2025-12-31-accounts - Charity Of John Attwood

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WRITTLE VILLAGE HALL (CHARITY OF JOHN ATTWOOD)

TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2025

CHARITY NAME

The John Attwood Charitable Trust

OTHER NAME CHARITY IS KNOWN BY

Writtle Village Hall

REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER

276581

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Established as a Charity under a Scheme dated 26 April 1979

The Parish Council of Writtle shall be the Custodian Trustee of the Charity.

OBJECTS

(1) The object of the Charity shall be the provision and maintenance of a village hall for the use of the inhabitants of the area of the Ancient Parish of Writtle (hereinafter called "the area of benefit") without distinction of political, religious or other opinions, including use for meetings, lectures and classes, and for other forms of recreation and leisure time occupation, with the object of improving the conditions of life for the said inhabitants.

(2) Except as hereinbefore provided the said land with the building thereon shall be held upon trust for the purposes of a village hall as aforesaid

COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT

Constitution: - The Committee of Management shall consist when complete of nine persons (hereinafter referred to as Members) being Three Elected Members and Six Representative Members. The Elected Members shall be appointed at the annual general meeting to be held as hereinafter provided and shall hold office from the end of the annual general meeting at which they are appointed.

Representative Members: - (1) One Representative Member shall be appointed by each of the following organisations:

The Parish Council of Writtle, The Writtle Community Association, The Writtle Playgroup, The Writtle Whist and Social Club, The Writtle (Afternoon) Women's Institute and The Writtle (Evening) Women's Institute.

(2) Each organisation shall notify the name of each person appointed by it to the secretary of the Committee.

At a meeting held on 28 October 2019, a resolution was passed unanimously by all Members present to allow the appointment of additional Representative Members by any organisation in the area of benefit not already named in this Scheme i.e. Carpet Bowls, Workers' Educational Association, Home Fayre, Essex Warriors, Writtle CARDS and Writtle Art Group.

WRITTLE VILLAGE HALL (CHARITY OF JOHN ATTWOOD) CHARITY NUMBER 276581 - TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2025

At a meeting held on 1 September 2021, a resolution was passed unanimously by all Members present to allow the appointment of an additional Representative Member not already named in this Scheme from Writtle Independent Gamers.

NAMES OF THE CHARITY TRUSTEES WHO MANAGE THE CHARITY

Trustee name	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for wholeyear	Name of body entitled to appoint Trustee
Mavis Awcock			Writtle WI
Norman Awcock			WEA and Carpet Bowls
Roger Bailey	Chair		Home Fayre
Peter Hockaday			Essex Warriors
Jan Irving			Writtle Cards
Ian Nicholls			Writtle Parish Council
Peter Pegg			Writtle Art Group
Ian Roberts			Writtle Independent Gamers
Nora Smith	Vice Chair	Died 7 February2026	Elected Village Representative
Sheila Deal		From 10 March 2026	Elected Village Representative

OFFICERS (Employees)

Andrew Brewster	Treasurer
Kirsti Feaviour	Secretary

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER

The Trustees reappointed the Rural Community Council of Essex to conduct the independent examination of the Charity’s accounts at a cost of £120.

SOURCES OF ADVICE AND SUPPORT

Barclays Bank plc, 40-41 High Street, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 1BE

Rural Community Council of Essex, Threshelfords Business Park, Inworth Road, Feering, Essex C05 9SE

The Charity Commission

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

To guide the Management Committee in exercising its duty of care to members, employees and users of the hall, the following policy statements have been adopted:

Reserves Policy
Equality Policy

The policies have continued to be implemented to ensure that the running of the Hall remains friendly and flexible and that the Hall is not overburdened and over governed by unnecessary bureaucracy. The policies are there for the guidance of users as well as for the Trustees. These are periodically reviewed.

HIRE AGREEMENT

Use of the Hall is subject to a Hiring Agreement which must be signed by the hirer when booking. The hiring agreement sets out the conditions of hire and identifies the respective responsibilities of each party to the agreement.

WRITTLE VILLAGE HALL (CHARITY OF JOHN ATTWOOD) CHARITY NUMBER 276581 - TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2025

MEETINGS

The Village Hall continues to operate efficiently and to a high standard under the control of the Committee of Trustees, the Booking Secretary and the Treasurer.

The Trustees met on three occasions during the year to oversee the operation and activities of the Hall, establish resource budgets, exercise financial control and plan for its future development. During the year, the Chair, Secretary and Treasurer also met on several occasions.

