Levens Village Hall
Registered Charity No. 1192940
Trustees’ Annual Report
1 January 2021 – 31 December 2021
Secretary:
Mr Alan Miller Grey Mists, Hutton Lane, Levens, Kendal, Cumbria
LA8 8PB
Tel: 015395 60334 E-mail: lvhsecretary@levens.org.uk
Names of Trustees
Ms Fiona Sanders Chair Mr Alan Miller Secretary Mr John Wood Treasurer Mrs Helen Golding Miller Bookings Secretary Mrs Sheila Watson Mr Hugh Connor Ms Christine Riley Mr Frank Routledge Mrs Susie Bagot Mrs Bridget Barton Until 8 April 2021 Mrs Wendy Mobbs Until 8 April 2021 Mrs Mary Orr Until 8 April 2021 Mrs Elizabeth McCreadie From 6 December 2020 Miss Robyn Atkinson From 6 December 2020 Mrs Janet Mason From 6 December 2020
Sources of advice and support
Bank: Unity Trust Bank PLC, 4 Brindley Place Birmingham, West Midlands, B1 2JB Solicitors: Thomas Hayton Winkley, 114-116 Stricklandgate, Kendal, LA9 4QA ACTion with Communities in Cumbria, Office Q, Skirsgill Business Park, Penrith, Cumbria, CA11 0FA
South Lakeland District Council
Levens Parish Council
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Governance
Levens Village Hall was registered as a charity (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) on 30 December 2020 and is governed by a Governing Document dated 30 November 2020. The LVH CIO replaced, and took over the assets of, Levens Institute charity (registered 3 February 1963).
Originally a bank barn, the village hall was converted to a Reading Room, called the Levens Mens' Institute, in the early years of the 20th century. The charity owns the land and buildings of the village hall.
Appointment of Trustees
The Governing Document governs the appointment of trustees and the management of the charity. The maximum number of trustees is 15 and each new trustee is appointed for a term of three years. In selecting individuals for appointment as trustees the trustees will prioritise from user bodies, whilst having regards to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the CIO.
Policies and Procedures
To guide the Trustees in exercising their duty of care to members, employees and users of the hall, the following policy statements have been adopted:
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Health & Safety Policy
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Safeguarding Policy
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Fire Evacuation Policy
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Risk Assessment Procedure
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Finance and Reserves Policy
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Equal Opportunities Policy
Copies of these policies are available from the Village Hall’s website pages and trustees have access to them in a Dropbox folder
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Hiring Agreement
Use of the village hall is subject to a Hiring Agreement which must be signed by the hirer when booking. The hiring agreement sets out the conditions of hire and identifies the respective responsibilities of each party to the agreement.
Licences
The hall does not have a Premises Licence. The hall holds a Music Licence from PPL PRS Ltd permitting the playing and performing of music in the hall.
Risk Management
Insurance
The village hall is insured with respect to property damage (buildings insurance) by Aviva (£266,243 cover). It is insured with the same company with respect to contents (up to £15,447) public liability (£5,000,000) employers’ liability (£10,000,000) and legal assistance.
The Trustees recognises that the CIO is under a legal obligation to protect the building, its users and employees through adequate and appropriate insurance.
Building Issues
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Portable electrical appliances are tested by qualified personnel annually.
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The mains electrical installation is checked by a qualified engineer every 5 years.
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Fire equipment is checked annually by a local specialist company.
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Volunteers from the Trustees and others carry out other regular maintenance checks.
Objectives of the Charity
The objects of the CIO are to establish and run a village hall and to promote for the benefit of the inhabitants of the parish of Levens ("area of benefit") without distinction of sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, nationality, race or political, religious or other opinions the provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time occupation of individuals who have need of such facilities by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disablement, financial hardship or social and
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economic circumstances or for the public at large in the interests of social welfare and with the object of improving the conditions of life of the said inhabitants.
Principal Activities in pursuit of Objectives
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The hall is in use most days of the week for a variety of activities including pre-school play group, Brownies, Pilates for all abilities, Yoga, History Club, Watercolour, Quilters, Philatelists, Legs Levens, DBWG and Tuesday club.
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The hall is available for hire for private functions including children’s parties, wedding receptions, funeral teas, village social functions and occasional fund raising fayres.
Funding Strategy
It is the strategy of the Trustees to manage the revenue budget on a selffinancing basis. The contributions made by users of the hall are set to achieve this.
Volunteers’ Effort
Management costs are kept to a minimum through the use of volunteers for regular maintenance. In addition to the trustees another dozen people or so assist in the maintenance and running of the hall, including helping out with regular Maintenance Days.
2021 Achievements
This is our first year as a CIO and it is exciting to have our first public meeting under that guise. Further because of the need to change our articles, we also took time to review our policies and procedures and hire agreement to bring them up to date and are now available on the village website.
The Levens Village Hall as it is now called is a community hub. The most important job in 2021 was to make sure the hall could be open as much as possible during the ever-changing rules that COVID restrictions had on us. Thanks to the committee members who kept on top of the requirements, made sure that they were implemented and to everyone who used the hall and
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followed the guidance and filled in additional paper work that was required. Action Cumbria Trust also provided great support throughout this time with regular updates and guidance notes. We also offered the hall as workspace during the more stringent lockdown periods.
The village website has been a helpful facilities for us to share information and thanks to that team for being so supportive of our regular requests. We have also decided that we would produce a quarterly newsletter to keep everyone informed about what we are up to and how you can get involved. Particularly as we have had quite a few new groups start up basing themselves in the hall.
Another first in 2021 was the introduction of work meets to help keep on top of the maintenance jobs around the hall. We had a great turn out for the initial day and have another planned for 2022.
Special thanks to Bridget Barton and Wendy Mobbs and Mary Orr who have stepped down as trustees and welcome to all our new trustees.
2021 Financial Review
Inevitably the year was impacted severely by the Covid-19 pandemic and the forced closure of the hall for many months. Nevertheless, there was some recovery in room hire income and further Coronavirus Recovery Grants have proved extremely useful in leaving the charity in strong financial position for an uncertain period ahead. Without the Coronavirus grants the hall would have made a small loss of approximately £300 for the year.
Reserves Policy
The charity had £10,000 in the bank as unrestricted reserves at the year end. This cash is available for unforeseen expenditure in relation to building maintenance or urgent furniture or equipment replacement. It is the Trustees’ policy to maintain unrestricted reserves of between 150% and 200% of annual revenue budget expenditure.
General reserves are being maintained in readiness for the commencement of the building of the new village hall.
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Future Plans
As part of the Levens Community Project a new village hall will be constructed. There is a Joint Venture Agreement in place between Levens, Village Hall, Levens Parish Council and Levens Charity, setting out the details of the project. Once the new hall has been constructed its ownership will be passed to Levens Village Hall. The ownership of the current hall will then be transferred to the Parish Council/Levens Charity so that it can be redeveloped to form three affordable properties for elderly residents of the village.
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
Signature(s)
Fiona Sanders
Full name(s) Position
Fiona Sanders Chair
Date
17 May 2022
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