2025-04-30-accounts

Upham New Millennium Village Hall Trustees’ Report and Financial Statements Year Ending 30 April 2025

Summary

Once again, this financial year has been steady in terms of bookings. We have a number of regular hirers who are becoming very longstanding users and we are immensely grateful to them for continuing to use our facilities. We have also gained an extra one or two fairly regular users which is wonderful to see. Most weekends see at least one event and it is rare that the hall is empty. Hampshire Studios hired the hall for 10 days in August and were very successful, they have rebooked for 2025.

Solar panels have successfully been installed in October 2024, and this was paid for via a grant from Winchester City Council. Hopefully this will help to reduce our electricity costs going forward.

Also, we are now using Octopus Energy and their prices are more competitive. We also now sell back any excess energy to the grid.

Our Heat Pump has caused us problems this year and resulted in extra costs plus refunds to hirers. There may be more expense to fix this ongoing problem going forward.

The Trustees would like to thank all those who hired the hall during the year, whether regular users or those who used it for one off events.

The Trustees would like to thank the independent contractors who work so hard to keep the hall an attractive place for hirers; our booking agent, cleaners and caretaker.

The Trustees undertook their statutory duties and obtained all necessary licences including the premises licence issued by Winchester County Council and music licence issued by PPL PRS Ltd and also arranged suitable insurance.

Income from bookings was very steady this financial year and the reduction in energy costs has resulted in a surplus of £7,674.72.

Report of the Trustees

1. Introduction

The legal requirement for the trustees’ annual report is found in section 162 of the Charities Act 2011. The Act provides that the charity trustees of a charity must prepare in respect of each financial year of the charity an annual report containing:

• (a) such a report by the trustees on the activities of the charity during that year, and

• (b) such other information relating to the charity or to its trustees or officers

as may be prescribed by regulations made by the Secretary of State.

1. Reference and Administrative Details of the Charity, its Trustees and Advisers

2. (a) The name of the Trust is Upham New Millennium Village Hall.

3. (b) The Trust is a registered charity, number 301976.

4. (c) The address of the Trust is: Mortimers Lane, Lower Upham, Southampton, SO32 1HF

5. (d) The following Trustees served, unless otherwise indicated, for the full year to 30 April 2025:

   • Keith Dalley

   • Helen Firth resigned December 2024

   • Roy Kimble resigned December 2024

Page 1 of 8

  - Claire Parry

  - Stacey Parry

  - Amy Spencer From July 2024

  - Dermot Flaherty From March 2025

  - Rachael Emery From July 2024

• (e) The Trust has no employees but engages the services of a booking agent, cleaners and a caretaker on a self-employed basis.

• (f) Other relevant organisations are:

  • Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) Bank Ltd, 25 Kings Hill Avenue, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent, ME19 4TA

  • Shawbrook Bank Limited, Lutea House, Warley Hill Business Park, The Drive, Great Warley, Brentwood, Essex, CM13 3BE

  • Independent Examiner: Jason Foxwell, Independent–Examiner.Net, 12 Hillbourne Road Poole, BH17 7JB

Structure, Governance and Management

• (a) The Trust’s governing document is a Scheme ordered by the Charity Commissioners for England and Wales dated 9[th] March 2004. The Trust is an unincorporated association.

• (b) The management committee comprised five elected members and three other members, who attend in an advisory capacity. The elected members are from some of the organisations that regularly use the village hall. These organisations include Upham & District Gardening Club, Ringcraft, Sue Merrett School of Dance, the Village Preschool, Parish Council, Viking Re-enactment and Upham Players. The Trustees of the charity are made up of the majority of the management committee members.

The management committee may fill a casual vacancy in the office of an elected member at an ordinary meeting of the management committee and may co-opt up to two further members at a special meeting. All members serve until the next annual general meeting.

Under the Scheme:

• Elected members are appointed at the annual general meeting held in September by those inhabitants of the parish and surrounding neighbourhood over 18 years of age, who attend.

• Appointed members are nominated by their organisation within two months of the annual general meeting and their appointment will be effective from the latter of the date of their notification to the management committee and the annual general meeting.

• Co-opted members will serve from the date of their appointment at a special committee meeting.

• All management committee members will serve until the next annual general meeting and may serve further terms.

Within these prescriptions, the management committee seeks to secure the nomination and election of Trustees who will:

Page 2 of 8

• provide the wide range of skills needed to manage the Hall;

• act diligently and conscientiously to fulfil the objects of the Trust; and

• make for a good balance of ages and gender.

