Annual Report 2025-2026 ## **Whixley Village Hall, Report from the Chair Charity Number 1200194 11 February 2025 to 10 March 2026** ## **1. Introduction** This report covers the financial period from 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025. The annual report covers the period from the previous AGM on 11 February 2025, to the date of this meeting. ## **2. CIO** The transition to the fully operational CIO was achieved by March 2023. As previously reported, in May 2023, we received notification that the land and buildings of the hall had been registered in the name of the CIO, however, it was noted at this time a small portion of land was omitted from the deeds. The CIO has sought to rectify this matter with North Yorkshire Council during 2024 and 2025. In September 2025, the CIO received confirmation that the request had been accepted by the North Yorkshire Council and an application was made by our solicitors to the land registry to amend the title accordingly. ## **3. Strategy and Objectives** The village hall’s objectives remain the same, namely to provide and run a village hall and promote for the benefit of the inhabitants of Whixley and the surrounding areas. In June 2024, the committee agreed a strategy, which was structured around five core themes: **Finance** – improving financial sustainability and forward planning **Facilities** – maintaining and improving the Hall as a safe, accessible and flexible community asset **Events** – delivering appealing and inclusive activities that support community life and income **Communications** – improving how the Hall presents and promotes itself 1 ## **Management** – strengthening governance, skills, resilience and succession The strategy recognised the Hall’s long history and strong community support, while also acknowledging the need for ongoing investment, prioritisation and active management to secure its future. In January 2026, the committee undertook a review of progress against the strategy, and concluded that the progress made since June 2024 represents a strong and positive response to the strategy. The Hall is now: |●|Better
funded|for||priority|||improvements| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |●|More
accessible|and||safer||for|users| |●|Environmentally|improved||and|||future-facing| |●|Delivering
a|strong|programme|||of|events| |●|More
confident
and|coherent|in|how|it||communicates| Not all ambitions have been achieved, and some remain longer-term. However, the direction of travel is clear and positive. This report provides some details highlighted in the review, but the full report will be made available on the website. ## **4. Finance** In recent months we have undertaken a comprehensive review of income and expenditure, which has been considered by the committee and has enabled us to understand our financial pressures in more detail and helped us to plan accordingly. Our hall hire rates are designed to ensure that we are able to cover running costs and to contribute towards necessary enhancements to ensure that this important community facility remains fit for the future. Therefore, we had to increase our hire charges in line with inflationary pressures, which took effect from 1 April 2025. The full accounts for the year, October 2024-2025 are appended below. ## **5. Facilities** As many of you will be aware, our village hall opened in 1935, and as such requires ongoing maintenance, which once again has been continued throughout the year. 2 Running costs of the hall have continued to rise, year on year, due to the high inflationary costs of all the services we procure, including insurance. The CIO has an ambitious programme of work, which we have called “Building for the Future”. Last year we reported on the completion of our extensive decarbonisation project to replace the oil-based heating system with a renewable source, insulation of the building, replacement of the old oil boiler with an air source heat pump, and the addition of roofbased solar panels. This year we have seen a real benefit from this work, not only having a greener more energy efficient building where we are able to adjust the temperature of the building remotely based on its different usage, but also our solar panels have afforded the opportunity for us to generate our own energy in spring, summer and autumn, and where excess energy has been generated we have been able to sell it back to the national grid, generating income from the excess production. Following completion of this work, we had identified a number of minor works, including installation of a new fire alarm system, revarnishing the floor and installing acoustic baffles, to reduce the noise levels. In February 2025, we received a grant from the National Lottery of £19,636 to complete this work. Furthermore, the Village Hall CIO funded complete redecoration of the hall, foyer and kitchen, as well as installation of new lighting and a new stage curtain. In July 2025, the committee started the process, led by Ian McNeill, of putting together a grant application to the North Yorkshire Council, Shared Prosperity fund, to improve the disabled access to the village hall. The grant application was successful, and at the time of writing this report the work is underway to install a ramp to the south side entrance to the building, with an electric door, along with improvements to the front of the building installing a hand rail to the front steps and an easier to open new door. All works are on track to be completed by the end of March 2026. ## **6. Events** The hall continues to be a well-used facility for the village. With a range of activities taking place most days, including dance classes (ballroom and tap), Yoga, Badminton, and Playgroup. In addition the hall runs a monthly lunch club for residents and holds WI and church group meetings, and in September 2025 we reestablished our monthly film nights. Our hall continues to be a popular venue for private parties and fund-raising events including our annual pantomime, New Year’s Eve party, quizzes, wine tasting, harvest festival and pancake night. Our