2024-12-31-accounts

Report of the Executive Committee for 2024 presented to the

Hythe & Dibden Community Association at its Annual General Meeting Wednesday 7th May 2025

Since our last A.G.M in May 2024, the Executive Committee, have, with the help of those members of the General Committee and the Centre Manager, been closely involved with planning for the future safeguarding of the Community Centre. With regard to the objectives of the Association we are doing our best to encourage the use of the Community Centre by any organisation that will benefit the inhabitants of the Parish of Hythe & Dibden, without trying to discriminate in any way.

The Executive Committee have held regular monthly meetings with those members who would normally form part of the General Committee. The General Committee is formed of representatives of groups and organisations using the Community Centre who fulfil the requirement laid out in the Constitution. Any such member groups are entitled to have a vote at the AGM.

Following on from the discussions arising from 2023 regarding Waterside Arts, we offered the Community Centre to them for use during the Arts Festival. Although provisional approaches had them hiring up to five times they ended up using us twice. We are aware of this and any opportunities to build on the use of the centre for ‘the arts’ will be taken up. We currently have four art groups who would like to see an extension of our facilities.

The rest of the Executive Committee’s work has been with the long term running of the Community Centre so it can continue to provide, on the Associations behalf, the service it does.

Direct services: Our Community Centre:

We are continuing to welcome new groups and organisations to our facilities. There are 5 new groups and organisations, Goodnight Sweetheart, who are members, Bad Pennies plus Eagle’s Learning (helping with exams), Fresh Start for learning, Leaning with Libraries (who had to be moved from the library because libraries are for books) and a session for those who need practical help with coping at home.

Centre Usage

Total number of hirings for the year is 997. Little Stars preschool have now had a full year in Hall 2, although their numbers have not been as expected. This is strange as there is apparently a shortage of pre-school places.

Usage across our groups (Beyond normal hirings):

The Waterside Art Group returned for their Art Exhibition in August 2024 and covered two full Saturdays, and once again they had a very good attendance, bringing back the voting for the favourite painting. They also ran a workshop in June,

This was the only Membership Group to make use of the facilities outside of their normal hirings.

Across other users (Associated / Commercial)

The Calshot Divers have had a further two weekend training sessions.

Indirect Services: Via renting the Community Centre.

Little Stars preschool. Still receiving a slight concession, although they are now requiring additional storage area. This will be charged for as for the previous pre-school. They are now looking to make better use of our outside area, having made some improvements as required by Ofsted.

Hythe Voluntary Car Group , continue to use our office as their headquarters between 9 and 11am each day and provide an invaluable facility for members of the community; for visits to health related venues. At present due to lack of volunteer drivers, they are unable to help with the more mundane such as shopping and the hairdressers etc.

Smoke Free Hampshire’s time with us came to an end in February as numbers were too few to cover their continued presence.

Inhealth Intelligence , an NHS service provider, continues to provide within the Centre an Eye Screening Service for people with Diabetes. This is very well utilised and provides a facility for our community without them having to travel outside of the Waterside. hArt (Hampshire Art for Recreation and Therapy), offer activities to support mental health, wellbeing and wider social issues in people of all ages and abilities, and had a continual presence throughout the year.

Financial Report Year 2024

Incoming:

When we compare 2024 to 2023, we show a net loss. This loss is, however slightly down on 2023. The total income for the Association in 2024 was £39659 compared to £35537 in 2023. Rents from hiring the Community Centre’s rooms out were £36910 compared to £33361.

Membership numbers have steadied with 174 in 2024 compared to 175 in 2023. Our “normal” level is about 285 as demonstrated in 2019.

The kitchen, while still not being fully open and being serviced from the office had a net income of £1695 – a rise of one third on the previous year. This should increase in the next year when we hope to expand the service.

Book sales are slightly less, with receipts of £119 but this may decrease next year as our supply of books gets purposefully run down. This should hopefully give us a better supply by getting rid of the oldest and concentrating on newer books.

Outgoing:

This year there was a large increase in utility costs, particularly electricity, which saw an increase of £1195 over 2023. The gas costs are still benefiting from the last set of negotiations.

The new upgraded telephone system is showing an increase in cost of £350 over 2023. The Voluntary Cars have not taken up the option to use the new system, but have arranged their own.

The costs for maintenance have again been reduced this year to £2630 against £4103 in 2023. We had hoped to arrange a ‘power flush’ for the heating system, to clear any blockages and maintain the efficiency of the system before the winter season. There seemed to be no interest in the job, the one quote we had was a ‘silly’ quote. They obviously didn’t want the job. Fortunately we managed to find someone to do the job, which was done early this year.

