THRELKELD VILLAGE HALL TRUST
Annual Report, 2020-21
In my closing remarks last year I said I wouldn’t try and predict what the year would bring. Thank goodness I didn’t. We were in our third lockdown and the hall remained closed until July. I had a look at the government Covid-19 timeline and was reminded that during the year we progressed from Step 1 in March, Step 2 in April, Step 3 in May and then Step 4 was delayed to July 19[th] . Then there was Plan B!
We continued to hold our committee meetings by zoom, with the exception of the one in August when we met in the hall. In October Joe Davies stepped down as a committee member and as our meeting minute taker. Joe also ensured we were fully covered by our insurance policies, so he will be missed in many ways. Thank you Joe for your support over many years. The role of minute taker is still vacant so if you would like to support the Village Hall in a very practical way you will be welcomed with open arms or perhaps I should say elbows.
As always committee members have been busy maintaining the hall. The cause of water ingress into the Coffee Shop was finally identified and resolved thanks to the perseverance of Neil Beresford. Steven Oldfield maintained oversight of the building and liaised with regular hirers of the hall while the building was closed. Thank you to all my colleagues on the Village Hall Committee for the time and effort they have committed to the hall over the year.
The Coffee Shop was able to operate for more of the year than in 2020, initially offering take way snacks at the beginning of March and moving to outside seating only and indoor seating as the rules were relaxed. It has continued to be a very popular venue, especially with the opening of the Threlkeld to Keswick railway path and, as always, the staff team have risen to the challenges the year has presented. Adam Bazire will report on the Coffee Shop’s year later
We welcomed back some of our regular hirers in July and more in September. Wedding celebrations and other parties plus some weekend campers made bookings from September onward and Steven Oldfield will talk about this in his address. The Brownies and Youth Club also returned, both are reliant on volunteers and the Youth Club in particular needs more volunteer support if it is to continue. If you have some time and are interested in supporting local young people please contact Tina Morland. The Threlkeld Activities Association began putting on arts and social events in September. Numbers attending have been limited to meet with Covid-19 rules but as always the events have been very popular and there is a full programme planned for the coming year.
After two years of disrupted operations our income has taken a knock, but we have been supported by grants from Eden District Council and with income from the Coffee Shop we are in a much better place than many other village halls. David Evans will report on our finances shortly. Thank you David for continuing to oversee and report on our finances.
The Committee are assured that we still have the financial security to continue with our planned extension using the area where the public toilets are located. The planned work will give the Coffee Shop more space for food preparation as well as storage for provisions and more storage space for the Village Hall. The Village Hall received a grant from the Lottery Fund towards the design and planning stage of the project. Further grant applications will be made to support the overall cost of the building work. It is hoped that building work will commence before the end of the year. So watch the space behind the hall.
One of our biggest challenges this year came from the opening of the Threlkeld to Keswick railway path. We welcomed the re-opening of the path and the Coffee Shop has definitely benefited from the increased footfall into the village. The challenge has been the increased use of the hall toilets. With the closure of the external public toilets provided by Eden District Council the hall toilets were re-designated as public toilets. In particular, this has involved increased cleaning demands, I won’t go into details but sadly some members of the public show no respect for the toilets and the fact that others use them. Our cleaning team, Steph Malik, Sue Plant and Navy Bostock have had to deal with some very unpleasant situations. I want to thank them on behalf of the committee for all their work over the past year and for taking on the extra cleaning of the toilets when it has been required. I can’t mention the toilets with referring to What’s App. We now have a Coffee Shop/Village Hall Whats app group which I resisted calling the Toilet Group, so that Coffee Shop staff can alert the cleaning team to the state of the toilets before they come into clean them!
There is a rumour that Covid-19 is moving from pandemic to endemic and that we may not have further restrictions imposed on the way we lead our lives but, as with last year, I am not going to make any predictions. However, we are in changing times and we do need to look to the future. 2022 seems a good year to pause and review the role of the Village Hall in the village, to ensure that we keep pace with the changing needs and interests of our local community and thrive as a community hub. Over the coming months we will be looking at how we involve more local people with what we do, seeking the views of residents about what they want from the hall and looking creatively at any changes we need to make to continue to play a valuable role in the village.
