2024-03-31-accounts

North Mymms Youth and Community Centre

Annual report 2023-2024

North Mymms Youth and Community Centre Station Road, Welham Green, AL9 7PF Registered Charity 275285 Trustees: James Bentall, Hilary Carlen, Samantha Bailie

Structure and Management

The Community Centre is governed by a Constitution. As required in its constitution, the charity is run by a management committee elected at its AGM. Trustees are appointed by the Management Committee.

Activities and objectives

Our charitable objectives, as set out in our constitution, require us to provide a resource for educational and leisure activities for the whole local community, especially youth.

This has been an unusual year for the Community Centre. Our 20 year lease from Welwyn Hatfield Council expired in September 2023 but it has taken the council a year, until a few weeks ago, to finalise the renewal. As a result the Centre has had to limp along for a year with a series of short term extensions and no certainty about the future. During this period we have not been able to advertise, to secure long term hires, to issue licenses or apply for grants. In February, we also said goodbye to Willowbrook Nursery which has moved to new premises. Activity in the centre has therefore been running at a low level over many months. We were finally granted a new 20 year lease three weeks ago.

Although this period of limbo has been difficult the Trustees and Committee have used the year constructively, to take stock, think strategically about the future direction of the centre, and set in motion the plans which are currently coming to fruition.

The new lease raises our rent from the peppercorn that has been in place for the past 20 years to a more commercial £14,400 per annum, phased in over two years. This will represent a significant challenge in future years, but one which we believe we can meet through more robust management and active recruitment of hirers, which will, at the same time as raising our income, allow us to meet our charitable objectives more fully.

Over this next year and coming years, we will be working to promote these objectives and make them into an increasingly vibrant reality. In March we granted a temporary license to the Hertfordshire Boxing Laboratory which provides personal fitness training during the day and runs a youth boxing club in the evenings as a Community Interest Company; since securing the lease we have now issued a longer term license. We are in active negotiation with a second potential licensee who is interested in using the bar, main hall and grounds. Once we have two main licensees in place, we hope to fill the remaining days with regular and occasional bookings. We are pleased that the Centre is continuing its long standing relationships with the local Youth Project, a local Ju-Jitsu group and the Horticultural Society, and we have this year welcomed a thriving dog training group which meets weekly. We are hoping to add to this by attracting a range of other local groups wanting a regular meeting venue. In addition, we have this year hosted a number of once off events and now that we are free to advertise our availability we hope to keep the centre and its garden busy with parties of all kinds.

To this end we have been making changes that will allow the Centre to be used more flexibly and provide more attractive modern facilities.

• We have converted one of our rooms into boxing gym, and another into an exercise studio, which is available for hire for health and fitness activities.

• We have repainted the whole building, and over the next couple of months we will be replacing flooring and curtains in the hall and refurbishing the office.

• We have agreed plans to alter the layout of the foyer, bar area and office. These will allow the building to be split into two units – the gym and studio as one unit, and the bar, main hall and kitchen as the other - each area having a separate entrance and toilet facilities. It will also allow office to be separately hired for small meetings, counselling sessions, or office work.

• We are continuing to develop the grounds and have plans to improve the football pitch, which has been well-used for much of this year.

Public Benefit

Although the absence of a lease made it difficult to fulfil our charitable purposes to the full, for the majority of this financial year we hosted Willowbrook nursery, and throughout it we provided a service to the community as a venue for occasional parties, and for regular hirers, who

included 2 martial arts groups, 2 dog training groups, a youth club and a horticultural society.

Financial review

As shown in the accounts, we have made a loss of £8.491 this year. This reflects our inability to advertise, recruit licensees or seek grants, because of the council’s long delay in issuing our new lease. It also reflects the major costs that we have incurred in legal fees, and in refurbishment and reconfiguration of the centre.

Fundraising

We have raised funds through two jumble sales and from generous donations from individuals. In line with our charitable objectives we have also raised income through hirings and licenses.

Reserves Policy

The Charity aims to hold sufficient funds at all times to pay the rent on the centre and routine outgoings for six months in the event of an unforeseen drop in income. Such a drop of income would normally reflect the loss of hirers, and the six month period for which reserves are available would allow time to recruit new hirers.

The reserve also needs to cover both anticipated and unexpected expenditures. Ancicipated expenditures include the requirement to redecorate the centre every five years, for which funds must be put aside. Unexpected expenditures could be of many kinds, but as far as possible the risks of unexpected costs are covered by insurance. Over recent years the reserve has built up and been invested in an interest bearing Deposit Account. Part of these reserves have been used during the current year as outlined above. None the less, the remaining reserve is sufficient for compliance with our policy aim.

50 years of North Mymms Youth and Community Centre

This year will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Centre. The centre was initially built by public subscription and we are very conscious that in taking the Centre forward we are carrying on an amazing legacy from local people of real vision, many of whom remained involved in the Centre for decades and a few of whom are still involved. This year our longstanding committee member and Chair, Jackie Fitt, resigned after being involved for most of the Centre’s history, and as of today we still have one committee member who can boast more than forty years’ service to the centre. Carrying on this legacy for the next half century will be a great challenge for the local community, but in the mean time the

half century drawing to a close provides an opportunity for a happy celebration which we plan to hold in the summer. So watch this space!

North Mymms Youth and Community Centre Management Committee September 2024

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Income and Expenditure Accounts

Breakdown of Repairs

The high expenditure on repairs this year includes the redecoration of the entire interior of the building, as required five yearly by the Centre’s Lease, and a number of refurbishments described in the Report.