2023-03-31-accounts

Friends of Speke CIC Annual Report & Accounts 31 March 2022 – 31 January 2023

Charity Registration Number: 1195310

Part One: Friends of Speke – Trustees’ Annual Report

Trustees contributing to this annual report:

• Thomas Hill (Chair)

• Mark Ord

• Lorna Griffiths

• Ian Marquis

• Lisa Hill

• Ronald Hart

• Heather Parkinson

• Kimberley Preston

Annual summary:

During the period between March 2022 and January 2024 the main activity of Friends of Speke CIC was communicating with Liverpool City Council with the aim of gaining access to Speke Community Centre in order for us to begin delivering on our aims and objectives.

The Trustees of Friends of Speke met monthly and on an ad-hoc basis to complete the tasks necessary to meet the requests of Liverpool City Council. A summary of monthly meetings and actions is available on request.

During this timeframe the main building Friends of Speke wanted to regain access to has now been renovated for a local school.

Therefore Friends of Speke has been looking for funding opportunities to support all the local age groups to ensure that the free activities they run within the Speke area continue to take place without loosing numbers.

Part Two: Annual Accounts

For the period 31/03/2022 – 31/01/2024:

Income: £4100.00

Expenditure: £4100.00

Balance: £0.00

• 23[rd] March 2023 – Friends of Speke received £2100 from Liverpool Maryoral neighbourhood fund.

• 2[nd] June 2023 – Friends of Speke transferred the £2100 Mayoral Neighbourhood fund to a number of Speke based dance troupes.

1. Aisling Morris Dancing - £300.00

2. South Liverpool Diamonds -£300.00

3. Liverpool Fusiliers - £300.00

4. Kav Crusadiers - £300.00

5. Merseybeats Majorettes - £300.00

6. Speke Balmoral Morris - £300.00

7. Liverpool Elite Majorettes - £300.00

• 10[th] August Friends of Speke received pass through funding for Merseybeats Majorettes from Llouds Bank Foundation for the sub of £1000.

• 15[th] August Friends of Speke transferred £1000 to Merseybeats Majorettes.

• 6[th] October 2023 Friends of Speke received a further £1000 from Lloyds Bank Foundation for Merseybeat Majorettes.

• 21[st] November Friends of Speke transferred this £1000 to Merseybeats Majorettes.

• Closing balance 21[st] November £0.00.

– Monthly / Bimonthly summaries: April 2022 January 2024

April 2022

Friends of Speke chased Liverpool City Council, regarding the application to re-access the Community building. However no further detail from the council has been shared during the month of April.

May 2022

Friends of Speke provided further information, this included cost analysis and the Business plan was shared again with Liverpool City Council. The Board of Trustees, raised frustrations with Liverpool City council regarding the slow progress of the application.

June 2022

Liverpool City Council requested information on the social value that Friends of Speke provide. Friends of Speke provided an analysis of the Social Value along with the impact measures achieved by all the community groups.

August 2022

Friends of Speke awaited correspondence between the Deputy Lord Mayor of Liverpool City Council Jane Corbett, to request updates. The following was shared with Jane.

Timeline of communication (please note, there were many months of communication prior to the frst meeting as detailed within the frst bullet below)

• face to face Meeting took place between Friends of Speke, Doreen Knight & council officer Dave Turner at the Community Centre, in November 2020. The Structure, aims, goals and aspirations of Friends of Speke were presented, which resulted in Dave offering a licence for the whole of the downstairs, including the sports halls for use every weekday evening and the whole weekend. To secure the licence Dave requested Friends of Speke to supply various evidence requirements. Due to the Pandemic, it took longer than anticipated to complete the action list, but Friends of

Speke kept LCC informed of its progress. Once the action list was fully completed the Council were made aware and a meeting to move the licence forward was requested.

• During this period, I was informed that Dave Turner had left the Council and Helen Thomas would be taking over.

