## **Tolpuddle Village Hall Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) (Charity No: 1195647)** 

**Tolpuddle Village Hall (Charity No: 257403)** 

## **ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2024-25** 

## _Introduction_ 

Welcome to the annual report and accounts for the two charities[1] currently responsible for Tolpuddle Village Hall. 

The objects of the two charities, which are almost identical, are in the appendix to this report. In brief, the Trustees (see later section) are charged with the provision and maintenance of a village hall for the leisure and other benefit of the people of Tolpuddle. Their legal duty is always to act in a way that is most likely to further the purposes of the charity and they have powers to do anything that is calculated to further its object. 

## _Highlights from the Year_ 

- Good Hall usage by community regulars, including weekly yoga and pilates classes and the toddler group, other repeat bookings and for one off events and parties. 

- Numerous successful community events, including music evenings, a quiz and chips evening, the traditional Harvest Supper and Christmas events. 

- Record income from Hall hire covering over 80% of outgoings in the year, though funds from events etc still vital to make ends meet and to allow for major maintenance, replacements and improvements. 

- Valuable income from the Martyrs Festival and from events run by the Tolpuddle Events Committee. 

- Overall, a surplus of £4,000 from the year, allowing us to maintain a reserve for emergencies and medium to long term investments and improvements. 

## _Hall Usage_ 

Throughout the year, the Hall has been in regular use by local groups, organisations from further afield and private individuals. 

> 1 In 2021, a new charity, a charitable incorporated organisation which is now the preferred charitable model for village halls, was set up to run the Hall. However, the land and building remain in the ownership of the existing charity until the process of transferring them to the new charity is complete. 



Several groups meet each week: two pilates classes, a yoga class, a toddler group, a table tennis group and a church group which meets on Sunday mornings. Every other month, the Hall is the venue for meetings of the Puddletown Area Parish Council. Other groups use the Hall for meetings during the year, including the Hall Trustees and the Tolpuddle Events Committee. The Hall is used as an election polling station. The Hall is also hired by individuals for private events, including parties and wakes. 

Along with the pub, the Hall is a key social facility for the village and is the venue for a number of community events during the year, such as Harvest Supper, quiz and chip nights and several music evenings. At Christmas, there was a childrens party and a Christmas Fair. Sadly, film nights have not so far been very successful but we try them again in due course. 

There is scope for greater use. Overall, in an average week, the Hall is occupied for perhaps 35 – 40% of the time. 

## _Hall Finances_ 

The accounts for 2024-25 are attached. 

The Hall’s business plan continues to be based on: 

- prioritising community use and keeping charges for local use as low as possible while seeking “commercial” business when the Hall is free; 

- requiring all activities at the Hall to make some financial contribution to its running costs, whether through hire charges, voluntary donations or a share of surpluses on events; 

- investing when we can to maintain the Hall as a modern, well-presented and wellequipped facility for multiple uses. 

Hire charges are kept simple, based on an hourly rate (currently £16 per hour) with a 50% discount for the community and local groups (unless they are income-earning) and a one-off charge per hire to cover extra cleaning if there is full use of the kitchen facilities (ie including industrial dishwasher and range cooker). 

This model has served us well in recent years. Income from hiring is a key component and traditionally covers up to 60% of annual running costs (net of major maintenance and improvements). In 2024-25, however, it covered over 80% of our outgoings, largely thanks to three new regular weekly users. 

It remains to be seen whether hire income can be maintained at this level – we depend significantly on our regular users and a change of circumstances there would impact us adversely. Moreover, our annual outgoings do not include major repairs/maintenance, improvements or replacement of essential equipment. 



So, we are also hugely dependent on raising funds each year, both to cover our regular annual expenses and to provide for future investment in the Hall. Happily, the Martyrs Festival went ahead again in 2024 and, while income was down on some previous years, it made a healthy net addition of nearly £3,000 to our income. In recent years, the Tolpuddle Events Committee, running a programme of events on behalf of the Hall and St Johns Church, has also provided valuable income: this year it was over £2,800 with a similar amount going to the Church. Other activities, including the 100 Club (a lottery draw every month) also make useful contributions. 

