Threlkeld Village Hall Trust – Charity Number 231380
Annual Report for Year to 30th September 2023
Chairperson’s Report
It has been another busy year at the Hall. I’m pleased we have been able to continue our tea and chat sessions, which are now on a Wednesday afternoon and have proved very popular. Threlkeld Events have had another successful year of entertainment events and included a plant sale in May.
This year the committee has been focussed on two important developments: the extension and establishing the Village Hall Trust as Charitable Incorporated Organisation.
Building the extension has taken longer than we envisaged but it is progressing now and we look forward to having more storage space and a larger kitchen for the Coffee Shop before too long. When we commenced the new extension, it had been hoped that the building would be complete and occupied by the end of 2023. However, delays arising from issues with the foundation and roof design, and more recently weather-related delays, mean that completion is now likely to be early spring 2024.
Highly regrettable as these delays are, the Trustees remain convinced that the work will provide much needed improvements which will benefit the Village Hall for many years to come.
The additional kitchen area will enable our highly successful Coffee Shop to offer a wider selection of food and improve service to customers. They will not have to share the Village Hall kitchen with Hall users, and all the food and consumables some of which are spread around the building, will be held in the new food preparation area.
The new Hall Equipment Store will provide more space to hold much of our existing equipment which is only required intermittently, for example extra chairs and tables. It will also enable us to offer to regular users the ability to keep on site any of their own equipment they may need. This has often not been possible in the past and should make our Hall more attractive to some groups. The upstairs office area will no longer be used for storage, and this will, in due course, become a well-equipped meeting room which can be available to small groups throughout the day. A much-needed additional facility.
The building delays are a short term frustration. We believe the new space will significantly enhance the Hall for years to come. I want to thank Neil Beresford, Barbara Lowesmith and David Evans for the time and energy they have given to this project.
When Trevor Roberts launched the Coffee Shop in 2014 his vision was that it would be such a success that it would make enough money to benefit the village and surrounding area. Over the years the Coffee Shop has enabled the Village Hall to give grants to the Youth Club, Brownies and support other local activities. But we have been very limited in what we can do because of the Charity Commission rules governing Village Halls. The Charity Commission never envisaged that a village hall would have sufficient money to give some of it away. Once we have paid for the extension we will begin building up a reserve of money over and above what we need to maintain the hall. We want to be able to use that money to support the village and contribute towards such causes as the playground improvement. This is why we need the Village Hall to become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation.
It is important to us that local people use the Village Hall, we have a range of classes running each week but are always open to the hall being used for different activities. This year we have been keen to ensure everyone knows what is going on, we have a regular slot in Beneath Blencathra now and have recently undertaken a survey to get feedback from users and non-users of the hall. We want the Hall to be central to village life, a go to place for everyone
I want to thank all those who contribute to making the Village Hall the success it is: our trustees, the team of volunteers who Steven calls on to help with maintenance, the Coffee shop staff and our cleaners.
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Secretary’s Report
This report relates to the activities of the Village Hall Committee and the uses to which the village hall has been put. 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 Thelkeld Events (TE) rep. and Emma Moody is the Threlkeld Young People (TYP) rep. I have continued in my role as Secretary and Bookings Secretary. Chris Smith is a co-opted member and with his skills and knowledge of the computer world he has been very active. Adam Bazire, the Coffee Shop Board Chairperson, attends the Trustee meetings in relation to business mainly concerning the coffee shop.
During the past 12 months the Committee met six times with one additional ad hoc meeting to consider the very relevant matter of the C.I.O.
Ongoing 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.
Throughout the year the hall has been well used by all the obvious groups. Our long term hirers are still here, suggesting they are satisfied with the facilities, services and prices. Obviously, having the coffee shop attached is the great draw it was expected to be when we were drawing up the original plans. I believe we are known and appreciated further afield than just Threlkeld, or Keswick even. We have meetings booked here by county wide associations, parties and weddings booked by people from far away and camping groups coming from all corners of England and Scotland. Two weeks ago we received an email from the Lake District National Park Authority which said, among other things “We saw you as being an excellent example of a true community asset that people were proud of and saw you as the centre point of the community”. I expect the Treasurer will point out the increase in yearly takings from hirings. One particularly significant success is the “Tea and Chat” which now occurs on Wednesday afternoons and is routinely visited by over 20 (mainly) locals. As last year, one of our local young entrepreneurs hired the hall to set up a ‘pop-up’ coffee shop during the two days of Christmas that the coffee shop was closed.
As always, we are seeking actual help. We do have a couple of young couples who are now helping out, we haven’t quite pressured them onto the Committee yet, but I am very confident by this time next year we will have some additional, new Trustees. We have also had one local gent who, with his professional knowledge, examined and certified our lift and tall ladders. Anyone who thinks they can help out in any way would be very welcome. I would just point out that being a Trustee just really means attending one meeting every two months, helping to steer and guide the good ship Threlkeld Village Hall and drop in for the occasional little job or responsibility, but we do actually enjoy it.
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Treasurer’s Report
Summary
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A loss of £15,566.34 was recorded for the year
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Available Funds at the Year End stand at £186,136.55.
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The extension project dominates expenditure and is the reason for the loss. This is despite slow progress with the construction owing to technical design issues amongst others.
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The cost of cleaning materials continues to grow significantly while the salary costs for our cleaners has stabilised
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Insurance costs are rising year on year in line with industry trends
Accounts
The year to 30[th] September 2023 marks a return to normal operations after a slow recovery from the Covid shutdown during the previous year. The operations (finances purely related to the running of the hall) income and expenditure have more or less broken-even when taking account of late invoicing for the Coffee Shop rental. Hall hire rates have been increased over the last two years to account for the rise in our costs related to general inflation. Costs, notably cleaning and related materials, have also risen as a result of increased footfall in the Coffee Shop compared to pre-Covid times. We have limited increases to hall hire rates with the aim of breaking even in terms of operating costs and spread the rises over two years to reduce the impact on our users. Non-Coffee Shop rentals have increased by 46% over the year indicating the return to normal levels of usage.