Christine Renouf, Chair, TVHT
This report relates to the activities of the Village Hall Committee and the uses to which the village hall has been put from last year’s A.G.M. to the present time. Through the past year Christine Renouf has been the Chair, Neil Beresford the deputy Chair, David Evans the Treasurer, Joe Davis started the year as the Minutes Secretary but after a number of years on the Committee he resigned in October. Graham Anderson, also having served for a number of years, partly as Vice Chairman, declines to stand for re-election. David Arkley joined as the representative of the Parish Council. Barbara Lowesmith is the TAA rep and Tina Morland is still the TYP rep. I have continued in my role as Secretary and Bookings Secretary. We have a young man, Chris Smith, who will move onto the Committee to replace Joe but having said that, there is always work to do and anyone not already involved with the running of the hall will be warmly received, and probably given a job.
During the past 12 months the Committee met six times, once face to face and five times via Zoom. Due to various levels of covid the hall was occasionally taken into use as an extension of the coffee shop. As things settled down, hall activities started to build up again from May onwards. As of this present time virtually all regular hall users are back and we have hosted 4 weddings, 6 private parties and 4 groups of campers. The Brownies and Youth Group are back whilst taking various breaks for holidays and the TAA have put on concerts and one talk. At the first signs of covid receding I had significant concerns that people would not return to their pre covid activities but I have been pleasantly surprised to see that every earlier class or session are now meeting again.
The biggest single issue to engage the committee was the preparatory work going into the conversion of the old public toilet block into an extension of the hall, that space to be used up by further facilities for the coffee shop and extended storage space for the hall. On going maintenance work has been carried out, particularly to resolve a problem of a leaking roof now, hopefully, sealed. Occasionally hall supporters met to tackle issues such as keeping the car park tidy, cleaning parts of the main hall that the cleaners would not be expected to reach and other minor upgrades and improvements. Speaking of hall supporters, there are a number who regularly turn out to make things tick, if I start to name names I am bound to forget someone so I will refrain from that but have to thank John Knifton and Craig Beaty as being a constant source of support and practical help.
Steven Oldfield, Secretary, TVHT
Treasurer’s Report to Threlkeld Village Hall Trustees
Year ending 30th September 2021
Summary
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A surplus of £35,387 for the year
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Available Funds at the Year End stand at £131,398
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Covid grants from Eden Council form a large part of the surplus
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Cleaning costs are becoming a more significant cost in terms of both personnel and materials
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Development of the extension project is progressing but at a slower rate than was hoped due to complications surrounding Covid but the development costs for this have been covered by a National Lottery grant
Accounts
We operate a simple cash accounting system given the relative simplicity of our work. The end of year accounts are shown below.
| TVHT | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profit And Loss Account | |||||||
| For theyear ended 30 September 2021 | |||||||
| 2021 | 2020 | ||||||
| Income | Coffee ShopLicence | £14,200 | £5,507 | ||||
| Donations Received - CIC | £30,877 | £0 | |||||
| Donations Received - Misc | £22,824 | £13,084 | |||||
| Donations Received - TAA | £1,100 | £3,660 | |||||
| FITS | £0 | £275 | |||||
| Hall Hire | £2,678 | £7,205 | |||||
| Rates Refund | £0 | £289 | |||||
| RHI | £3,174 | £2,505 | |||||
| £74,853 | £32,525 | ||||||
| Expenses | Caretaking& Cleaning | (£3,461) | (£3,009) | ||||
| CleaningMaterials | (£1,086) | (£695) | |||||
| Electricity | (£5,068) | (£5,166) | |||||
| Equipment & Fittings Projects | (£19) | (£925) | |||||
| Equipment & Fittings Replacements | (£2,035) | (£2,155) | |||||
| Extension Project 2020 | (£1,474) | (£2,026) | |||||
| Insurance | (£1,209) | (£1,197) | |||||
| IT Software,Licences,Support | (£295) | (£513) | |||||
| Maintenance Repairs Renewals | (£2,860) | (£3,112) | |||||
| Misc | £0 | (£84) | |||||
| Office Expenses | £0 | (£206) | |||||
| Phone & Broad Band | (£571) | (£425) | |||||
| Professional Fees | £0 | (£140) | |||||
| Subs & Licences | (£180) | (£180) | |||||
| Water & Waste | (£2,099) | (£1,087) | |||||
| (£20,357) | (£20,920) | ||||||
| Netprofit | £54,496 | £11,605 |
These accounts have been adjusted to accommodate a small number of significant payments that for various reasons reached our bank account a few days before or after the accounting year. Following strict cash accounting practice led to very different outcomes in this and the previous financial year. This makes meaningful comparisons very difficult. The adjustments move the payments concerned into the year that they would naturally occur in and hence mean that relative figures from one year to the next indicate real trends. The adjusted accounts are given below.
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Accounts Examination
I have checked the accounts and can verify that all transactions have been accounted for above.
Kim Shaw, CIMA qualified, Finance Manager
29/7/22
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