regular Pop-up-pubs have become a firm favourite, 3 allowing neighbours and friends to (including canine friends) meet up and socialise every couple of months. In addition, this year we saw our second annual ‘Cycling Sportif’ and our first Beer Festival. We are always open to new ideas from people who would like to come and support us in expanding our repertoire of events for the people of Whixley and surrounding area, whilst also raising money for the village hall. The range of events we have held this year has continued to be successful in appealing to a wider audience. The Committee continues to balance inclusivity, variety and financial contribution when planning the events programme. ## **7. Communications** Communications has been an area of focused improvement as part of our strategy and significant progress has been made in this area. Progress includes: - Completion of a **re-branding exercise** , giving the Village Hall a clearer and more confident identity - Establishment of a **separate Village Hall website address** , distinct from the Parish website - Launch of a **new social media account** dedicated to Hall news and events - Closer and more coordinated management of communications, particularly around events - Steps underway to ensure Village Hall activity is more consistently featured in the parish newsletter These changes have strengthened how the Hall presents itself and supports future growth in both events and hires. ## **8. Management Committee** The committee now consists of seven trustees, as well as two non-voting committee members. At the last AGM, David Fraser informed the committee that he did not wish to stand for re-election to the committee. I formally noted the thanks of the committee to David, for the significant contribution he has made to the committee as Facilities Manager and Trustee. 4 During the year we saw the resignation of two of our trustees, Keith Tolan (Treasurer) and Chris Roberts, both of whom were thanked for the significant contributions they have made to the committee and the village hall. This year we have also welcomed two new Trustees, Claire Sharpe and Carole Cameron, who have been co-opted in line with the CIO’s Constitution. With the change of membership of the committee, we took the opportunity to review the roles and responsibilities of the members of the committee. As a result of this, Ian McNeill has taken on the role of Treasurer and I have taken responsibility for the bookings. Additionally, Claire Sharpe has taken responsibility for comms and social media. This natural change has reinforced the importance of succession planning and resilience. Recruitment is actively underway, with a particular focus on: - Facilities support - Additional committee members to broaden skills and capacity Despite changes in membership, the Committee has continued to function effectively, delivering a significant programme of work alongside day-to-day operations. Once again, I would like to express my thanks to all members of our hard-working and dedicated committee, including those who resigned part way through the year, who have freely given their time and expertise to not only ensure the smooth running of the hall, but also to support the delivery of our plans to ensure that the building continues to be fit for use for many years to come. In addition we continue to have a number of volunteers, who regularly assist with the running of the hall. No one on the committee receives any remuneration or other benefit for their service. ## **9. Policies** As a CIO we have a range of policies and procedures to support the operation of the hall. This includes: - ❖ Safeguarding - ❖ Equality and Diversity - ❖ Complaints - ❖ Risk Management - ❖ Finance - ❖ Data protection - ❖ Bar operational procedures. 5 All policies have been reviewed and updated and are available on the website. ## **10. Conclusion** I am proud to report that our village hall remains firmly at the heart of our community, and the committee continues to strive to ensure that it remains accessible to all those who wish to use it. As a committee we will continue to strive to fulfill our objectives over the forthcoming year. **Sally Scales Chair of Trustees Whixley Village Hall March 2026** 6 ## **Whixley Village Hall CIO, Charity Number 1200194 - Accounting Year 2024/25** ## **Income and Expenditure** ## **Balance Sheet** **----- Start of picture text -----**
Hire and Fundraising Income 44,410.00 Assets
Grant Income 19,837.00
Interest Income 2.00 Business Current Account 11,705.00
Total Income 64,249.00 PayPal Account 210.00
Cash 156.00
less Cost of Sales (17,913.00) Debtors 1,290.00
less Running Costs (13,635.00)
less Buiding Improvements Costs (60,762.00) Total Assets 13,361.00
Total Costs (92,310.00) Liabilities
Creditors (3,264.00)
Operating Surplus (Deficit) (28,061.00)
Opening Balance October 1st 2024 38,158.00
Changes this period (28,061.00)
Closing Balance September 30th 2025 10,097.00 Net Assets 10,097.00
**----- End of picture text -----**
The Income and Expenditure Report and Balance Sheet have been extracted from the Books of the Whixley Village Hall. The books are maintained using an online cash accounting system and have been reviewed by an independent accountant. The accounts were prepared by: These Accounts were reviewed by: I McNeill Lynne Watson |Treasurer||Independent|Accountant| |---|---|---|---| |Date|31.10.2025|Date|8.12.2025| ## WATSON MORGAN & ASSOCIATES LIMITED 67 Southway, Guiseley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS20 8JQ Trustees of Whixley Village Hall CIO, Charity number: 1200194 Franks Lane Whixley YO26 8AL 8 December 2025 Dear Sirs We have reviewed the accounts and procedures for Whixley Village Hall for the period ending September 30 2025, and we are satisfied that the accounts show a true and fair representation of the financial activities of the charity, and that we have found no areas of concern Yours faithfully Lynne Watson FCCA Watson Morgan & Associates Limited Director Registered Office: 67 Southway, Guiseley, Leeds, LS20 8JQ Tel: 07952 416445 Company Reg No: 09008880