## Shalford Village Hall Management Committee ## Chairman’s Annual Report 2023/24 The Village Hall and recreation ground exist thanks to the hard work of the Management Committee. Circumstances have meant that some members have gone above and beyond to ensure that these facilities are available for the villagers to use and the viability of the charity is assured for many years to come. For example Duggy Turner has spent many a cold wet morning up here ensuring that the various contractors who maintain the recreation ground, cutting the grass, spraying the weed killer and worm control do a good job along with preparing the cricket pitch so once again we can have cricket here this summer. And Nicola Walton, along with controlling the bookings, has ensured that the hall is kept clean and tidy and keeps watchful eye on the hirers to ensure the facilities are not abused. However we have been hit by some unforeseen issues. The high winds earlier in the year brought down a huge bow of the oak tree that is on our boundary with Grubbs cottage and as it fell it damaged the fence and shed in Gubbs cottage. Andrew Hull stepped up to the plate and arranged for the fallen bow to be removed and the shed repaired. The on going saga of the settlement cracks has continued. The arborist appointed by our insurers said that the conifers either side of the hall had to come down and some remedial work to the oak tree on the road frontage had to be undertaken all at our cost. So we have had some significant unplanned expenditure. The subsidence claim seems to be on its way to being resolved as the 6 weekly crack monitoring by the insurers has shown no further movement and they have put the remedial works out to tender. All did not go to plan with the bungalow 74 Shalford Road Rayne that was left to us by Lawrence Rawlinson. It was reported at the last AGM that we planned to keep the bungalow, carry out the refurbishment ready to let it out in order to provide the Hall with a guaranteed income and an asset that would continue to increase in value. However once the refurbishment work started it became apparent that the loft extension had been built to a very poor standard, including the main roof ridge beam not being supported properly and the front wall was bowing out by several inches to name just two of the issues. So we had a decision to make either to sell the property at a discounted price or invest in having the problems rectified. We chose the latter which meant that it was not ready to rent out until March this year. The decision appears to be justified because the valuation of the property once the work was completed was significantly in excess of the additional money we spent. All this additional work meant that we needed someone to oversee the project and we are very grateful that Ian Butcher volunteered, assisted by Andrew H. So we thank them for all the hours spent making sure we ended up with a bungalow that is a fitting legacy to Lawrence and Pauline. Irrespective of this we are still waiting for Holmes and Hills to complete the registration of the property in our name at the Land Registry and then finalise Lawrence’s estate. As I said we have had some significant unplanned expenditure and along with rising costs for oil, electricity, insurance etc meant that our expenditure significantly exceeded our income last year and we have had to eat into our reserves. Looking forward we have lost the dance class which was a good contributor to our income but we will be having cricket this year which should boost our funds and we will start to see the benefit from the rental income from the bungalow. This year we are adopting a quite stringent budgeting process and project planning so we can monitor our surplus as it grows and decide how we should spend this, firstly to ensure the facilities are safe and secondly to improve them for the benefit of the community. So thank you to all the committee members for their time and support, and thank you to the villagers who use this facility, an asset we can all be proud of.