Overall Income amounted to £39659 compared with £35537 last year whilst Expenditure amounted to £45985 compared to £43714 last year. The year-end differential was a loss of £6326 compared to a loss of £8177 last year. Total differential was £1851 which has been reduced mainly by the increase in income.

A copy of the accounts is available to all members in the Office.

The Future

At the time of this report the future is still uncertain, but we are hopeful. We now have permanent planning permission in place, so no longer have to worry about reapplying. As reported earlier, our commercial bookings continue to recover, but membership groups are still not recovering to the extent that we had all hoped for. We are now seeing a few younger members joining, but they are not yet replacing those members who did not return after COVID. This is still of concern for the Association which is made up of and run by members.

We still need to market the Centre more, in order to increase our hirings and revenues, but in addition we need to explore new ventures and identify other uses which would still be in keeping with the ethos of the Association while not being in conflict with our planning category. One subject that was discussed following the talks with the Arts Council representative, was that of having a 'rolling' arts display in the centre. This is now something that we are going forward with, and something that will, hopefully, grow through the years.

One insurmountable problem, as noted in previous years, is that there is a surplus of venues in the area which has arisen since we erected the new Centre. Most of the new venues have been created within the local authority or ecclesiastical environment which protect them from incurring costs that an independently run building such as our centre does. For example: refuse – churches get their waste taken away free whereas businesses, like ours, must pay. We know this has been said before, but it is still very relevant.

As for other streams of income: The “Inn Centre” Café area continues to be open on a daily basis, manned from the office. There is very little demand for sandwiches and other snacks and it is not always worth holding stocks for those items as they are perishable. We have however, offered additional items at certain events, the main one being the Waterside Art Group exhibition when we provided an extended service offering soup and a roll plus home-made cakes mostly made by the art group. Income for 2024 was £1960 compared to £1227 in 2023, and is still rising for the current year. Our groups, again, need to be reminded that it is available.

Our web site continues to make prospective hirers aware of what the Community Centre has to offer. The pricing of rooms has been made simpler – reducing the 144 visible options down to about 24 without removing any accessibility. Also the number of people that can comfortably fit into each room is now included in the room size detail.

Hopefully in the future, there’ll be a page or two that Membership and Associated Groups, if they wish, can make use of to promote themselves – as they can the Community Centre’s noticeboards.

We are thinking about changing our website host due to the cost but currently the switch is made complicated by them also hosting our e-mail account.

We, as stated earlier, have been fortunate enough to have prepared for the increase in utility prices. All attempts are being made to mitigate any future price rises. We are still monitoring usage regularly and looking to minimise waste. So don’t be surprised when we turn the lights off as we leave.

The basic maintenance on the Community Centre buildings continues at a significantly low level and most of our costs have been incurred through the Associations’ legal requirement to ensure that the emergency systems and services such as the fire and burglar systems are regularly tested and maintained. This also applies to portable appliances and the lift though those are more visible and less forgettable on a day to day basis.

This “low level” can not last forever as the original part of the building is over 50 years old and the new Community Centre was opened 21 years ago. We can therefore expect significant increases in our maintenance costs in the next few years.

One of the greater challenges we have is the lack of volunteers. In line with so many other charities this is a problem we all have to deal with. We need volunteers to cover mostly the office and the kitchen. It does not suit everybody, but we are happy to accommodate anybody who would like to join us. If a volunteer would like to join us, but does not like being alone, come as a pair, or bring something with you to do while you are here. Let us know what your strengths are so that can offer something suitable.

It has always been the hope of the Executive Committee, since we had the Community Centre rebuilt, that, in spite of not being able to maximise our revenues through the provision of a new all-purpose hall to replace the old one, we would be in a position to move into a surplus financial state year on year. This year looks better than the last few years, but we cannot sit back and rest, despite this we continue to believe in the future and hope to move forward, maybe with new sustainable ideas, but still continuing to meet the needs of the community.

We would like to commend this report to you for your adoption.

