Hundon Village Hall – AGM Aug 11 2025
Chairs Report:
Vote of thanks to current Trustees and HVH volunteers for 2024/5. All will be standing down at this AGM and we will ask for expressions of interest to become Trustees and/or join a new Committee shortly.
| Trustees: Chris Callow (Chair) Kevin Snow (Treasurer & ‘Secretary’ Role) David Russo (Events & Projects) Sharon Mott (Events & Projects) Vacancy |
Officials/Staff: David Scott (Caretaker/ Maintenance) Noelle (Cleaner) Sandra & Lyn (Bars) |
Management Team Members: Fiona Gould (Strategy/funding/grants) Jan Chambers (Records & research) Simon Clements (Booking Manager) |
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Formal vote of thanks:
The Committee would like to recognise and formally thank Simon Clements who has stepped down from the role of Booking Manager in 2025.
Particular thanks go to Kevin who retired from his full-time employment last year - and now covers a number of HVH roles which add up to 1.5 full time jobs – not sure if that was Kevins plan for retirement!
As treasurer - thanks for all the many hours spent managing the financial arrangements which cover the Hall, the Social Club, both the bars, managing the utilities for the whole site (Hall, shop, Hedgehogs, astro etc). Also for the invoicing and chasing for hire fees, purchasing items, and payment of invoices.
As Secretary – thanks for managing the formal side of insurances, assisting with applications for funding and dealing with various official queries.
As ‘Publican’ – thanks for managing the bars, staffing arrangements, ordering/collecting beers/ wines, maintaining the cellar/cleaning the pipes etc.
Round of applause please.
Regular HVH activity:
The regular local community group users have all re-established their activities and appear to be strengthening their numbers slowly. It will be useful to have a brief update from group leaders present about their past year and plans for the future if comfortable to share those shortly?
There are still gaps in our Hall Calendar available for regular users to expand or for new organisations/groups/events from Hundon or wider afield.
Events, activities and improvements achieved in 2024/25:
We have held a number of social community evening events, both in the hall and in the social club, and hires for private parties of various types appear to be increasing. We have ourselves organised a number of extra social events (Quiz nights, music events, Childrens Panto, 40s night by Richard/Jaf). (The dog show on Saturday raised approx £350 profit through café and bar sales alone so many thanks to the volunteers in the café, Kevin and Lyn in the bar.)
Many thanks to the team and Sharon/Fiona/Jan for helping organise and promote all the events. (Lots of work and time commitment to make those happen). All of these have been critical in fund raising to support the hall.
The Village Hall has also supported the Football Club and Parish Council to ensure completion of the Community Changing Rooms. These will be a great additional asset for the village for the next 50 years to the benefit of all - apart from Football/Sports changing it has already been used by a HVH hirer as changing rooms for dancers and is being used for the Social Club BBQ later in the month.
The Village Hall and Social Club also obtained partial funding towards the Patio and picnic/seating area alongside the new community changing rooms and these are nearing completion. These will be extra facilities for use by the social club, football club, village hall users, community groups, residents or others. Particular thanks to David Russo/Richard Thake for project managing and several days of heavy lifting to create the patio and also some backup labouring by others on the committee and some other volunteer residents.
Financial position
All the facilities at the hall charity site (Hall, Shop, Post Office, Hedgehogs Pre School, Astro, Social Club, football pitches) are all interdependent - but also independent charities or community groups in their own right. The footfall across all these facilities is approximately 70,000 people per year – providing a major contribution and service to many other less fortunate local communities as well as to our own residents.
The Treasurers report will demonstrate that the hall and all these other facilities do not exist through luck and none of us have a magic money tree unfortunately! We used to have some years of relatively comfortable levels of activity, income and operating expenses but the past ten years have seen changes in patterns of use and the current economic situation has impacted on us as well as local residents, communities and businesses. I’m sure the financial challenges have also applied to the shop, post office, hedgehogs, astro, social club and football club and without those wider community interactions and usage our facilities would not be viable.
Although the hall, as a charity and community service, does not need to make vast profits our financial viability will require considerable effort to generate additional profitability to cover very large increases in energy, running and maintenance costs.