The AGM was held on 6 May

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

Principal Activities in pursuit of Objectives

The Hall has operated without interruption, during the reporting period and has been busy with both regular classes and public and private events.
The hall is used every weekday with activities ranging from art and craft groups, wargame clubs (Essex Warriors and Writtle Independent Gamers), baby and toddler groups (Doodles of Fun, Hartbeeps and Jo Jingles) as well as Canine Society, Carpet Bowls, Guide Dogs, Home Fayre, Puppy training, Jazz Band practice, the Women’s Institute, Workers Educational Association (WEA), Writtle Handbell Ringers, yoga classes and Writtle CARDS. This year we have also welcomed a Karate club, Spiritual Circle and a branch of the London Asbestos Support Awareness Group.
Private functions including birthday parties, workshops and commercial events and use as a Polling Station in the May elections.
The hall is available for hire for private functions including children’s parties, wedding receptions, funerals, exhibitions, amateur dramatics, village social functions and occasional fund-raising events as well as formal meetings of local organisations. There are some 23 organisations using the Hall on a regular basis. It is also normally used for exhibitions, amateur dramatics, private functions, birthday parties and for occasional meetings by a wide range of clubs, societies and organisations. Some 80 organisations and individuals hired the hall for one-off events

The Hall’s use has continued to be significant and we are grateful for all those who have supported the Hall, booked private functions and attended either regular classes or events.

FUNDING STRATEGY

It is the strategy of the Trustees to manage the revenue budget on a self-financing basis together with regular fundraising events as necessary and the application for grants when available.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Total funds at the year-end stand at £60,964 an increase of £34 on the previous year.

Day to day funds are held in a Barclays Community Account with our reserves held in a Barclays Business Premium Account earning 1.10%. 328.45 Income Shares are held in the Charities Official Investment Fund.

Income from hires increased in 2025 by 5% (£1,955) and overall income was up by 5% (£1.964).

Day to day expenditure increased by 25% (£8,472).

Staff costs went up by 15% and utilities went down by 20%. The Trustees agreed to raise the pay rate by the National Living Wage, current at the time, plus 10%, annually from 1 April. Cleaning costs

WRITTLE VILLAGE HALL (CHARITY OF JOHN ATTWOOD) CHARITY NUMBER 276581 - TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2025

and repairs and maintenance went up due to cost of living rises and the need to maintain a building approaching 120 years old in a suitable condition to hire, befitting a venue to hire for all occasions in the 21[st] century.

Hire fees were last increased in April 2023. Our 36-month gas and electricity contract began on 1 February 2024 and runs until 2027. The Trustees are keen to keep hire fees as low as possible, in order to maximise access and availability, but ever-increasing costs make this a challenge. Consequently, we will need to review fees on an annual basis to ensure our income keeps pace with costs, thereby ensuring the Village Hall remains viable for everyone.

Working with the Village Hall Committee, we arranged for ultrafast 900Mbps full-fibre broadband from Gigaclear to be installed for the benefit of the community and users of the Village Hall. This service is provided free of charge by Gigaclear as part of a programme to support over 200 community connections across their network.

INSURANCE

The Management Committee recognises that it is under a legal obligation to protect the building, its users and employees through adequate and appropriate insurance. The Hall had insurance with Hiscox, using Business Services at CAS Ltd to 12[th] May 2026 with a premium is £1,744.41. The Hall is insured with respect to property damage (buildings insurance), contents, public and products liability, financial and administration liability, trustees and individual liability, employers’ liability, personal accident and legal protection. Ansvar has insured the building at £1,317,552.

BUILDING ISSUES

The Village Hall is an old building, which is well maintained through the Buildings Maintenance Manager, Mr Roger Bailey, with the support of our handyman, Andy Hems and garden maintenance by Al Smith. The Trustees are aware of the need for ongoing maintenance and repair/ replacement to maintain modern facilities which are both in good working order and have consideration for the environment.

Within the financial year, the following has been completed

New front entrance
Purchase of 35 new chairs
A number of chairs were cleaned
Various minor maintenance issues were resolved.
Broadband installed

The planned further refurbishment includes:

External redecoration

To ensure the safety of users the following has been undertaken:

Gas appliances and portable electrical appliances are tested by qualified personnel as required.
The mains electrical installation is checked by a qualified engineer every 5 years.
Firefighting appliances are inspected annually under contract with the supplier.
Volunteers from the Committee carry out other regular maintenance checks.
Defibrillator situated on external wall
General maintenance is ongoing to electrical and heating systems

WRITTLE VILLAGE HALL (CHARITY OF JOHN ATTWOOD) CHARITY NUMBER 276581 - TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2025

The Trustees would like to thank all those responsible for their considerable work and effort in keeping the Hall in such good and attractive condition.