Chairman

HYTHE AND DIBDEN COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION

Income and expenditure account for the year ended 31 December 2024

Income Expenditure Wages, salaries and other staff costs Travelling expenses Rent, rates, power and insurance costs Maintenance and renewals of property and equipment Telephone, stationery and other office costs Bank,credit card and other finance charges Accountancy, legal and other professional fees Depreciation and loss/(profit) on asset disposal Other expenses Expenditure excess	2024 2023 £ £ 39659 35537 26750 25310 0 0 12967 11689 2630 4103 2823 2470 144 142 643 29 0 0 0 45985 43714 -6326 -8177

HYTHE AND DIBDEN COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION

Balance Sheet at 31st December 2024

Notes 2024 £ Fixed assets Buildings and equipment 1 15,415 Current assets Debtors 543 Bank balance - HSBC 12,033 Till Floats 100 Petty Cash 99 12,774 Current liabilities Creditors 785 Net current assets 11,990 Net assets 27,405 General Fund Balance at start of period 33,730 Excess of Expenditure over Income/(Income over Expenditure) -6,326 27,404 Diff 1	2023 £	2023 £
	15,356 3,599 15365 100 82 19,147
	772
		18,374
		33,730
		41,907 -8,177
		33,730

The accounts were approved by the Trustees of the Hythe and Dibden Community Association on:

Date: 7th May 2025

Chairman C White

HYTHE AND DIBDEN COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2024

1 Income and Expenditure Account Income Rents receivable Membership Books Donation Fundraising Sundries Kitchen: Less: Expenditure Expenditure Wages,salaries and other staff costs Wages Office manager Cleaners Wardens fees Travel and Subsistence Travel and subsistence Rent, water, power and insurance costs Ground rents Water and sewerage Electricity Gas Insurance TV Licence Maintenance and renewals of property and equipment Building maintenance & safety Less: charges for PAT testing Refund 2022 Kitchen equipment Cleaning materials Less; charges to Little Stars Garden maintenance Telephone, stationery and other office costs Telephone: Less: income Internet Less charge to W/side Heritage Office consumables Copier costs Less: income

2024 2023 £ £ 36910 33361 870 626 119 135 14 351 52 37965 34474 1960 1227 -266 -164 1695 1063 39659 35537 10332 9389 16387 15896 30 24 26750 25310 0 0 2220 2220 520 442 4541 3346 1163 1433 4364 4090 159 159 12967 11689 2302 3878 -9 -1 2293 -17 3860 0 0 372 270 -36 -26 337 243 0 0 2630 4103 2085 1735 0 2085 1735 403 43 202 202 62 72 660 684 -185 -65 475 619 2823 2470

Advertising Advertising Bank, credit card and other finance charges Accountancy, legal and other professional fees Accountants fees Planning fees Depreciation and loss/(profit) on asset disposals Depreciation Other expenses Social and Christmas decorations Sundry expenses	0 144 350 293 643 29 29 0	0
		142 0
		0
		0
		0

HYTHE AND DIBDEN COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION

Notes to the Accounts

for the year ended 31 December 2024

1 Buildings and office equipment

Cost At 1 January 2024 Additions At 31 December 2024 Depreciation At 1 January 2024 Charge for Year On disposals At 31 December 2024 Net book value At 31 December 2024 At 31 December 2023	New building £ 533279 533279 - - - - 15356 15356	Building & office equipment £ 33440 88 33528 33440 29 - 33469 59 0	Total £ 566,719 88
			566807
			33,440 29 -
			33469
			15415
			15356

HYTHE AND DIBDEN COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION I report to the trustees on my examination of the unaudited accounts of Hythe and Dibden Community Association for the year ended 31 December 2024. .RESPECTIVE RESPONSIBILITIES OF TRUSTEES AND EXAMINER As the charity trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requiremenls of the Charities Act 2011 ("the Act") It is my responsibility to examine the accounls under section 145 of the Charities Act, the charity commission (under section l45(5)(B)) of the Charities Act, and to state whether partÈcular matters have come to my attention. BASIS OF INDEPENDENT EXAMINERS STATEMENT 'My examination was conducted in accordance with general diTections given by the Charity Cotnmission. An examination includes a Teview of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of th¢ accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or discloses in the accounts and seeking explanation5 from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not pix)vide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinlon is giv¢n as whether the accounts present a true and fair view, and the report. INDEPEIYDENT EXAMINERS STATEMENT I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me Cause to believe that in any in any materials respect: a) Accounting records were not kept in aecordance with section 130 of the Act or b) The accounts do not accord with the accounting records. I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examinalion to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. at¢s èhartered Accountants 27 Rosewood Gardens Marchwood Southampton Hampshire S040 4YX Dated: 13 May 2025.