2025-08-31-accounts - Ovingdean Village Hall

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Ovingdean Village Hall Registered Charity: 240453

AGM Thursday 16th October 2025 7pm

Chairman’s Opening Remarks

I would like to welcome everyone to the AGM of the Ovingdean Hall Management Committee.

Apologies for absence given by Mandy (Secretary) Marion and Mike Higgins, Dorothy Whitither, Elaine Spalding, Sue Harvey and Mike Dance, David and Shirley Ross, Chris Anderson, Angie Lintott, Micheal and Mary Miller, Heny and Phil Rose, Elizabeth Metcalf, Angela Pamely, Ted Skinner, Derrick Stirling.

Minutes of the AGM for 2024 held on Thursday 17th October has been available in the Hall if you wanted to read them.

Does the meeting approve the minutes?

Approved by David Harris Seconded by Bernadette Skinner

Matters Arising – not addressed elsewhere on the agenda.

Chairman’s Report

The Hall committee met regularly throughout the year.

I expect you will hear in the Club meeting that bar receipts and Hall bookings are down from last year. We need a plan to encourage more people to use the bar and put in a good word to friends for events and parties in the Hall. User Groups are meeting regularly and there are very few slots left for any new activities.

Thank you very much Suzie for your work and considerable patience in organising the bookings. Everyday maintenance and gardening are conducted whenever required. We do have a regular contract for the gardening, and a local window cleaner comes at agreed intervals.

All routine maintenance and replacements are conducted as and when required and thanks to Debbie for organising most of this. Also, to all her family for their willingness to help with various skills and expertise.

Thanks to Lorna Davies, we had a highly successful Artist’s Open House over two weekends in May, as part of the Brighton Festival. She is looking at having the two days over the same weekend next year to save the stallholders having to pack up and return the following week. This will have an impact on the bar opening on Sunday but should help the stallholders with added attendance.

At this point, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the volunteers for the immense amount of work they do for the Hall. Special thanks to Debbie & Catherine who always seem to be here.

It is safe to say that the Bar and the Hall would not run as it does without their hard work and amazing support for the Village.

I would also like to thank Julie Veck for her work as Treasurer last year and to David Harris for taking over the role so seamlessly and professionally.

There are many people involved in the successful running of the Hall. To all the committee who put in a great amount of work to ensure everything runs as efficiently as possible, a big thank you. Also, to everyone involved in serving behind the bar and keeping the hall clean, especially Debbie, ensuring it is ready for use and clearing up any mess afterwards and most important, stocked up. Also, to the gardeners who look after the patio and flower beds.

The Hall is a great asset for the village, and I urge everyone to use the facilities and support special nights as well as the regular quiz nights and ploughman’s or just come down on a bar night or Sunday lunchtime and socialise. This is my 11[th ] AGM as Chairperson. It is a pleasure and an honour to be your chairperson and to meet with so many wonderful people on a regular basis. Thank You

Treasurer’s report on the accounts for the year ended 31[st] August 2025 – David Harris

Hopefully you’ve all had an opportunity to look at the accounts so I’ll briefly run through some of the key points.

The main differences compared with the previous year are:

A reduction in total income of just over £4k due principally to lower receipts from the Club, and slightly reduced income from hall hire, partly offset by higher receipts from user groups
A big increase in major repairs and renewals this year, most of which were planned. The main expenditure was on the car park and other external areas, and a new shed

Most categories of operating expenditure are broadly comparable to the previous year.

However, there was an anomaly with the spend on licences. This is due to the fact that the accounts are prepared on a receipts and payments basis and, for one of the licences, two annual payments happened to fall into this year. So last year’s spend should really have been higher and this year’s lower. We also now have a combined music licence.

As a result of all of these factors we had an overall deficit for the year of £8,853 compared with a small surplus in 2024. This is reflected in a reduction in our reserves of just over £8,000.

Nevertheless our reserves at £77,629 are still very healthy:

Bank balances and cash in hand of £12,265
The CCLA investment fund of £65,364

What is most important as far as I’m concerned is that, despite the reductions in income this year, and the consequential impact on reserves, there was a surplus on what I would call our ‘normal operating activities’ of £8,272.