Against that, the costs of running the Hall continue to rise. The major outgoing is electricity on which we are solely dependent for heating, lighting, appliances etc. Having been confronted with a major bill last year, we now have monitoring under better control, but costs are still significant (£3,400 in 2024-25) not least because heating the Hall in cold weather means using expensive-to-run wall heaters. Other significant items are insurance and ongoing minor repairs and maintenance. On a more positive note, we will in June 2025 finish paying off a £20,000 loan from ACRE taken out in 2017 to complete the modernisation of the Hall – this will save us around £2,600 per year. 

Overall, as can be seen from the accounts, the Hall’s financial performance has been good in 2024-25, with a surplus in excess of £4,000. This has enabled us to maintain a reserve of £10,000 plus which we hold against future major expenses on emergencies, major maintenance and improvements. Some of that is, though, already committed in 2025-26 for upgrades required by a recent fire safety and electrics review. 

Trustees reviewed Hall hire charges before Christmas and, despite inflationary pressures, decided not to make any changes from the start of 2025-26. It is though likely that, especially given the increase in electricity costs from 1 April 2025, a small increase will be needed during the year. 

## _Maintenance, Investments and Improvements_ 

2024-25 has been a year of consolidation rather than major investment for the Hall. In order to ease storage problems, a further shed was erected in the garden and we have moved storage of gas cylinders to a dedicated, secure cage. 

Looking ahead, it is clear that investments are needed sooner rather than later. In particular, the Hall needs to be redecorated internally (last done in 2017). Unfortunately, because of the building configuration (the steep high internal ceiling) this will be costly and we will therefore need to look at special fund-raising. 

The other major issue is the heating. Three or four years ago, we replaced the ageing night storage heaters in the main hall with more efficient, responsive and controllable ceramic radiators. These work fairly well but experience has shown that, because of the vast roof void, they struggle to cope in prolonged cold weather of the sort we experienced last winter. As a result, we have had to allow use of the halogen wall heaters which are inefficient and disproportionately expensive in terms of electricity. We are therefore investigating how we can make the heating more effective and more efficient. 



It may also be timely to improve lighting in the Hall. The fluorescent tubes in the main hall are very old and difficult to replace and the lighting throughout is rather functional and not easily configured to the nature of events. So, we will explore the scope for upgrading. 

## _Hall Management_ 

As at 31 March 2025, the CIO has six trustees: Peter Walton (Chairman), Andrew Turner (Treasurer), Jonathan Van Baars (Secretary), Sue Adams, Fiona Cope and Margaret Walton. Penny Ruddock served as a Trustee until [May] 2024 when she stepped down as she planned to move from the village. We owe her a vote of thanks for her work as Trustee and support with fund-raising events. 

New trustees of the CIO are appointed by resolution of existing trustees having regard to selecting people with skills, knowledge and experience for the effective running of a charity. We recognise that such appointments are likely to come from the community and welcome any expressions of interest. 

The old charity has four remaining trustees – Peter Walton (Chairman), Andrew Turner (Treasurer), Jonathan Van Baars (Secretary) and Margaret Walton. These appointments are confirmed at the Annual General Meeting each year. 

The running of the Hall involves many other people. Special thanks are due to Sue Stoodley who helps to look after the Hall and keep it clean and to [                           ] who ensures the garden always looks neat and tidy. Around the turn of the year, Jo Austwick stood down after managing the Hall booking system (Hallmaster) for us for several years. We thank her for all her hard work and are very grateful to Bev Clayton who has agreed to take it on. 

The Trustees are also very grateful to all those – too many to mention individually - who help with events at the Hall or which support the Hall. In that regard, the TEC has been a major player and a valuable partner. If as now seems likely, the TEC is wound down this year it will be a big loss to the village and to the Hall and Church which have both benefited so much from its work. 

The process of registering a title to the land and buildings continues to sit with the Land Registry. Once done, we will be able to transfer ownership to the CIO and wind up the old Tolpuddle Village Hall charity. 