• The first direct email sent to Helen Thomas was on the 1[st] April 2021 to explain the situation and request a meeting as Friends of Speke had all the required evidence to meet the licence requirements. Helen replied on the 9[th] April, which then opened up the communication.

• After many emails Helen agreed to a face-to-face meeting, this took place between Friends of Speke Trustees, Lisa Hill, Kimberly Presenton, Mark Ord and council Officer Helen Thomas on the 23[rd] April 2021.

• On the 23[rd] April 2021 – Helen Thomas informed Friends of Speke that they would not be offered a Licence and that there were other interested parties, who wished to take over the running of the whole community centre. Helen explained that the Council wanted one umbrella body to manage the whole community centre building. Helen gathered information on Friends of Speke, as already presented to Dave Turner in November. She explained that she would share this information with her line manager.

• On the 27[th] April 2021 Helen confirmed she had sent a briefing note to her line manager.

• After numerous emails chasing progress a response was received on the 14[th] May 2021, where Helen Thomas confirmed that Speke Community Centre was to be discussed at the Statuary Officers Group the following week.

• 19[th] July 2021 Helen Thomas sent Friends of Speke an email to inform them that an EOI process would be applied, confirming a licence wasn’t possible and explaining Friends of Speke would have to apply along with the other interested organisations.

• The EOI was received by Friends of Speke which was to be returned to LCC by the 10[th] September 2021, please note that LCC did not supply any Financial expectations within any of the EOI application documentation.

• On the 10[th] September 2021 Friends of Speke submitted the EOI as per the required deadline.

• On the 9[th] November 2021 Helen Thomas requested further information, which also included a request on how much Friends of Speke would offer to cover the rent of the building. A deadline of the end of November was originally given by LCC, however LCC moved the deadline forward by a week, they also requested a number of due diligence evidence information requirements to be supplied within 5 working days. Again, Friends of Speke supplied all information within the required deadlines. Please note it was at this point Helen Thomas left LCC.

• On the 20[th] December 2021 Christine Owen confirmed Friends of Speke had successfully passed sage 1 of the EOI and requested a follow up meeting.

• On the 21[st] January 2022 Christine requested further information regarding funding, this was supplied right away.

• On the 9[th] February Friends of Speke and Christine Owen held a face to face meeting, It was at this point Christine wanted to fully understand the set up of Friends of Speke, including the voluntary groups, the activities on offer to all age groups, its partners and the education provision to be offered throughout the day.

• On the 27[th] February 2022 Christine explained the Sports Hall would be subject to Business Rates, Friends of Speke explained its charity status and asked for LCC policy.

• On the 30[th] March 2022 Christine explained she had contacted VOA with regards to best value financial figures.

• 1) On the 31[st] March 2022 Christine requested the following information:

• 2) You would be taking the Commy Building as a whole that is GF and 1[st] Floor?

• 3) You would be sharing use of the Hall and Gym gyms with Leap Ltd?

• 4) Would you want use of the playing fields ? if so would this be sole use or shared use? A response to the above was sent right away.

• On the 7[th] April, further information was requested by Christine, a response was sent the following day.

• On the 8[th] April a further request from Christine, regarding the number of voluntary groups and the activities on offer, a response with the requested information was sent on the 11[th] April, this included within the above attachments.

I have also included a number of attachments to this email. They include the following:

• Friends of Speke Strategic Business Plan

• Friends of Speke Organisational chart

• The Completed EOI application

• Community is all – The Speke Alliance

• Spreadsheet on the in kind value

• Due diligence checklist

• Friends of Speke Voluntary Groups breakdown.

September 2022

Friends of Speke were asked to supply proof of funding to support the application. LCC Mayoral Fund had provisionally allocated £20K based on access the facilities to support covering initial rent. This information was shared with the Council.

October 2022

Friends of Speke have chased Liverpool city council without any further information being provided by them on the application.

December 2022

No further information provided by the Council.

February 2023

Friends of Speke have been informed that a school will be taking over the lease at Parklands High. Requested updates from the local Councillors and Liverpool City Council.

