– Abbey Wood Community Group Chair’s Report 2025 1 **Abbey Wood Abbey Wood Community Centre, C 4, Knee Hill,i G Abbey Wood, London SE2 0YS.**  **020 8311 7005 email:** awcgoffice@gmail.com **Registered Charity No: 289843** **Chair’s Report 2025** Welcome, everyone, to our Annual General Meeting 2025. It has been a busy year as per usual. Our private hiring of the centre during 2025 went well, with only a few cancellations and gaps, we hired out on Saturdays 41 Times this year We have now started to receive many more bookings for 2026. We have lost a couple of regular groups in 2025; Bingo has dropped to only one day a week and U3A has stopped their poetry group. However, we have gained five new regular weekly groups, Enable (a SEN nutrition and fitness group for young adults), Company of Christ (a bible study group), A sewing group, Yoga class and a local weekly craft group. DDM, Guy’s and St Thomas’s, Enable, and GCDA have all booked additional sessions well into next year 2026. The ongoing GCDA classes provide free five-week Cookery courses for Greenwich residents. They have consistently renewed their bookings with us and have sessions booked through Spring 2026. The classes which prove very popular, help residents to make economical meals in the current economic circumstances. We have started to host the regular local Police panel. These meetings provide a space for residents to express their concerns and hear about Police initiatives and plans for the area. We have had quite a bit of interaction with the local Police the past year, with these meetings and their use of our external CCTV camera footage. **www.abbeywoodcommunitygroup.org** @awcgthefirst – Abbey Wood Community Group Chair’s Report 2025 2 We are still offering the centre as a warm space offering tea, coffee, toasties, and warmth during the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. Our Tuesday morning ‘Lunch Club’ still proves to be popular, and although the ‘Pop in’ on a Thursday morning has formally stopped, we have emphasised that we find a warm space and a cup of tea for all those who which to attend on an ad hoc basis. In January we held our annual panto for the youngsters. It was Little Red Riding Hood. Everyone had good time, and we gave everyone who attended some chocolate. In August 2025, we arranged a Coach Trip to Ramsgate which we subsidised, only asking for £16 a ticket, £15 (plus a £1.00 to pay for the Driver’s tip); a coachload of 34 arrived in Ramsgate the weather was warm and sunny, and everyone seemed to have a great time. Ramsgate has a fantastic mix of things to do and proved a popular choice. This May we held a party in celebration of the 80[th] anniversary of VE Day. Entertainment was provided by way of a local singer who sang a selection of popular songs, we had finger food, and drinks, and a display of wartime stories, documents and pictures was on show. Many thanks to Asda who supplied some of the items needed. Since the summer we have been working our way around the centre giving areas a new lick of paint, concentrating on areas that are prone to chips and scratches. This work is ongoing but is giving the centre a bit of a facelift. We have also had new taps installed, updating some of them to the push button temporary type. We have recently installed some party lights in the main hall, offering groups and Saturday hirers an easy way to decorate and create atmosphere during their events. We were kindly donated a floor cleaner by Alexander McLeod Primary School which has made the task of cleaning the Large Hall floor area a bit easier. The update on the old post office building is that the initial main structural construction was completed earlier in the year and then it went quiet. We are of the understanding that the developers have bought the toilet block and as such have changed their plans. This means they have applied for new planning permission. This delay is somewhat frustrating as the construction has not left our external space in the best of conditions. We have managed after some effort to contact the owner directly who has promised to address our concerns. Yet though this hasn’t happened. **www.abbeywoodcommunitygroup.org** @awcgthefirst – Abbey Wood Community Group Chair’s Report 2025 3 In very sad news we have lost one of our friends and much valued past member of staff this year. Grace Appiah passed away in September, she had worked here for 7 years. She will be sadly missed. Thank you all for attending, I hope that 2026 will prove to be a great year from the community centre. Please stay and enjoy a drink and nibbles after we complete the election Officers and Committee Members and finish the meeting. Jane Hall - AWCG Chair – 25[th] November 2025 **www.abbeywoodcommunitygroup.org** @awcgthefirst Abbey Wood Community Group Statement of Account for the 202412025 Financial Year £s Income Balance of AC￿nt at 31103r2024 77,074.35 Wages (incl. PAYE, N.1. & Pens*xs) Gas induding SeNicinglRepair 58.658.15 2,234.37 4,411.45 1,223,41 1,255.41 1.162.84 499.07 551.99 1,090.08 311.90 141.00 300.00 408.40 469.00 159.99 120.97 60,60 55,18 1,800.CX) 250.00 343.47 29.98 137.39 200.00 Weekly and Monthty Hire Weekend Hire PhotcKopies, Prinb"ng and Laminations Royal Borwgh of Greenwich F￿￿n9 27,266.95 29,680.00 Water 140.00 Telephone. Broadband, Websrtes & Office 365 30.000.￿ Insuran Stationery 456.2L Cleaning and materials Veolia Rubbish Collection Cathedral Hygiene Sanibins Annual FI￿ Exb'nguishers servicing & replacement Michael Adamson Accountants 2022r2023 146.2&' PPUPRS Annual Fee Electric Cooker for Small Hall 2x Hand Dryefs for Toilets 1.515.00 I ' 3x Floor Mats 1.Cth.CK) - . Building s￿ns 5.Q)O.QK). C02 Alarms x 6 500.LKI . Two Coach Hires 30.CK>- Rah Rah Pantomime 50.ryj Sundries for Entertainments & AGM 34.69 Handhekl Office Hoover off￿ Printer Replxement Cleaner Printer Service 8