2022-09-30-accounts

THRELKELD VILLAGE HALL TRUST AGM

11 JANUARY 2023

CHAIR’S ADDRESS

Welcome to our first face to face AGM since 2020, how ignorant we were in the first couple of months of that year about the challenges that would face us. Although we entered 2022 with some restrictions still in place these were mostly ended in March and normality began to return. Since then we have seen regular bookings for classes resume and as well as bookings for weddings, camping weekends and parties. Steven will tell us more about these shortly. A new event in the hall was the plant sale organised by the TAA (now Threlkeld Events Ltd), this was very successful and those of us with gardens look forward to a re-run this year.

As the hall has got busier again the demands on the cleaners have grown and I want to thank Steph Malik and Navy Bostock for their hard work.

With the exception of January, we have held all our committee meetings face to face in the hall. We also had a strategic planning meeting in August when we focussed on the future of the Village Hall, more of this to follow. As always the real work gets done outside the meetings by committee members and volunteers. Steven Oldfield continues to balance his secretarial duties, managing bookings and all that involves, with keeping an eye out for maintenance issues and with the help of others including Craig Beaty and John Knifton dealing with any as they arise. Steven will be handing over the responsibility for bookings very soon and on behalf of the Committee I want to thank him for the time and energy he has put into this for many years. I am relieved to say Steven is remaining as secretary and a very active member of the Committee and will continue to be involved in maintaining the hall and keeping me on the ball. Other Committee members are Neil Beresford, Vice Chair, David Evans, Treasurer, Barbara Lowesmith, Threlkeld Events representative, David Arkley, Parish Council representative and Tina Morland, Threlkeld Young People’s representative. We looked forward to Chris Smith rejoining us on his return to Threlkeld in a couple of months time. Without each of these members the hall would not function. Tina Morland is stepping down this year and I want to thank her for her contribution over a number of years both to the Committee and the Youth Club. I am very pleased to say Tina is continuing to

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support the Youth Club and I know she would welcome other volunteers to support her with the club.

Neil Beresford has led a small group of Committee members in progressing our plans to extend the hall building to allow for additional kitchen area for the Coffee Shop and much needed storage for the Hall and Coffee Shop. The work involved in this should not be underestimated. Given the significance of the extension we have asked Neil to talk about it at this meeting. Thank you Neil, Barbara Lowesmith, David Evans and Adam Bazire (Coffee Shop Board Chair) for your work on this project. And thanks to Veronica Pollitt who could be seen digging a trench at the back of the toilets last week in preparation for the building works.

Very soon we will be launching a new Village Hall website. Chris Smith kicked this project off before moving to Germany. In March this year we agreed to outsource the development of the site and Barbara has led the liaison with the developers. Barbara has been supported by Chris, Neil, David Felton (Coffee Shop Board Director) and Helen O’Brien. Thank you to all those involved, particularly Helen who is not a committee member and no longer lives in Threlkeld. Helen has supported the technical side of the website for many years and continued to do so after she moved away from the village. I know that Barbara has found her advice throughout the website development process invaluable. Thank you Helen.

We will have a separate report on the Coffee Shop and will hear how it has been both a challenging and successful year. Like many cafes and restaurants in the hospitality sector the Coffee Shop has struggled to recruit staff while continuing to be a very attractive venue for coffee, lunch and tea. We are grateful for the hard work and commitment of the staff which enables the Coffee Shop to be so successful. Each year the Coffee Shop gives its profit after all costs have been covered, plus some small local donations, to the Village Hall Trust. This is used to cover the costs of maintaining the Hall as the income from hirers is insufficient to do so. Going forward if the Coffee Shop continues to be successful we anticipate that the Village Hall will have surplus funds which we want to use to benefit local people. To do this we have to change our Charitable Objects, as these only allow the Village Hall Trust to maintain the Hall for local use. This involves negotiation with the Charity Commission, and we are seeking legal advice on how to achieve the change. So watch this space.

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While I am talking about money I want to thank David Evans for continuing as our Treasurer, David will report on the current state of our finances shortly.