March 2023

Friends of Speke received some promising news from Mary Rasmussen, local councillor. Mary had a meeting with Michael McSorley about long term tenants moving into the Parklands building. Mary explained to Michael the aspiration for Friends of Speke to hire space as a community center. Michael requested a meeting with a number of the Trustees of Friends of Speke.

23[rd] March 2023 – Friends of Speke received £2100 from Liverpool Mayoral Funding.

April 2023

Lisa Hill and Mark Ord held a meeting with Michael McSorley at the community centre in Speke. Lisa and Mark provided a full overview of Friends of Speke and its user groups along with the history of the building and hopes for access for all age groups again. Michael suggested he shared the information with the headteacher and governors of the school taking over the building and informed all he would arrange a meeting.

May 2023

Ongoing discussions with Michael McSorley of the Liverpool City Council, trying to arrange a meeting with the headteacher to discuss the possibility of Friends of Speke regaining access and renting space for the community groups.

June 2023

Meeting held with the following:

Juliette: Headteacher Bank View School

Lisa Hill and Mark Ord was also in attendance. A full overview of Friends of Speke was provided. Along with a summary of the communication with Liverpool City Council since loosing access during the Covid shut down. Juliette, informed all that the Commy part of Parklands building would be leased by LEAP (alternative Education provider) – Juliette informed all that plans had been agreed by Liverpool City Council to renovate the commy to enable LEAP to run the education for around the next year. Friends of Speke were informed that renovation work was due to start soon, to enable LEAP to run education from September 2023. Juliette also informed all that one of the halls the community groups had previously accessed would be turned into a Design and Technology suite. – This information caused Friends of Speke concerns as it would restrict access to the community. Juliette informed all that it would be best to for her to hold discussions with LEAP and LCC about FOS access in the future.

Friends of Speke shared Mayoral funding with the following voluntary organisations:

• Aisling Morris Dancing - £300.00

• South Liverpool Diamonds -£300.00

• Liverpool Fusiliers - £300.00

• Kav Crusadiers - £300.00

• Merseybeats Majorettes - £300.00

• Speke Balmoral Morris - £300.00

• Liverpool Elite Majorettes - £300.00

July 2023

Lisa Hill requested updates from Juliette, head teacher of Bank view school. No updates received.

August 2023

• Friends of Speke received 10th August Friends of Speke received pass through funding for Merseybeats Majorettes from Llouds Bank Foundation for the sub of £1000.

• 15th August Friends of Speke transferred £1000 to Merseybeats Majorettes.

September 2023

LH sent Juliette – headteacher of Bank View School a request to see if it was possible for the community groups to access the large sports hall for the user groups of Friends of Speke.

October 2023

2[nd] October 2023, The Deputy Head of Bank View responded to Lisa Hill, regarding her request to use the main sports hall for the Dance and Football groups of Friends of Speke. Marie the Deputy asked Lisa Hill for the hours of use and type of groups. Lisa Hill supplied the information.

The response from Bankview school was as follows:

The gym is currently out of action, and we see this being the case up until Christmas. After that we would need to discuss with AMEY the logistic of it being used of an evening/weekend for practice.

Again the performing arts space is currently under control of the building contractors, we do not have access this to this. This could be the case until Sept next year. The seating has been decommissioned and LCC are in talks to who will reinstate it. If it is all up and running next academic year - again in discussion with Amey there should be no problem in organising hire if they are willing to open up, clean, lock up etc.

We are keen to get things up and running with the community. but at the present times the areas required are still under the control of the contractors.

As soon as they become available we can discuss things further .

• 6th October 2023 Friends of Speke received a further £1000 from Lloyds Bank Foundation for Merseybeat Majorettes.

November 2023

• 21st November Friends of Speke transferred this £1000 to Merseybeats Majorettes, current bank balance is £0.00.

December 2023

• No further communication from Bank View.

January 2024

• No further communication from Bank View.