Messing Village Hall
Report of the Trustees
For the year ended 30th April 2025
Address (Chair):
9 Lodge Road Messing CO5 9TU
Website:
www.messingvillagehall.org.uk
Governing Document and Objectives
Messing Village Hall’s governing document is a Trust Deed contained within a Conveyance dated 27[th] June 1951. This Deed established the Village Hall as a charitable trust.
The objectives, as set out in the Trust Deed, are the provision of a village hall for the benefit of the inhabitants of the parish of Messing and its immediate vicinity without distinction of sex or political, religious or other opinions.
The Trustees consider that the main activities of Messing Village Hall are in accordance with the objectives and that they are of public benefit. The Trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charities Commission on public benefit.
Trustees
There are six Trustees on the Messing Village Hall Committee.
The roles carried out by the Committee members are, as follows:
| MaryMann | Chair |
|---|---|
| Justina Rhodes | Treasurer |
| Steve Smith | HiringManager |
| Andrew Lucas | Buildings Manager |
| Bob Suckling | Maintenance Manager and PC representative |
| Sarah Winstone | Secretary |
The Trust Deed sets out the manner of appointing the Trustees, who also constitute the Management Committee of the Village Hall. Trustees are elected each year at the Annual General Meeting. The Management Committee has the power to co-opt further Trustees.
Weekly or Fortnightly Bookings
| Monday | Life Drawing Club |
Art Club | Pilates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday | Yoga | Drama (private) | Dance |
| Wednesday | Pilates | ||
| Thursday | Kenyukai(private) | ||
| Friday | |||
| Saturday | |||
| Sunday | Viking & Saxon Reenactment (private) |
There are also many other hirers that book the main hall and the meeting room on a regular basis.
There are 4 textiles/quilting groups each month and the meeting room is hired on a regular basis for Harmony and a new hirer, PSS Care Group, as well as the Christian Motorcycle Association.
The Hall also attracts many occasional hirers, booking the Hall for children’s parties, family celebrations and charity coffee mornings and quizzes.
Coffee Mornings
The Friends of Messing Church hold coffee mornings in the meeting room every two weeks 10.15am - 12.00noon. It is a great opportunity for residents to enjoy cake, tea or coffee and a chat. All are welcome and entry is free of charge. Two other charity coffee mornings also took place which were well supported and raised significant funds for the charities. The events were organised by Messing residents.
As part of the ongoing initiative to promote and use the Village Hall for the benefit of the Villagers bi-annual Quiz Nights and monthly Film Nights are being held.
Quiz Evening
There have been two Quiz Evenings since the last report, both of which have been a great success. The average number of people coming to the evenings has been about 45. Entry to the quiz is free of charge but raffles are held, raising a total so far of over £500 for charity. The Committee plans to continue holding these evenings as they provide enjoyable, sociable events for the Village.
Film Nights
The Committee agreed to purchase a license to enable the showing of films in the Hall. This license is valid for 12 months and each month there has been a film night for Villagers to attend and enjoy. The film choices have been wide and varied and provide an evening out for Villagers to meet up and spend time together. Entry to the film night is free of charge but attendees may donate to a designated charity. So far, the 6 nights have raised £245.
MIAG
The Village Hall has been used to facilitate meetings, often open to residents, to address community concerns over plans relating to the widening of the A12 that may adversely impact life in Messing.
Community First Aid
Following requests from several villagers the Committee arranged for Mr Paul Knight, a qualified First Responder, to return to the Hall to deliver a talk on the use of the village defibrillator and other life saving techniques. It was followed by an interesting and informative discussion. The previous presentation had been cut short as a member of the audience felt unwell.
Village Hall Cloud Storage
It was decided by the committee that it would be a good idea to keep a record of important files that would be easily accessible for future generations of the committee. Geoff Jackson had previously set up a Messing Community Gmail account which was being used for the Hall calendar and emails. This account also came with 15 GB of free cloud storage. Steve Smith managed to access most of the old Committee meeting agendas and minutes dating back to 2012 and has uploaded these files to the cloud as portable document files (pdfs). There are also some old Excel accounts files from the time he was treasurer. The Committee have all been given access to the Messing Community Google drive where these files are stored. It is hoped that other items can be added in the future so that a permanent record of information relating to the Hall can be maintained.
Buildings and maintenance
Repairs and repointing have been carried out to the front elevation. The brickwork had sustained significant frost and water damage over the last few years due to flooding in The Street. A grant was obtained from Enovert Community Trust for £17,000 which covered the cost of the works. Despite delays caused by Essex Highways requiring traffic lights in The Street the work was completed in November. Over 200 damaged bricks were replaced and the whole façade repointed.
The lights in the toilets and corridor have now been replaced with LED fittings, completing the upgrade of all internal lighting. General maintenance is ongoing to electrical and heating systems.
Landscaping to the area to the rear of the Village Hall was carried out last summer, giving a large patio area which can be used by hirers. Further soft landscaping works are to be carried out in the coming year.
Finance
The Trustees continue to set a reserves policy which requires funds to be maintained at a level which ensures that the Hall’s activities could continue during a period of unforeseen difficulty and cover unforeseen expenditure on building maintenance or urgent equipment replacement. The calculation of the required reserves is an integral part of the Committee’s planning, budget and forecast cycle and is supported by the Financial, Reserves and Expenses Policies.
This year, the Trustees agreed to fund two key improvements as described earlier. The much-needed brick repair work was covered by a grant from Enovert for £16,800 and available funds were used to pay for the new patio areas at the rear of the hall.