STATEMENT OF THE CHARITY’S POLICY ON RESERVES

The Management Committee has established an agreed level of reserves that we wish to maintain. This is based on an assessment of:

The risk of incurring significant unforeseen expenditure that cannot be delayed, and the likely magnitude of such expenditure, and
The risk of suffering significant unforeseen loss of income which cannot be replaced in the short term, and the likely magnitude of such a loss.

The commitment is therefore both continued long-term (building maintenance and refurbishment) and short-term (e.g. electricity and water, insurance and cleaning), whilst income is almost exclusively short-term and potentially volatile.

The agreed level of reserves is designed to ensure that enough short-term funds would be available in the event of one or more of these events, such that the ongoing operations of the Hall and designated project expenditure would not be affected in all but the most extreme circumstances. The risk and magnitude of unforeseen expenditure is affected by our knowledge of the state of the building, there are significant areas that could potentially require unexpected repair.

With several regular user groups and our potential fundraising activities our income is quite healthy and predictable. However, the unexpected loss of a few users would result in a loss of income that could be difficult to replace in the short-term. Taking these factors into account, the current minimum level of reserves that we wish to maintain is £20,000 comprising:

Unforeseen major repairs £15,000 Loss of income from user groups £5,000

PUBLIC BENEFIT

The Trustees have complied with their legal duty to have due regard to the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit when exercising their duties in managing the Charity, as this Annual Report demonstrates. During the year WVHMC continued to achieve its aim of providing our community with a facility that meets a range of needs. The Village Hall is used for the purpose of physical exercise, recreation, and social and educational activities for a diverse range of the community.

The Trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charity's ability to continue as a going concern.

DECLARATION

The Trustees declare that they have approved the Trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s Trustees:

Signature(s) Full name(s) Roger Bailey

WRITTLE VILLAGE HALL (CHARITY OF JOHN ATTWOOD) CHARITY NUMBER 276581 - TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2025

Position (e.g. Chair Secretary, Chair, etc)

Date 12 May 2026

WRITTLE VILLAGE HALL (CHARITY OF JOHN ATTWOOD) CHARITY NUMBER 276581 - TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2025

WRITTLE VILLAGE HALL

Registered Charity No 276581

RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025

Receipts From Trading Activities Room hire fees Other Assets Investment income Interest on Business Premium Account Total receipts Payments Staff costs Utilities Electricity Gas Water Cleaning (inc consumables) Administration Licences (inc compliance) Business rates Insurance Repairs and maintenance General maintenance Refuse collection On Assets Purchase of stacking chairs Total payments Surplus for the year Balance as at 31 December 2024 Balance as at 31 December 2025	Unrestricted Restricted Total £ £ £ 41,729.00 - 41,729.00 - - - 186.33 - 186.33 748.72 - 748.72 42,664.05 - 42,664.05 13,776.05 - 13,776.05 1,727.95 - 1,727.95 1,628.89 - 1,628.89 205.22 - 205.22 3,562.06 - 3,562.06 11,104.05 - 11,104.05 729.32 - 729.32 84.60 - 84.60 538.92 - 538.92 1,744.41 - 1,744.41 6,947.96 - 6,947.96 585.62 - 585.62 7,533.58 - 7,533.58 3557.70 - 3557.70 42,630.69 - 42,630.69 33.36 - 33.36 60,930.22 15.00 60,945.22 60,963.58 15.00 60,978.58 2025	Unrestricted Restricted Total £ £ £ 39,773.75 - 39,773.75 38.00 - 38.00 181.45 - 181.45 707.00 - 707.00 2024
		40,700.20 - 40,700.20
		11,958.10 - 11,958.10 948.88 - 948.88 3,533.41 - 3,533.41 - - -
		4,482.29 - 4,482.29
		10,435.11 - 10,435.11 679.34 - 679.34 80.40 - 80.40 438.02 - 438.02 1,425.53 - 1,425.53 3,745.71 - 3,745.71 571.57 - 571.57
		4,317.28 - 4,317.28
		342.13 - 342.13
		34,158.20 - 34,158.20
		6,542.00 - 6,542.00 54,388.22 15.00 54,403.22
		60,930.22 15.00 60,945.22

Independent Examiner's Report to the trustees of Chairty of John Attwood (Writtle Village Hall) (Registered Charity Number 276581)

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Charity of John Attwood (Writtle Village Hall) for the year ended 31[st] December 2025

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation 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 all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent examiner’s statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act; or
the accounts do not accord with those records.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Gemma Humphries Rural Community Council of Essex

RCCE House, Threshelfords Business Park, Inworth Road, Feering CO5 9SE 7[th] May 2026