Trustees’ Annual Report for the period
From 1[st] April 2024 To 31[st] March 2025
Charity name: The Recreational Trust
Charity registration number: 1202751
(Note: The AGM Minutes and the Chairs annual report is attached at the end of this report)
Objectives and Activities
| SORP reference | ||
|---|---|---|
| Summary of the purposes of the charity as set out in its governing document |
Para 1.17 | The provision and maintenance of a community hall and recreational ground for the use of the inhabitants (particularly the younger people) of Steeple Aston and the surrounding area without distinction of political, religious or other opinions, including use for: a) sporting events, meetings, fetes, lectures and social events. b) other forms of recreation and leisure- time occupation, with the object of improving the conditions of life for the inhabitants. |
| Summary of the main activities in relation to those purposes for the public benefit, in particular, the activities, projects or services identified in the accounts. |
Para 1.17 and 1.19 |
Maintenance of the Sports & Recreational Building and the Sports field in order that they are available for hire. Running of fund- raising activities and where necessary application for grants, to supplement the income from hire charges to ensure we meet all running costs. |
| Statement confirming whether the trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit |
Para 1.18 | The Trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charities Commission on public benefit. |
| Summary of the main achievements of the charity, identifying the difference the charity’s work has made to the circumstances of its beneficiaries and any wider benefits to society as a whole. |
Para 1.20 | See Chairman’s Report below. | |
|---|---|---|---|
Financial Review
| Financial Review | ||
|---|---|---|
| Review of the charity’s financial position at the end of the period |
Para 1.21 | The current statement of accounts shows a healthy balance of £36,477.84. We had an operating loss of £4,113.47 in 2024/2025 but grant receipts enabled us to reduce this deficit to £1,113.47. The trend is positive, lettings have increased and fund raising through the year was healthy. |
| Statement explaining the policy for holding reserves stating why they are held |
Para 1.22 | The policy is to hold approximately the equivalent of one year’s expenditure. Reviewed each year. (£14,000) We are currently holding an additional reserve of £18,664 as we intend to make some other improvements to the building facilities and update the drainage in the Recreation Field. |
| Amount of reserves held | Para 1.22 | £14,000 |
| Reasons for holding zero reserves |
Para 1.22 | Not Applicable |
| Details of fund materially in deficit |
Para 1.24 | None |
| Explanation of any uncertainties about the charity continuing as a going concern |
Para 1.23 | None |
Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
Principal income is from letting of the
| The charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising) |
Para 1.47 | Sports and Recreational building for Home Education, Brownies, Toddler Group, After School Clubs and various private hires. Plus, Fund Raising, Quiz nights & race nights along with the hire of the sports field by the local football team and youth teams from other villages. In addition, we have in the past received grant support from the Parish Council and a local trust. |
|---|---|---|
| Investment policy and objectives including any social investment policy adopted |
Para 1.46 | Funds Held in a low-risk bank savings account. |
| A description of the principal risks facing the charity |
Para 1.46 | The Charity has no long-term liabilities or debts and therefore no financial risks. The Building and Sports field are leased for a peppercorn rent from the Parish Council and Dr Radcliffe’s Foundation. |
| Other |
Structure, Governance and Management
| Description of charity’s trusts: |
||
|---|---|---|
| Type of governing document (trust deed, royal charter) |
Para 1.25 | Constitution |
| How is the charity constituted? (e.g unincorporated association, CIO) |
Para 1.25 | CIO |
| Trustee selection methods including details of any constitutional provisions e.g. election to post or name of any person or body entitled to appoint one or more trustees |
Para 1.25 | All Committee members are trustees. |
Reference and Administrative details
| Charity name | The Recreational Trust |
|---|---|
| Other name the charity uses | |
| Registered charity number | 1202751 |
| Charity’s principal address | Mr Christopher Cooper Combe Pyne Water Lane Steeple Aston OX25 4SB |
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity – See attached AGM Minutes. All committee members are trustees.
