## **Levens Village Hall** Registered Charity No. 1192940 Trustees’ Annual Report 1 January 2022 – 31 December 2022 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 Mrs Susie Bagot Miss Robyn Atkinson Mrs Janet Mason Ms Vanessa Riley From 17 May 2022 Mrs Elizabeth McCreadie Until 8 March 2022 Mr Frank Routledge Until 6 December 2022 ## **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 Page 1 ## **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 Men’s' 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: - Health & Safety Policy - Safeguarding Policy - Fire Evacuation Policy - Risk Assessment Procedure - Finance and Reserves Policy - 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. ## **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. Page 2 ## **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 Covea Insurance Ltd (£384,650 cover). It is insured with the same company with respect to contents (up to £21,936) 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** - Portable electrical appliances are tested by qualified personnel annually. - The mains electrical installation is checked by a qualified engineer every 5 years. - Fire equipment is checked annually by a local specialist company. - 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 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. Page 3 ## **Principal Activities in pursuit of Objectives** - 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. - 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’ Efforts** 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. ## **2022 Achievements** Levens Village Hall remains as a community hub. It was great to see such a large turn out at our first public meeting for the renamed Levens Village Hall charity. The most important tasks in 2022 have been: - Dealing with a wide range of maintenance issues arising due to the age of the property and an ongoing need to minimise major work whilst we await the move to the new hall. Volunteers have put hours of work both inside and out over the year and our annual Maintenance Meet continues to prove a success and a substantial contribution to keeping the hall usable and affordable. - managing the finances to ensure that, as the cost of living crisis impacts our costs, we continue to be viable. Unfortunately, this has meant that Page 4 from January 2023 we will raise our fees to ensure we can match income to expenditure in 2023. - use of the hall continues to grow, from one off use to our regular users. The trustees successfully ran a Jubilee Coffee and Pictures Morning, that was incredibly well attended. As are our regular Tuesday Club and LAFS Group – who organise a whole range of events which are becoming increasingly popular. Sadly, this year Frank Routledge passed away, he was a long-term supporter and trustee of the hall and we send our condolences to his family. ## **2022 Financial Review** Room hire income recovered to pre-pandemic levels and our surplus for the year of £2,700 was also in line with pre-pandemic figures. Our electricity contract is currently a three-year fixed one which expires in December 2023, when we are anticipating a very considerable rise in costs. Consequently, trustees took the decision to increase our room hire rates from 1 January 2023 in anticipation of this. A further rise may be required next year, although we hope that this will not be necessary. ## **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. ## **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 Page 5 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)** Fiona Sanders **Position** Chair **Date** 20 May 2023 Page 6 Levens Willage Hall Financial Report 2022 Income arml Expenditwe Accowt Income 2022 Expwmlitwa 2022 2021 Iloorn hire 635725 2735.75 In$uw 53936 456.59 LAFS 1905.12 ofjo PPL PRS Licwc* 13920 132.00 Tu8>Jay Club es Int¥85t 0.00 ofjo Fire suvic* 67.80 63.42 264A6 1338.05 347.70 Cant￿￿ge & Cwntles Intwe*s¢ COIF IntW85t Lkn8tion8 396.19 312.10 709.88 451.88 0.11 381.00 360.00 59fy) 0￿0 Clwing L￿s 477BO 42527 COron￿lrU$ R￿)Y￿Y Gr￿t$ PPL PRS Covtsl ralund 16￿fjo 170922 $0.77 Tuo*Jty Chjb ilding rnant￿ Ll)wnstard h¢oting S￿Ic￿•Y Cwd m*wwl• 50fj0 597J6 237.23 OAN) 400.00 53.74 ofjo 16.03 Lwd Rffjlstry L¥JBt8 Annu* ￿￿1￿0 cc* PAT te&ting Bthk ch¥geB ono 393.60 75.00 0.00 94.08 94.08 72.00 $4.00 35.70 s.00 6286.45 3.490.54 sU￿v5 of intsThobv Fffiditure £2,695.97 t16.030.07 £8W2A2 tI•W0ffj1 t8W2.42 £19.520.61 Balance Sheet as at 31 Decen￿19r 2022 FwKls at 31 D•c•mbw 2021 F￿)d$ at 31 D•c•mbor 2022 Unity Trusi CUTh￿1 A￿￿nI Building Soa6ty Accojnt Tethtrs Building Swety Savw ￿ AL￿nt Cambrid9e& Counties B￿k 1 Yew Bcffid 4ffj30ffj4 UnityTru8t CufwiAL￿￿ng Tax1￿8 &Jlldfjng W¢ty AC0￿nI &Jild*ng ￿"*Y Saver 90 Acmint Crxtnti8s 8•ik 2 y￿ 6.478.74 10.065.27 10.011.67 30256.78 31.522.42 30,468.04 31,918.61 Ad3tlncorner￿&￿lrt 2023 717.00 Lo%srwrw)ts 2023 -529.98 76.421.71 79.117.68 Surplus ol Inr￿￿re0v¥ ax[*￿Te 2.695.97 t79.117ffj8 £79,117.68 ICOLA 6 £ KLP 14.1.23