Friends of Speke
– Monthly / Bimonthly summaries: February 2024 January 2025
Charity Registration Number: 1195310
Trustees contributing to this annual report:
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Thomas Hill (Chair)
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Mark Ord
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Lorna Griffiths
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Ian Marquis
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Lisa Hill
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Ronald Hart
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Heather Parkinson
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Kimberley Preston
February 2024
Friends of Speke have continued to have open communication with the local Councillor Mary Rasmussen, to try and regain access to the old community space.. Mary has expressed that she continues to communicate with Liverpool city council, as Banks View is now settled in the main building. LEAP are also in the old community centre and space has been altered. The Board of Trustees have been in touch with the user groups they are working well in the new facilities that they are using, but would still benefit from the Parklands facilities. There have been no funding opportunities at this point to support the user groups, however from discussions with them they have continued to raise funds to ensure they are running successfully.
April 2024
The user groups are continuing to work well and are preparing to enter the competition season. Lisa Hill has chased the Banks view school to see if any future agreements have been put in place as yet. Due to roof damage the sports hall is still not fully functioning and therefore not safe for the local Majorette teams to use.
June 2024
Local councillor Mary Rasmussen has opened up communication with Martin Carter at Liverpool city council. He seems keen to work with the different agencies such as the Head Teacher of the school, the managing agency AMEY. Friends of Speke will continue to monitor. All user groups are continue to offer services. The Harris group numbers have reduced to aging members. The pensioner groups continue to receive excellent support. They have had funding via alternative local charity groups, this ensured that Easter breaks took place with great engagement.
August 2024
Martin Carter has a meeting arranged in September with local Councillors and the management staff at Banks View. Friends of Speke have been requested to send in the total number of user groups and age of members that would need access. Trustees have met with all user groups to keep them informed of the progress. All continue to offer excellent access to a variety of voluntary hobbies and interests at affordable prices given the variety of needs within the local community.
October 2024
Martin Carter has held a positive meeting with AMEY, Head Teacher of Banks view, who is very keen to ensure the community groups can regain access. A follow up meeting is arranged in December with AMEY to look at the logistics. No Funding opportunities have arisen as yet, however local councillors have confirmed that they have put funding aside for when the user groups regain access. Friends of Speke will be required to complete a Tender to receive the Funding.
December 2024
Lisa Hill was asked to supply detailed information to Mary Rasmussen and Martin Carter on which facilities the user groups used to access prior to the pandemic. LH responded. Mary has informed the trustees that there has been some extremely positive steps on supporting the user groups with regaining access. The most positive since before the pandemic. The Head Teacher of Banks view is pushing for the community to have access along with Mary and Martin. A full meeting will take place in January 2025 with the management agency AMEY, Liverpool City Council and councillors.
January 2025
Lisa Hill has supplied further information to Mary Rasmussen and Martin Cater, this included a full list of previous group, hours and days, number of users and times. Lisa Hill also had a meeting with the deputy head teacher of Banks View, to supply them with key information to feed into the full groups meeting. Martin Carter has emailed all previous user groups to find out key information to enable them to use the space in the future. Lisa Hill has had numerous meetings with Mary to inform her of key information to support future plans and access. Friends of Speke will continue to monitor, however feel extremely optimistic about an imminent return.
Part Two Annual Accounts
– For the period of 31/01/2024 28/01/2025
Income: £0.00 Expenditure £0.00 Balance £0.00
The past year Friends of Speke have not had access to any funding opportunities to support the user groups, however, access to the community centre should resume soon. The local Councillors have funding put aside to support the Charity and its user groups when they return to the parklands facilities. This funding is still with the Council. All the user groups
have continued to do their own fund raising and are managing to afford rent costs in their temporary homes.