The regular village community hirer fees alone are not enough, as they stand, to maintain the hall and other facilities as we know them today – although we did apply small increases in fees in 2023 which were the first for many years. We may have to do that again in the future but increasing those again is not our preferred strategy as that may impact on membership/personal budgets and the viability for those regular users. So next years committee will need to focus on a number of other strategies and plans for the future to reduce expenses, improve income streams, and hopefully support/expand community services:
Potential future projects for the new committee:
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New Solar panels, battery storage – these will require significant expenditure and will be dependent on government grants - but will be critical to reduce energy costs for all site users potentially for next 25 years (Hall, Shop, Hedgehogs, astro etc). Our first Government Grant application last year was not successful - but was a useful exercise and will be repeated.
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Promote additional events and activities for all generations and interest groups.
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Improved Web marketing for wedding/commercial hirers – (Aaron Flack has expertise and offered to assist).
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Maintain/improve the appearance and attractiveness of the hall to potential hirers.
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Seek external grants/funding sources to contribute towards improvement and running costs.
Volunteers are very welcome to be involved in managing and delivering all the various activities either as Trustees, or full/part time members of the management team.
Happy to take any questions or thoughts from the floor?
Date: 11 August 2025
CP Callow
| 35,322.15 £ |
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| £ | |
Total Receipts = |
47,265.17 £ |
| £ Utilities: - Electricity 11,401.43 £ Gas 1,754.11 £ Water & Sewage 768.89 £ Broadband & Telephone 638.01 £ Maintenance: - Caretaker Services 4,063.60 £ Cleaning Services 2,421.20 £ Grass Cutting 1,080.00 £ Anglia Water - Compliance Modifications 225.00 £ Repairs: (Playground £677.61) (Various £188.74) 866.35 £ Renewals: (FC Patio £5,140.68) (3 Phase Kiosk & Base £2,040) 8,125.78 £ Sundries: - Toiletries / Cleaning Products 928.51 £ General Hall Insurance 1,806.51 £ Stationary 417.78 £ Licence Fees - TV = £169.50, MLPC = £154.64, Alcohol = £180 504.14 £ Professional Services: - Direct 365 - Washroom Services 730.26 £ WSC - General Waste Bin Collection 226.20 £ Anglia Car Charging - Operating Cost's 673.92 £ ISF - Fire Safety Equipment Service 570.00 £ Essex Pat Services - Pat Testing 65.00 £ Affordable Plumbing - Gas Boiler Service 80.00 £ Indigo Ross - Web Site Support 570.00 £ Go tankers - Waste Tank Emptying £160, Paint Disposal £40 200.00 £ Leonade - Pest Control Services 300.00 £ WSC - Solar Planning Advice / Application 317.00 £ HICH - Solar Roof Survey £525, KHA - Solar App Drawings £780 1,305.00 £ V/H Fund Raising Events (Quiz, Abba, Elvis & Panto) 3,216.34 £ Payments: - |
£ |
Total Payments = |
43,255.03 £ |
| £ Treasurers Bank Account(Includes the £1,000 from RT - Painting) 12,909.26 £ Ring Fenced Account - £ Petty Cash - £ 32 Day Savings Account 20,423.03 £ PC Short Term Loan 6,000.00 £ Total Funds = Trading Surplus/Deficit Closing Account Figures: - |
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| 4,010.14 £ |
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| £ | |
| 39,332.29 £ |
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| For charityCommission Kevin Snow - Treasurer - 30th June 2025 |
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND ANO WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trustees fH£ Yi4G AÉbb cHiTy On accounts for the year ended 31 lots Charity no {if any) 28SII0 Set out on pages I report to Ihe Irustees on my examination of the accounls of Ihe above charity {"the Trusf'} for the year ended 311031 Ila As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the pparation of the accounts in accordance with Ihe requirements of the Charities Act 2011 {'the Act'i. Responsibilities and basis of report 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}(bl of the Act. Independent examinerfs statement I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attenlion in connection with the examination {otl*F# di66b9> which gives me Cause to bèlieve that in, any material respect.. Ihe accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Aot., or the accounts did not accord with the accounting records., or the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities {Accounts and Reports} Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a Irue and fair, view wttich is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination lo which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. ' Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply. Slgned: Date: Narne: Crt£is Relevant professional qualificationls) or body Fclk IER Oct 2018