STEEPLE ASTON RECREATIONAL TRUST
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Sports & Recreation Centre, Fir Lane, Steeple Aston 21[st] May 2025 @ 20.00hrs
Present : Torquil McLusky (TM), Chris Cooper (CC), Tony Peck(TP), Lawrence White (LW); John White (JW) Fiona McLoone (FMcL), Stuart Ballie (SB)
Apologies : Alan Peckham (AP) introduced Stuart Baillie as the new SAFC Secretary then withdrew from the meeting. However he stated that he was willing to continue on the committee as a Village Rep.
Unfortunately, no other members of the public were in attendance.
| No | ITEM | Owner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | The minutes of the 22ndMay 2024 meetng were generally accepted as the formal record of a Recreatonal Trust Annual General Meetng. Proposed by TM and 2ndLW. |
||
| 2. | Chairman’s Report–Torquil McLusky TM read a statement outlining key points from the last year and thanking all commitee members for their support through the last year. (See attached report.) |
TM | |
| 3. | Treasurer’s Report–Chris Cooper CC circulated the current statement of accounts. This showed a healthy balance of £36,477.84 in the bank. However, despite this we were showing an operatng loss of(£1113.47)in 2024/2025, despite having received a grant from the Parish Council of £2,500, along with an additonal grant of £3,000 from Dr Radclife’s Foundaton. This shows how important the support from these two organisatons is to maintaining the Rec Trust facilites. Key Points : Income - Letngs have increased overall. Afer school club has contributed to this. - Fund Raising is down as we did not run a Race Night last year where we usually raise in the region of £1,000. Costs - Field maintenance costs increased due to additonal line marking and an increase in general maintenance. - Building Improvements with the installaton of new lightng, cost £500 |
CC |
- The key expenditure is gas & electricity which, although prices have increased, is still significant. This needs reviewing. CC will investigate.
(see attached accounts)
4. Electon of Ofcers
Chairperson – Torquil McCluskey was proposed by Lawrence White and seconded by Tony Peck.
Treasurer – Chris Cooper was proposed by John White and Seconded by Tony Peck.
Secretary – No new person had come forward to take on this role so Chris Cooper agreed to continue until a replacement could be found.
Committee Members:
Representing:
Parish Council – There would be no rep from the PC, instead this committee would send a rep to the PC Meetings. (TM would take on this role initially)
Senior Football – Stuart Baillie replaced Alan Peckham who will now sit on the committee as a Village Rep.
Toddler Group – No Rep at the moment. CC to chase the new organisers to ask if they will join the committee. Brownies - Fiona McLoone
Scouts – We have no scout group so this position is redundant. Junior Football – Although Ardley Youth play at Steeple they are a third party hiring the facilities and are not interested in joining the committee.
Cricket Club – No Rep at the moment but TM is talking to a newcomer to the village who wants to restore the training nets for use. So he will ask him if he would join the committee. Village Reps – Tony Peck, Lawrence White, John White Alan Peckham.
5. AOB
John White asked that as all members of this committee agree to be Trustees then the meetings in future should be referred to as Trustee Meetings. This was unanimously agreed.
Date of next AGM : May 20[th] 2026 at 8.00pm in the Recreational Trust Building.
Meetng Closed at 20:40hrs
Chair’s Report Steeple Aston Sport & Rec Wednesday, 21[st] May 2025
As before Chris Cooper has continued to do a brilliant job coordinating and overseeing what is going on! Big thanks to him and the rest of the committee for all their hard work.
As last year, Angela Smith continues to do a very good job as our letting agent. As joint letting agent for us and the Village Hall, we are hoping to ensure a more co-ordinated approach. We are also hoping that we can do more promote and market the facilities that are available. We also have the unique ability to promote ourselves with the village hall as a double hall venue: that gives us scope to host events that wouldn’t be possible in a single hall environment. Marketing ourselves more widely is likely to become increasingly important.