The Coffee Shop continues to be popular. The number of customers has probably dropped a little from the height of the “staycation” boom but the level of donations remains buoyant. Donations from the Coffee Shop to the Hall were accelerated in the previous year to prepare for the costs of the extension and so are lower this year. Further donations are due but will fall in the next financial year.
The increase in cleaning material costs is a concern and this will be investigated in more detail over the next few months to identify any trends we should be aware of. Insurance costs are rising generally but these will need a complete renewal once the extension is complete with revised rebuilding costs. At this time, we will search more widely for quotes. The office computer was over ten years old and was showing its age so we have replaced it this year. The professional fees are legal costs related to the conversion to a CIO. We have decided to do as much of this work as we can ourselves to keep costs under control.
The costs of the extension work have shifted from design and planning work to construction. The completion of this has been delayed by at least three months and probably more for various reasons and along with this we have increased costs. At present we believe we can comfortably cover these from our own funds.
Overall, it has been a good year and the fact that we can cover the extension costs internally is gratifying. This all bodes well for the future when we hope to be able to support other groups in our vicinity with the funds provided by our Coffee Shop.
David Evans
27[th] July 2024
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OVERALL INCOME AND EXPENDITURE
| OVERALL INCOME AND EXPENDITURE | OVERALL INCOME AND EXPENDITURE | OVERALL INCOME AND EXPENDITURE | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OperatingProfit & Loss | ||||||
| 2023 | 2022 | |||||
| Income | Bank Interest | £2.33 | £0.16 | |||
| VAT Interest | £0.59 | £0.00 | ||||
| Coffee ShopLicence | £7,800.00 | £10,400.00 | ||||
| Donations Received - Collection Boxes | £225.97 | £206.41 | ||||
| Hall Hire | £20,812.65 | £14,510.69 | ||||
| Loans | £75.00 | £0.00 | ||||
| Rates Refund | £0.00 | £144.50 | ||||
| RHI | £2,831.30 | £2,855.20 | ||||
| £31,747.84 | £28,116.96 | |||||
| 2023 | 2022 | |||||
| Expenses | Caretaking& Cleaning | (£7,343.00) | (£6,955.07) | |||
| CleaningMaterials | (£3,268.48) | (£2,235.79) | ||||
| Electricity | (£8,954.44) | (£7,962.43) | ||||
| Equipment & Fittings Projects | (£22.92) | (£379.08) | ||||
| Equipment & Fittings Replacements | (£664.87) | (£15.00) | ||||
| Grant | (£147.00) | (£1,500.00) | ||||
| Insurance | (£1,812.41) | (£1,260.64) | ||||
| IT Materials and Equipment | (£2,556.50) | (£16.24) | ||||
| IT Software,Licences,Support | (£316.95) | (£1,634.46) | ||||
| Loans | £0.00 | (£75.00) | ||||
| Maintenance Repairs Renewals | (£1,853.63) | (£4,035.62) | ||||
| Marketing | £0.00 | (£67.98) | ||||
| Office Expenses | (£134.69) | (£12.39) | ||||
| Phone & Broad Band | (£978.67) | (£843.76) | ||||
| Professional Fees | (£3,100.00) | £0.00 | ||||
| Subs & Licences | (£423.02) | (£415.55) | ||||
| Water & Waste | (£2,875.43) | (£2,651.86) | ||||
| (£34,452.01) | (£30,060.87) | |||||
| Operating profit/loss | (£2,704.17) | (£1,943.91) |
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| 2023 | 2022 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | Donations Received - CIC | £30,000.00 | £100,000.00 | |||
| Donations Received - Misc | £31.49 | £97.91 | ||||
| Donations Received - TAA | £0.00 | £125.00 | ||||
| £30,031.49 | £100,222.91 | |||||
| 2023 | 2022 | |||||
| Extension | Grants | £10,754.47 | £480.00 | |||
| Architect/Designer | (£2,849.20) | (£3,644.80) | ||||
| Planningand legal fees | (£3,200.00) | (£369.00) | ||||
| Buildingcosts | (£39,146.78) | (£16,165.78) | ||||
| Project Manager | (£6,663.95) | |||||
| Insurance | (£1,108.20) | |||||
| EngineeringConsultants | (£680.00) | (£4,889.50) | ||||
| (£42,893.66) | (£24,589.08) | |||||
| Overallprofit/loss | (£15,566.34) | £73,689.92 |
BALANCE SHEET
| BALANCE SHEET | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | |||
| Bank | Current | £160,082.85 | £184,715.97 | |
| Project | £19,196.16 | £13,381.95 | ||
| Premium | £356.89 | £354.56 | ||
| £179,635.90 | £198,452.48 | |||
| Creditors | Net VAT due | £6,500.65 | £3,250.41 | |
| £6,500.65 | £3,250.41 | |||
| Net Assets | £186,136.55 | £201,702.89 | ||
| Available Funds | Opening | £201,702.89 | ||
| Surplus/(Deficit) | (£15,566.34) | |||
| Closing | £186,136.55 |
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Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the trustees/ members of
Threlkeld Village Hall Trust
On accounts for the year 30[th] September 2023 Charity no 231380 ended (if any) Set out on pages
(remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)
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I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 30/09/2023
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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 Charities 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 Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
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accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or
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the accounts do not accord with the accounting records
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. .
Signed: Date: 26.07.2024 Name: K Shaw Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 12 Merlin Gardens Fareham PO16 8HB
Section B Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
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