Meanwhile, we have formally established an interest with the Land Registry in the land used for the Hall car park. Many years ago, this land was assigned by the owners for that purpose. 

## _Conclusion_ 

Once again, the Village Hall has contributed positively to village life in Tolpuddle not only through community and other events but also through the fitness and well-being classes. 2024-25 has been a sound year financially which hopefully will provide a firm basis for us to 



invest in upgrades and improvements in 2025-26 that will maintain it as a modern, wellequipped venue for community benefit. 

_**Peter Walton Chairman Tolpuddle Village Hall CIO**_ 

_**April 2025**_ 

## **APPENDIX** 

The charitable object of the Tolpuddle Village Hall Charitable Incorporated Organisation (No: 1195647) is as follows: 

**“The provision and maintenance of a village hall for the use of the inhabitants of the Parish of Tolpuddle without distinction of sex,** _**sexual orientation, age, disability or race or**_ **political, religious or other opinions, including use for meetings, lectures and classes and other forms of recreation and leisure-time occupation, with the object of improving the conditions of life for the said inhabitants.”** 

With the exclusion of the words in italics above, the object of the old charity (No: 257403) is the same. 



## Profit & Loss 

## Tolpuddle Village Hall 

Accounting Year 2024/25 

||Debit|Credit|
|---|---|---|
|Turnover||25,218|
|Donations, legacies and grants||11|
|Hire of hall and equipment||11,777|
|Fundraising - Martyrs Festival||8,456|
|Fundraising - TEC||2,834|
|Fundraising - 100/150 Club tickets||1,340|
|Fundraising Events - Bar Stock||801|
|addOther Income||481|
|Interest Received||131|
|Grant Income||350|
|lessCost of Sales|6,800||
|Cost of fundraising - Martyrs Festival|5,535||
|Cost of fundraising - 100/150 Club prizes|475||
|Cost of fundraising - Bar stock|789||
|Gross Profit||18,899|
|lessAdministration Expenses|14,292||
|Light and heating - electricity|3,410||
|Hall cleaning|1,573||
|Cleaning materials|290||
|Affiliations|55||
|Business rates|0||
|Water and sewerage|104||
|ACRE Loan|2,635||
|Repairs and maintenance - grounds|504||
|Repairs and maintenance - equipment|135||
|Repairs and maintenance - buildings|2,252||
|Honorarium|200||
|Computer software|402||



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|Hall equipment|8||
|---|---|---|
|Telephone, internet and postage|576||
|Printing, postage, stationery and computer supplies|2||
|Licences and permits|463||
|Miscellaneous|505||
|Legal and professional fees|40||
|Insurance|1,137||
|Operating Profit||£4,607|
|lessDrawings||£0|
|lessProfit & Loss journal entries||£0|
|Retained Profit this period:||£4,607|
|Retained Profit brought forward:||£10,128|
|Distributable Reserves / Retained Profit carried forward:||£14,735|



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CHARITY COMMISSION
FOR ENGLAND AND WALES
Independent examiner's
report on the accounts
Sectlon A
Independent Examlner's Report
Report to the trusteesl
members of
ToLPvOOL£
VILLAa£ HALL
On accounts for the year
ended
31
sr
MAQCH lois
Charity no
(if any)
Set out on pages
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above
charity ("the Trust") for the year ended 31 1 ts 3 1lotS
Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation
basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Chartties Act
2011 ("the Act").
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out
under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I
have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charty Commission
under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have
come to my attention (
") in connection wtth
the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material
respect:
accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of
the Act or
the accounts do not accord with the accounting records
Independent
examinerfs ststement
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection
with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a
proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.
Signed:
Date:
oz loLILOL6
Name:
GÉMMA PITMANJ
Relevant professional
qualification(s) or body
(if any):
ACA (ICA&￿}
AAT
(BAT
Address:
36 MAlfyJ QoA(J
DO(￿￿£srCQ
DTI Icu
i OLPVOO
IER
October 2018

Sectlon B
Dlsclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32,
Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for
examiners).
Glve here brlef details of
any Items that the
examiner wishes to
dlsclose.
IER
October 2018