The s106 monies from Rectory Homes are available but we need to move quickly as it seems to be “first come first served” when it comes to accessing the monies. The internet is now in place and working and we are ready to start the work on the kitchen that is now essential but will be quite expensive. Thank you to Tony for all the work he has done in marshalling the various quotes. In due course we will look at the other priorities of boiler and insulation.
John White has been working very hard behind the scenes to arrange for the Sport & Rec charity to become incorporated and also to take on a formal lease for the building rather than just the current licence to occupy. This will allow us to apply for certain grants that require the charities that apply to have a formal tenancy agreement.
The following clubs and groups are currently represented:
Senior Football – Alan Peckham Brownies - Fiona McLoone Bridge – Torquil McLusky (Chair) Junior Football – TBA Village Reps – Chris Cooper (Treasurer), Tony Peck, John White, Lawrence White Mums & Toddlers – Angela Smith (Letting Agent) There is also a very active after school club that uses the hall three days per week.
Alan is stepping down today from the football but will be continuing as a Village Rep – thank you for all your hard work on behalf of Village football over the years.
The main fundraising event was as usual the Fireworks on Robinson’s Close and we continue to host the Church Fete and Horticultural Society Summer show on the field. We also had an excellent quiz – huge thanks to Fiona and her family for all their hard work. It is becoming a real institution and everyone like the venue!
Green Scythe continue to do a good job maintaining the field.
We have continued to access a wide range of funders including the Parish Council who support what we do in providing a village venue. We also continued to work with the other grant giving bodies, especially Dr Radcliffe’s Trust to whom we are, as ever, extremely grateful for their support.
Thank you to the committee for all their hard work. We have said it before but it needs repeating that we do need to make a concerted effort to recruit some new faces on to the committee this year.
Torquil McLusky Chair
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The Recreational Trust 1202751
Receipts and payments accounts
CC16a
| For the period from |
4/1/2024 | To | 3/31/2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
Section A Receipts and payments
| Section A Receipts and payments | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Receipts Lettings 5,224 Fundraising 3,841 Interest 11 Grants 5,500 - - - - 14,576 - - Sub total - Total receipts 14,576 Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ Sub total(Gross income for AR) A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - Restricted funds |
to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - Endowment funds |
Total funds to the nearest £ 5,224 3,841 11 5,500 - - - - 14,576 - - - 14,576 |
Last year to the nearest £ |
| - - - - - - - - - |
||||
| - - |
||||
| - | - | - |
| A3 Payments Professional Fees(Insurance) 928 Maintenance of Building 383 Utilities(Gas, Electricity& Water) 4,619 FundraisingCosts 1,814 Field Maintenance 7,328 General Services 558 Bank Charges 60 - - Sub total 15,690 - - Sub total - Total payments 15,690 Net of receipts/(payments) - 1,114 A5 Transfers between funds - A6 Cash funds last year end - Cash funds this year end - 1,114 A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
928 383 4,619 1,814 7,328 558 60 - - 15,690 - - - 15,690 - 1,114 - - - 1,114 |
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| - - - - - - - - - - |
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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Details funds funds funds to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
Categories
| B1 Cash funds | Bank Current Account | 814 | - | - | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reserve Account | 14,000 | - | - | ||||||
| Project Account | **21,664 ## ** | - | - | ||||||
| Total cash funds | 36,478 | - | - | ||||||
| (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) |
Agreement Error | OK | OK | ||||||
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Endowment | |||||||
| funds | funds | funds | |||||||
| Details | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | ||||||
| B2 Other monetary assets | - | - | - | ||||||
| - | - | - | |||||||
| - | - | - | |||||||
| Details | Fund to which asset belongs |
Cost (optional) | Current value (optional) |
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| B3 Investment assets | - | - | |||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| Details | Fund to which asset belongs |
Cost (optional) | Current value (optional) |
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| B4 Assets retained for the | - | - | |||||||
| charity’s own use | - | - | |||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| Fund to which | Amount due | When due | |||||||
| Details | liability relates | (optional) | (optional) | ||||||
| B5 Liabilities | - | ||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| - |