In support of the village community, a donation of £125 was given to Friends of Meeting Church for their Tree Festival at Christmas time and the Trustees agreed to fund an annual film licence of £399.85 to support film nights. The Village Hall has also benefited from fund raising from Quiz nights and company volunteering contributions for two Trustees.
The electricity generation has remained in line with prior years however the fixed price tariff for electricity finished as noted last year and the new payment schedule is more costly due to general market tariffs. The impact of the raised prices can be absorbed by the current Hall income.
The Charity had £57,241 in the bank as unrestricted reserves at the end of this financial year just slightly higher than the end of last year. There are no restricted funds in hand.
The Village Hall made a gain of £208 of expenditure over receipts as of 30th April 2025. This compares with loss of £76.21 in the prior year. All transactions are recorded in SAGE accounts system and where possible, receipts and payments are made through BACS to improve real-time processing.
The Trustees reviewed the amount of interest being raised on the Bank Reserves Account which is 1.26% per annum. After reviewing options, the Trustees decided to open a new savings account with Charities Aid Foundation Bank which is the financial services arm of Chairty Aid Foundation who partner with corporate and individual donors to enable them to give more effectively and impactfully. Annually, CAF distributes over £1 billion to non-profits around the globe. The bank account selected is the CAF 60-day notice account providing interest at 3.30% per annum. The account will be opened in the next financial year.
Future Plans
An upgrade to the solar panels on the roof of the extension, at the back of the building, are soon to be upgraded. The number of panels will be doubled and linked to a storage battery to reduce the overall electricity bill. This upgrade will not affect the Hall’s existing Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) which continues to offset a large part of its current bills. A grant has been applied for from Enovert Community Trust for the full cost of this upgrade to a value of £10,000 and it is hoped that the work will go ahead in June this year.
Redecoration and installation of shelving and storage units in the caretaker’s cupboard remains on the proposed list of works but is on hold due to the proposed electrical upgrade as some of the equipment will be housed in the cupboard where the electricity main intake is located.
The Hall is receiving an increasing number of bookings from organisations for training days and meetings. So, an upgrade to the audio-visual equipment in the meeting room is being investigated, to incorporate a larger screen with better capability for connections and use for presentations.
New planting in the terrace area at the rear of the Village Hall is to be planned and carried out. The Committee hope to attract community support in this activity.
Signed on behalf of the Trustees by:
Mary Mann (Chair) Date: 05/06/2025
Receipts and payments account
(Unrestricted funds) For the year ended 30 April 2025
| 30-Apr | 30-Apr | 30-Apr | 30-Apr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | |||
| £ | £ | |||
| Year Ending | 30-Apr-25 | 30-Apr-24 | ||
| Hall hire | 12,947 | 12,253 | ||
| Electricity generation | 2,317 | 2,427 | ||
| Bank interest | 304 | 244 | ||
| Grants8 | 16,800 | 0 | ||
| Other receipts | 1,930 | 635 | ||
| Total Income | 34,299 | 15,559 | ||
| Year Ending | 30-Apr-25 | 30-Apr-24 | ||
| Repairs and maintenance | 19,045 | 1,490 | ||
| Fixtures & Fittings | 7,916 | 6,730 | ||
| Lighting and heating | 1,150 | 2,838 | ||
| Rates and water | 464 | 484 | ||
| Subscriptions and licences | 840 | 463 | ||
| Insurance | 1,196 | 1,089 | ||
| Cleaning | 2,065 | 2,050 | ||
| Other Expenses6 | 1,290 | 366 | ||
| Friends of MessingChurch7 | 125 | 125 | ||
| Total Outgoing | 34,091 | 15,635 | ||
| Excess of receipts over payments |
208.19 | -76.21 |
Statement of assets and liabilities at 30 April 2025
| 30-Apr | 30-Apr | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | |
| £ | £ | |
| Current assets | ||
| Cash at bank: | ||
| Bank current account | 36,424 | 36,520 |
| Bankpremium account | 20,817 | 20,513 |
| 57,241 | 57,033 | |
| 2025 | 2024 | |
| General | General |
|
| Fund | Fund | |
| £ | £ | |
| Balances brought forward | 57,033 | 57,109 |
| Excess of receipts over payments |
208 | -76 |
| Balances carried forward | 57,241 | 57,033 |
Notes to the accounts:
-
The accounts have been prepared on the Receipts & Payments Basis. Note: Some values that are rounded up may impact the totals.
-
The Village Hall is recognised as an asset but is not recognised in the accounts. In previous years, the Hall was recognised at a nominal £10,000. Title to the property is vested with the Official Custodian for Charities. The reinstatement valuation of the building for insurance purposes was £650,000 as at February 2018.
-
Fixtures and fittings and equipment are also recognised as assets but not valued in the accounts.
-
There were no liabilities at the year end.
-
All funds are Unrestricted.
-
Other Sundry Expenses now include Website Hosting and Kitchen / Toilet Consumables.
-
The Village Hall Committee approved a £125 donation to the Friends of Messing Church to contribute to the Christmas Tree Lighting Event
There is a new category under Income to reflect the grants received to fund repairs and maintenance specifically the Brickwork repair.
Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the trustees/ Charity Name members of Messing Village Hall On accounts for the year 30[th] April 2025 Charity no Registered Charity ended (if any) No. 301367 Set out on pages N/A (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 30 / 04 / 2025 .
- Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report 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 the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
-
accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or
-
the accounts do not accord with the accounting records
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn 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.
Date: 17/02/2026 Signed: ~~|~~ Name: Michelle Gardiner ~~Ps~~ Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 8 Blenheim Way Tiptree, Colchester CO5 0JX
1
October 2018
IER
Section B Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .
N/A
2
October 2018
IER