Levens Village Hall
Registered Charity No. 1192940
Trustees’ Annual Report
1 January 2025 – 31 December 2025
Secretary : Janet Mason
Tel: 015395 60334 E-mail: lvhsecretary@levens.org.uk
Names of Trustees
Ms Fiona Sanders Chair
Mrs Janet Mason Secretary
Mrs Nicola Beard Treasurer and acting chair (Sept 25 onwards)
Mrs Helen Golding Miller Bookings Secretary
Mrs Sheila Watson
Mr Hugh Connor LAFS Chair
Mr John Wood
Mr Adam Hearnden H&S lead
Mr Alan Miller Booking Secretary
Mrs Vanessa Riley
Mr David Rogerson Parish Council
Mr Guy Paton From 22.8.25
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 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 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. This year substantive work has been carried out to review and update our policies and procedures. The following policy statements have been updated and reissued:
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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
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Data Protection Policy
Copies of these policies are available from the Village Hall’s website pages and trustees have access to them in a Dropbox folder and will be shared as appropriate with users
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. This document has also been updated to ensure that it is in line with policy and procedural updates.
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.
· Mains electrical installation is checked by a qualified engineer every 5 yrs
· Volunteers, mainly trustees, carry out other regular maintenance checks.
- Fire equipment is checked annually by a local specialist company
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 preschool group, Brownies, Pilates for all abilities, Yoga, History Club, Watercolour, Quilters, Philatelists, Legs Levens, DBWG and Tuesday club. It is also used for local meetings, as a base for running club event, Trustee-run events for raising monies.
The hall is available and frequently used 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. However this year we have again benefited from a couple of grants of £2750 that a trustee was able to obtain for us.
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 and hall events, including helping out with regular Maintenance Days, LAFS events and our own fund raising events.
2025 Achievements
Once again, our village hall has been utilised significantly by our local communities, with an increase of day use and meeting use. We are now able to boast that the hall is used on most weekdays and often at weekends.
The focus of the trustees this year has been on our policies and procedures with special thanks to Adam Hearnde, who has been driving this. As a result, several changes within the building have been made including installing an automated and linked smoke and heat detection system, increasing the weekly checks by our cleaner and recording of all checks carried out. We replaced our front door
and introduced a key box to help manage access to the hall more effectively, which has proved successful.
We continue to have maintenance meets which engages with some of our communities and continues to improve the look and feel for our users. Keeping on top of our garden area has been an important aspect. The use of a professional cleaner has made a significant impact on the general cleanliness and enabled key checks to be made and recorded in a controlled manner.
We are thankful for donations from DWG and Rotary Club of £150 in total.
We continue to bring in significant funds that enable us to keep our fees reasonable for our users. With key contributions from our curry and quiz nights and LAFS surpluses. 2026 will see new initiatives to provide engagement with our community and raise funds.
A special thanks to Nicola Beard who stepped into the role of interim Chair when I had to step away on personal reasons and kept the momentum going and addressed so much in the last quarter of the year.
2025 Financial Review
Room hire income continues at a steady increase and we are still benefitting from interest rates being at a reasonable rate. Costs were in fact significantly higher than 24 but in line with our budget. The surplus thereby remaining at a healthy £8403.09.
Reserves Policy
The charity had £7619.09 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. There is also £90,000 in savings/investments with £30,000 held in Easy Access & 90 Day accounts, and £60,000 in 12-month bonds. It is the Trustees’ policy to maintain unrestricted reserves of between 150% and 200% of annual budgeted expenditure.
General reserves are being maintained in readiness for the move to the new village hall once it has been built.
Future Plans
The trustees have agreed that improvements to the facilities should continue where they are part of the H&S, Fire or safety requirements. Further, as technology is becoming a key element of events held in the hall, purchases to enhance the accessibility to such equipment, payment processes for users ease etc will be invested in as they will be transferable to the new village hall. Further, with the recognition that our booking secretaries are likely to step away from their role, we will consider moving this to a more automated process.
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. 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 for redevelopment to form three affordable properties for elderly residents.
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 16 March 2026
Levens Village Hall Financial Report 2025 Income & Expenditure Acc
| Income | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Room hire | £9,595.00 | £10,220.00 |
| LAFS | £1,799.40 | £1,734.52 |
| Teachers BS Interest | £927.60 | £632.07 |
| Teachers BS Interest (closing int) | £79.93 | |
| Cambridge & Counties Interest | £1,383.38 | £1,765.00 |
| Donations | £150.00 | £165.00 |
| Miscellaneous | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Events | £652.04 | £374.50 |
| Grant (Nisa) | £2,500.00 | £2,750.00 |
£17,007.42 £17,721.02
Balance Sheet as at 31 Decem
Funds as at 31 December 2024
| Unity Trust Current Account Teachers Building Society Account Teachers Building Society Saver 90 Account Cambridg & Counties Bank Bond Add income received in 2025 for 2024 Less payments made in 2025 for 2024 Surplus of income over expenditure |
£9,532.19 £10,432.98 £31,713.53 £40,000.00 £177.00 -£753.02 |
|---|---|
| £91,102.68 £8,403.29 |
|
| £99,505.97 |
Verified by Date G Paton April, 2026
| 5 count Expenditure Insurance PPL PRS Licence Fire Service Electricity Water B4RN Broadband Cleaning LAFS Annual meeting costs Building maintenance PAT Testing Bank Charges Miscellaneous : Grant spend Surplus of income over expenditure |
2024 2025 £574.17 £671.62 £113.08 £132.41 £101.34 £118.68 £2,470.46 £2,519.18 £578.96 £799.80 £33.00 £0.00 £1,145.93 £1,971.96 £1,310.00 £680.23 £0.00 £44.11 £2,052.16 £602.01 £88.32 £104.16 £71.40 £72.00 £167.15 £114.91 £1,024.43 £1,486.66 |
|---|---|
| £9,730.40 £9,317.73 |
|
| £7,277.02 £8,403.29 |
mber 2025
Funds as at 31 December 2025
| Unity Trust Current Account Teachers Building Society Account Cambridge & Counties Bank Bonds Add income received in 2026 for 2025 Less payments made in 2026 for 2025 Value of assests at 31.12.26 Teachers Building Society Saver 90 A t |
£7,619.98 £30,858.51 £0.00 closed £60,765.00 £879.00 -£616.52 £99,505.97 £2,018.00 |
|---|---|