The future role of the Village Hall cannot be decided in isolation to what is happening around us particularly the impact of the financial recession and the crisis facing the NHS and Adult Social Care. I am pleased the hall has been able to play a part in supporting our local community by providing a warm space on Friday afternoons for people to meet up with others for a cup of tea and a chat. We will continue doing this until the end of March and we will be open to other ways we can help beyond then, particularly when we have changed our objects and have the ability to make a bigger contribution to enhancing life in the village. It is an exciting time ahead and a great time to get involved and influence the direction we move in, so if you would like to be part of it either by joining the committee or helping from time to time as a volunteer please get in touch with one of the Committee Members.

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SECRETARY’S ADDRESS

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. David Arkley is the representative of the Parish Council. Barbara Lowesmith is the TE, old T.A.A, rep. Tina Morland has stood down as the TYP rep. and we are looking to replace her. I have continued in my role as Secretary and Bookings Secretary. Chris Smith has been on the Committee for a year but unfortunately due to his wife’s work has spent most of that time in Germany. However, there is always work to do and anyone not already involved with the hall will be warmly received, and probably given a job.

During the past 12 months the Committee met six times and apart from the everyday issues we have spent much time talking about our prices for the hall, which had to be raised, we held a Strategic Thinking Day during which we tried to identify what we did, what we did well, what we didn’t do so well and ultimately how we could provide more and better for our community.

On going maintenance work has been carried out. 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 the list would be quite long and I would still forget someone so, this year, I am going to say no more on that subject. They know who they are.

The hall hosted only 1 wedding last year but we had seven lots of campers and seven family parties. One off events included a craft day, a plant sale and the Platinum party, all being very successful. Virtually all our regular hirers are…just that. We have had numerous hirings by friends of Pat Knifton and Linda Austin around the subject of textiles. The hall provides a ‘warm space’ every Friday afternoon with usually soup, cake, biscuits, tea, coffee and company. The hall made one grant of £1,500 to the T.Y.P. to help with equipment and supervisors. One enterprising young lady hired the village hall on two days when the coffee shop was closed and set up here own ‘pop up café’ to raise money to help finance her school trip abroad. The hall was also opened on New Year’s Eve to receive all comers and welcome in the new year.

Steven Oldfield (Sec).

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Treasurer’s Report to Threlkeld Village Hall Trustees

Year ending 30th September 2022

Summary

• A surplus of £73,764 for the year

• Available Funds at the Year End stand at £205,072

• An unprecedented year for the Coffee Shop has provided this surplus

• Work on the extension has ramped up this year and has been a significant cost, particularly the need to reroute electricity cables. The rest has largely been covered by a National Lottery Development grant.

• The surplus puts us in a good position for the building of the extension which is planned to start in the next financial year

• For hall operations this has been a transition year from Covid to normal working.

• Costs have risen, not only with inflation but also with increased traffic as a result of the Coffee Shop success.

• Our charge out rates for the hall are under review to ensure that our costs are covered

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Accounts Operating Income and Expenditure MallOperl(v 1021-22 201041 Coff5hop Llcence DonationsRatQMvo4-Colltttion Box Hal Hire PAte5 Rdund RHI EIO.400.00 £206.00 El4,200.00 Eo.00 Latest fental pawTr￿t In Ckt<>ber É14,511.00 £144.00 £Z.B55.00 £3,678.00 Eo.00 Jtable Incre￿In thelast qU￿ter Historic •rrorsby Edon Councll £3.174.00 £29,116.IXI £20,052.00 Cwetakin8& 0&4nini aèanlnl Materials Electricltv Equlpment & Flttlnes Projects Equlpment & Flttlng5 Aeplxements Grani 46,955.CKI 41.236.00 47,962.CKI -£379. 415.CKI 41.500.00 41,261. 416.00 43,461.lJO 41,086.OJ 45,069.00 -E19.DJ 42,035.00 Éo.DJ Insur￿( IT Matlalsnd Equipmtht ITSoftw¥< Licence5. Support ntenan¢eReparsRenew4s Mwketini OlliceExpen￿5 Phone& Bro•d B•nd Subs& Licen¢s W•ter& Wot• 41.2Ug,00 Éo.00 41,634.00 44,036.00 468.00 4295.00 42,860.00 Éo,00 Éo,00 .£571.00 IAo.00 42,099.00 l¥knrtlyfirst InstalmwtlSOXlto KCSfOrW•b￿t• -E12.00 -£844,00 4416.00 42,652.00 PR5 lsbxk 419,986.IXI N•twoli 41,870.IXI £1,169.00

