Levens Village Hall Registered Charity No. 1192940 Trustees’ Annual Report 1 January 2022 – 31 December 2023
Secretary: Mrs Janet Mason 6,Greengate Crescent Levens, Kendal, Cumbria LA8 8QB
E-mail: lvhsecretary@levens.org.uk
Names of Trustees
Ms Fiona Sanders Chair Mrs Janet Mason Secretary Mrs Nicola Beard Treasurer Mrs Helen Golding Miller Bookings Secretary Mr Alan Miller Mrs Sheila Watson Tuesday club Mr Hugh Connor LAF committee Ms Christine Riley Mrs Susie Bagot Miss Robyn Atkinson Mr John Wood Ms Vanessa Riley David Rogerson Parish Council
The Committee thanked Nicola for taking on the role of Treasurer, thanked Susie for continuing as a trustee and welcomed David to the committee as the Parish council representative
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
Westmorland and Furness District Council
Levens Parish Council
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:
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.
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. It is insured with the same company with respect to contents, public liability, employers’ liability 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.
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, KEY, 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.
Levens arts and film society organise quarterly events for attendance by the local community.
Funding Strategy
It is the strategy of the Trustees to manage the revenue budget on a self-financing basis. The contributions made by users of the hall are set to achieve this. Recently the committee has scheduled events such as curry and quiz nights to raise additional funds.
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.
2023 Achievements
This year we saw two new initiatives by the committee, curry and quiz nights to raise funds on behalf of the hall and a schedule of domino evenings to engage a mixed audience to utilise the hall. LAF ran an event to raise funds for the local village playing field and raised £600 to help with their upgrades.
We have also seen KEY begin running youth activities which means we now cater across the whole range of young people.
The village website has been a helpful facility for us to share information and thanks to that team for being so supportive of our regular requests. Along with this Vanessa has promoted activities on our behalf through the Village shop Facebook page which has been particularly useful.
Our work meets continue to contribute to the upkeep of the building alongside ad hoc work particularly by Hugh Connor to manage some of the day-to-day emergency fixes. We continue to use a cleaner for one hour a week and Alan Miller continues to open and close the building for the users. All very important work to keep things working for the village.
2023 Financial Review
Room hire income continues to increase partly due to higher usage and also the increase in booking rates. This combined with the strong interest rates for 2023 on our savings means that we made a surplus of approx. £4500 nearly £2000 more than last year. However as anticipated in our last report our electricity contract costs have risen as has our water which is likely to filter through in 2024. Along with the potential reduction our saving rates.
Reserves Policy
The charity had £9400 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 higher than usual reserves are being maintained in readiness for the commencement of the building of the new village hall and these have also benefited from the improved interest rates.
Future Plans
The committee will continue to build the number of events to generate funding for the maintenance of the existing hall to a standard that is attractive to its users whilst building reserves to invest in aspects of the new village hall that is not covered by the joint project.
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 17 August 2024
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