**WEST BLETCHLEY COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION** ## **NOTES TO ACCOMPANY THE END OF YEAR ACCOUNTS FOR 2020/21** The End of Year Accounts for the financial year 2020/21 as far as is possible, reflect accurately the true picture of the income; expenditure; and financial assets of the West Bletchley Community Association In common with all other Businesses and agencies the Association has found the financial year to be extremely difficult because of the Covid pandemic. The Centre has been closed for most of the year from mid -March 2020 until the end of March 2021 except for a brief spell intra lockdowns in September when it was opened for a very limited time for Karate and one of the Churches. ## **STAFF SALARIES** All the Staff were put on to the Government’s Furlough Job Retention Scheme at the very beginning but which had some difficulties in operation and which took most of April to sort out. The problems stemmed from the interface between the users and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs which required passwords etc given some years ago. The inevitable result was that they had been lost and with changes of personnel very little was known about the passwords. The furlough system paid 80% of the basic salaries but which required monthly claims. The Treasurer decided to use our payroll System as a gateway into HMRC systems which required a joint effort from WBCA and our Payroll Agency. The 80% furlough pay was reduced in September and October 2020 to 70% and 60% respectively WBCA paying the difference. Each monthly gross calculation was carried out by the Treasurer and the Reductions and Claims by the Payroll which has worked well. Many thanks to the latter. The Furlough system was re-introduced from November 2020 with the full 80% which has remained for the rest of the financial year. The furlough system has worked very well since its troubled beginning and has been a major factor in the finances of the Association as will be referred to later. ## **INCOME** The Income Account shows £31,461.49 but includes £18,291.91 from the Government Job Retention Scheme and £11,472.00 from grants which means only £1,697.58 is true income for the whole of the financial year. Without the Furlough Scheme and the Grants the situation would have been dire. Although there were several sources of grants the Association found itself not to be eligible because of an inability to satisfy a number of criteria and some applications were processed through several stages only to fail at the last hurdles. The Treasurer was involved with applications for grant aid for most of the financial year with limited success but nevertheless obtained £10,000 through Government/Milton Keynes Council in April, £1,222.00 from MK Community, and £250 was given by a Milton Keynes Councillor. ## **EXPENDITURE** Although the Centre has been closed for the majority of the financial year the expenditure is relatively high due to a number of factors – contractual undertakings such as the Lease; Utilities; other Service Providers; Refunds to those who had booked for subsequent cancelled coach trips and to those who had paid in advance for hiring the premises. Attempts were made either to abandon the contractual payments or to reduce them were partially successful but one of the largest costs were associated with having the unfortunate timing of major problems with the Emergency Lighting and a Survey of Hard Wiring and subsequent amendments in order to conform with electrical requirements. The Association had no choice as they were statutory requirements and the centre can only operate with approved installations. ## **INVESTMENTS** It has been a very difficult year for investments not only from a dramatic fall in interest rates throughout the year but from the performances of the very agencies holding the monies of the Association. For example, one Building Society with whom the Association had over £30k invested, in July transferred all of the money into our Current Account only explaining at our request that they no longer dealt with us! Astonishingly it proved extremely difficult to reinvest the money into other accounts as every attempt to do so was met with a refusal until finally the money was invested into one in which we held monies unfortunately at a very small interest rate. ## **FUTURE** During the year the pandemic has had a catastrophic effect particularly on Income but also on operations. The final finances have been buoyant only because of Furlough and Grants and there has hardly been any activities in the Centre throughout the year. Looking forward to 2021/22 gives