Other Items ErteMlon Extwwon Project2020 424,589. 41,474.C -£24.589.00 -£1,474.00 DonatSonsRo(d¥èJ.ClC Donatiun5RtteI￿a. Mxt DonationsRLreivèJ.TAA Eioo.000.00 £98.00 £115.00 £30.B77.00 £22.024.00 £i.100.00 £100,223.00 £54,801.00 (hrdl Prolt £73.764.00 £54.496.00 Balance Sheet • ••t A￿1&￿• Amth•t30th ￿P1a￿A)Irl012 tplus 2021.21 Cr•dlto É131,398,00 £73.764.00 -£90.00 Loan toThwkddYoun¢Peopl• A￿1￿• Fwth•tJOth S•pt•ff•f2022 105,071.00

This has been a transition year between the Covid lockdown when, apart from the Coffee Shop, the hall was largely closed, through to now when the hall is largely operating normally again. This has taken some time and hall hire income only returned to near normal in the last quarter. At the same time costs have increased significantly. These increases are partly due to increased use of the hall by coffee shop customers and partly by the increases in costs that we are all seeing in many services and commodities. The major operating costs are electricity, water, and cleaning. Overall these have gone up by about one third.

As a result of the increased costs we took the view that our charge out rates should be increased by a similar amount. Given that everyone is facing significant costs we did not want to impose a large increase to our clients in one go. It was decided to increase the charge out rates in two parts, the first in April 2022 and the second in April 2023. General hiring costs were increased by 10% in April 2022 while the equivalent rates for the coffee shop were increased by 15% reflecting their increased use of hall facilities.

Notable aspects of the accounts are:

• Hall hire has increased dramatically but still needs to recover further to reach normal levels. This should happen in the next financial year.

• Cleaning costs have doubled, mainly due to the high footfall

• Electricity cost increases have been limited by a lucky renewal of the contract before large costs increases appeared in the market.

• We are rebuilding our website and this has resulted in an increase to the software costs

• Large increases in costs and the slow recovery of hall hire income have resulted in a small annual loss.

• The Extension project was largely funded by a National Lottery Development grant but we have had to bear the costs of moving electricity cables (approx. £15k).

• Coffee shop donations of £100k have allowed the extension project to continue

• Covid grants have now stopped.

The external audit has identified a couple of anomalies which will be rectified.

Available Funds

At the end of September 2022 the Trust held available cash funds of £205,072.

David Evans

25[th] July 2023

Accounts Examination

I have checked the 2021-22 accounts for the Threlkeld Village Hall Trust and can verify that all transactions have been accounted for correctly.

Kim Shaw, CIMA qualified, Finance Manager 21[st] July 2023

K Shaw

Balanced Books

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Accounts Examination

I have checked the 2021-22 accounts for the Threlkeld Village Hall Trust and can verify that all transactions have been accounted for correctly.

I have been through the accounts and there are just a few very little things.

The loans in expenses £90 should be held in creditors if the money is due back as it is not an actual expense.

The Vat is not reconciling – it may be that you will need to include it in income at some point to get the reconciliation correct or include in your next vat return.

I have a closing vat figure of £3250.41 as per your claim but I think there is VAT owed in the account after this of £171.43 given that the opening VAT paid is £152, the closing figure last year.

Kim Shaw, CIMA qualified, Finance Manager 21[st] July 2023

K Shaw

Balanced Books