In this new financial year, with no major planned repairs and renewals, and if we can at least maintain that level of operating surplus, then hopefully we could see some increase in the reserves in the 2026 accounts. I think we should be very well placed to deal with any eventualities.

Because our income is just above the threshold of £25,000, The Charity Commission requires that the accounts are subject to an independent review. John Bryant has very kindly agreed to do this, once again.

I haven’t yet had his signed report but he has confirmed to me that I have provided him with everything that he needs. There should therefore be no issues with this, and the accounts only need to be filed with the CC before the end of June next year.

John has said though that he wants this to be his last time, so we will need to appoint a new independent reviewer sometime during the current financial year. There is no rush to do this but, if you are aware of anyone who might be prepared to do it, please let one of us know. It is not necessary to have any qualifications, but some experience of basic accounting would be useful.

I’m happy to take any questions now. Also if anyone ever wants to discuss any financial matters with me at any time, I’m happy to do that.

Thank you

Proposer and seconder that the accounts be adopted.

Steve Wedd Kevin Crouch

Election of Committee

The existing elected members of the committee seeking re-election for 2025/26 are Richard Lintott, David Harris, Martin Ebeling, Steve Wedd, Suzie Baird, Sue Harvey, and Mandy Saunders

Please can we have a proposer and seconder to re-elect them en-bloc Pauline and Kevin Crouch.

Just to remind you, the committee is elected at the AGM, the officers will be appointed from the committee at the first meeting in November.

User Group Representatives

The User Group representatives are nominated by each group to attend the Hall meetings and should be at the AGM. Arts Club Julie Palling Bowls Club Marion Higgins Gardening Club Lorna Davies ORPS David Plant Village Club Geoff Woods St Wulfrans/PCC Pat Couchman WI Teresa Stirling

The people who have been elected are the ones that are eligible to vote. You can send a representative to the meetings if you cannot attend but they cannot vote.

Proposer Christine Robinson Seconder Jackie Laing

To Appoint an Independent Examiner.

John Bryant has said he is willing to continue. Thanks to John for agreeing to continue. I presume there are no other nominations or volunteers.

Proposer and Seconder Pat Anderson Pat Couchman.

Any Other Business

Bernadette asked for gardening to be kept up re the flower beds it has been addressed and will be on the agenda at our next meeting.

Christine asked about merger. Richard replied that the hall and club were now one however 2 committees still remain.

Once again, thank you for coming, meeting closed. There will follow the AGM of the Ovingdean Village Club.

Meeting closed 19.20pm

Ovingdean Village Hall

Registered Charity number 240453

Income and expenditure for the year ended 31[st] August 2025

2025 £ £ Income User groups 8,618 Club 12,500 Hall hire 3,693 Other income 2,146 Total income 26,957 Expenditure Cleaning (5,440) Gardening (1,254) Light & heat (3,520) Rent (1,650) Insurance (1,593) Licences (1,663) General maintenance & repairs (1,233) Other operatingexpenditure (2,332) Total expenses before major repairs & renewals (18,685) Surplus before major repairs and renewals 8,272 Major repairs and renewals (17,125) (Defcit)/surplus for the year (8,853) Reserves Opening reserves 85,878 (Defcit)/surplus for the year (8,853) Increase in investment unit values 604 Reserves at the end of the year 77,629 Represented by Bank balances & cash in hand 12,265 CCLA Charities Investment Fund 65,364 77,629	2024 £ £ 7,840 17,000 4,052 2,379	2024 £ £ 7,840 17,000 4,052 2,379
Total income Expenditure Cleaning (5,440) Gardening (1,254) Light & heat (3,520) Rent (1,650) Insurance (1,593) Licences (1,663) General maintenance & repairs (1,233) Other operatingexpenditure (2,332)	(5,992) (1,450) (3,168) (1,650) (1,611) (428) (1,743) (1,847)	31,271

Total expenses before major repairs & renewals Surplus before major repairs and renewals Major repairs and renewals (Defcit)/surplus for the year Reserves Opening reserves (Defcit)/surplus for the year Increase in investment unit values Reserves at the end of the year Represented by Bank balances & cash in hand CCLA Charities Investment Fund		(17,889)

		13,382
		(10,605)
		2,777
		77,368 2,777 5,733
		85,878
		16,118 69,760
		85,878

These accounts have been prepared on a receipts and payments basis

David Harris