cause for concern as the only certainties are the uncertainties arising from imponderables and unknowns. Furlough ends from September, will the groups using the Centre return in sufficient numbers to make the Centre financially viable as there is a cautious approach to coming back, are we able to continue with Grant Aid ETC? The Association does not receive any official grants and relies almost wholly on income from hiring its facilities for a number of community associated activities. Donations and Grants are extremely low compared to previous years. Charges to the User Groups for the use of the facilities have only been increased once since 2010 in order to be competitive with alternate venues, all cost increases have been absorbed by the Association. There has been constant effort to fill the few vacant slots but with limited success. Expenditure is essential in order to maintain staffing levels and to provide a clean warm, and safe environment and to ensure all statutory requirements are satisfied. In the last few years the Association has adopted an exercise in attempting to control and reduce expenditure wherever possible. The overall expenditure has been less than for 2018/19 because of a reduction in major Items. For several years the Association relied heavily on the interest received from investments but in common with all savers have suffered from poor rates of interest post 2008. The Association has attempted to save as much as possible in investments and has tried to obtain the best rates by switching around different accounts This is not easy due to stringent bank rules with regard to the laundering of money, also some accounts are difficult to transfer into because of individual bank rules However the Association has benefitted from the investment change to the Shawbrook Bank. The Association retains Liquid and Illiquid Accounts and will continue to try to maximise returns on investments. The next financial year will be extremely challenging due to the effects of COVID19 and the drastic reduction in interest rates. It will be necessary to examine **ALL** aspects of expenditure and to try to increase income avoiding or limiting an increase in Hiring Charges. ## **K. Sisson Treasurer of WBCA June 2020** Copy of Treasuer sheet 21 April 2020 March 2021 for Aug Oct agm 2021 05/10/2021 Receipts and Payments ## **West Bletchley Community Association** |**2019/20**
_£_
**£405.00**
**£0.00**
**£5,268.93**
**£16,756.15**
**£9,519.29**
**£319.00**
**£99.00**
**£18.00**
**£4,497.00**
**£3,255.42**
**£396.00**
**£52.65**
**£1.00**
**£951.39**
**£41,538.83**
**£35.00**
**£983.52**
**£42,557.35**|**Receipts and Payments for the Year Ending March 31st 2021**|**Receipts and Payments for the Year Ending March 31st 2021**| |---|---|---| ||**RECEIPTS**
**GENERAL**
**Members/Aff. Fees**
**Patrons**
**Members Groups**
**Affiliated Groups**
**Hirings**
**Raffles**
**Special Event**
**Repro/Other Income**
**Coach Trips**
**OTHER INCOME**
**Charity Shop**
**100 Club**
**Concerts**
**Miscellaneous**
**Refunds**
**GENERAL INCOME**
**GRANTS**
**Gvt Job Retention Scheme**
**Mk Community**
**Gvt Grant Aid**
**MKC Councillor**
**Interest from**
**Investments Accounts**
**TOTAL INCOME**|**2020/21**
**£0.00**
**£0.00**
**£12.01**
**£672.60**
**£453.25**
**£0.00**
**£0.00**
**£0.00**
**£0.00**
**£253.45**
**£0.00**
**£0.00**
**£0.00**
**£306.27**
**£1,697.58**
**£18,291.91**
**£1,222.00**
**£10,000.00**
**£250.00**
**£537.44**
**£31,998.93**| ## **BALANCE SHEET 2020/21** |73821.08|**REPRESENTED BY:**
**BALANCE**
**Current Bank Account**
**Principality**
**Santander Business A/C**
**Virgin Money**
**Shawbrook Bank**
**TOTAL**
**Excess Payments**
**Over Receipts**
**TOTAL**
**ksissonmay2021**|**31st MARCH 2020**
**BALANCE**
**£9,705.13**
**Current Bank Account**
**£32,767.61**
**14.597.55**
**Santander Business A/C**
**£279.17**
**Virgin Money**
**£40,774.30**
**Shawbrook Bank**
**£98,123.76**
76,096.30
**-£3,111.46**|**31st MARCH 2020**
**BALANCE**
**£9,705.13**
**Current Bank Account**
**£32,767.61**
**14.597.55**
**Santander Business A/C**
**£279.17**
**Virgin Money**
**£40,774.30**
**Shawbrook Bank**
**£98,123.76**
76,096.30
**-£3,111.46**|**31ST MARCH 2021**
**£18,916.00**
**£34,641.20**
**£279.61**
**£41,175.49**| |---|---|---|---|---| |||**£95,012.30**|**TOTAL**|**£95,012.30**| |||||| KS/MA 20.4.07 15:42 1￿DEPF,NDE￿ ELIMtNER'S RE4 PORT TO THE TRIJ.STF.F.S OF WF.ST BLFTCHLFY CC)MMIJNITY A.(i(iOCIATION I rewrt on the accounis ot" Ihe A%8()ciation for the year elided 31 st March 2021. RespL'Ctii'e responsibilitie5 uf trustccs and examiner. As the charity's tn)stees you arc rcsponsible for Ihe prepai