £36.49f&45 £38,681A9 Add: Receipts in year Less: Panents In the year ao4n8 BalKe