The booking agent and caretaker also attended or provided reports for the meetings.

• (c) New Trustees are provided with the information they need to serve. Induction is provided by participation in the activities of the committee.

• (d) The management committee appoints a Chairman, a Treasurer and a Secretary. It meets at least eight times a year and actively undertakes the management and administration of the Hall. The management committee engages the services of a booking agent to secure, co-ordinate and organise all the bookings. It also engages a cleaning contractor and a caretaker on a paid basis and other building and maintenance services as needed. Trustees are not paid for their services.

• (e) The Trust has no connections with other charities. The relationship with related parties is set out above in the appointments procedure. The terms and conditions agreed with appointing organisations for their use of the Hall are identical to those agreed with similar local bodies who do not appoint. All these parties and the management committee have been scrupulous in ensuring that anyone with a close tie or interest absents him or herself from the consideration of the terms and conditions of any relevant contracts and the management committee has satisfied itself that those contracts offer excellent value for money.

4. Objects and Activities

• (a) The object of the Trust is the provision and maintenance of a village hall for use by the inhabitants of the parish of Upham and surrounding neighbourhoods without distinction of political, religious or other opinions, including use for:

• Meetings, lectures and classes, and

• Other forms of recreation and leisure-time occupation

with the object of improving the conditions of life for the inhabitants.

• (b) The Trust seeks to fulfil its objectives:

• by maximising bookings from as wide a range of users as possible while prioritising local and regular hirers;

• by maintaining the attraction of the Hall in a competitive market;

• by preserving the security and cleanliness of the Hall;

• by the good upkeep of the Hall’s decoration, plant and fittings.

Page 3 of 8

5. Hiring Agreement

Use of the Village 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.

6. Licences

The Hall has a Premises Licence, which allows licensable activities such as the supply of alcohol, plays, performance of dance to take place in Upham New Millennium Village Hall and is licensed by PPL PRS Ltd (Phonographic Performance Ltd and Performing Rights Society) for live and recorded music.

7. Insurance

The Village Hall is insured with a comprehensive policy by Ansvar Insurance in respect of:

• buildings and accidental damage with a sum insured of £1,652,239

• contents (up to £27,475)

• public liability (£5,000,000)

• employers’ liability (£10,000,000)

• business interruption up to 24 months (£67,000)

• trustees’ indemnity (£250,000)

• property owners’ liability (£5,000,000)

• personal accident (up to £10,000)

• legal expenses (£250,000)

The management committee recognises that it is under a legal obligation to protect the building, its users and employees through adequate and appropriate insurance.

8.

Building and External Works Issues

The management committee carries out regular maintenance checks on the condition of the building and surrounding hard and soft landscapes and arranges for works to be undertaken, following quotation, by using local labour, wherever reasonable. Regular annual checks, such as having fire-fighting appliances checked and the fire alarm tested were undertaken. In addition:

• As part of the Upham Parish Council Community Emergency Plan the village hall has been designated as an emergency rest centre and Upham Parish Council has made available an emergency generator which has been installed at Upham Village Hall. The electrics to connect the generator have been complicated and are now scheduled to take place July 2025.

• Solar panels have been erected in October 2024, supplied by Orange Solar and paid for by a grant from Winchester City Council.

• The heat pump has caused us problems this Winter and stopped working over the New year having frozen up on the outside unit. The hirers that weekend reported on ‘no heating’ and we had to refund some of them. After investigation we found that the Company who installed the pump Artizan has now liquidated and so we could not go back to them. An engineer was called and noted that a volumizer was not installed and should have been. Artizan were a Mitsubishi approved contractor and there are ongoing

Page 4 of 8

correspondence with them. One way or another we will have to repair this before the Winter period.

9. Achievement and Performance

This financial year has seen a good stream of hirers using the hall. It is very busy in term time during both the daytime and evenings due to the many ongoing regular hirers that use the hall for a variety of activities. Weekends have also generally been busy with many different one-off events taking place and it is pleasingly rare that the hall has any extended empty time. We have hired to Hampshire Studios for a 10 day period in August and they are to return in 2025 too.

The electricity bills have reduced from 2024, partly due to the solar panels and a reduction in energy costs.

10. Financial Review

• (a) Reserves

The Trust’s policy on reserves is:

• Endowment Fund: This expendable fund arose from the sale of land connected with the previous Hall. In 2003, it was agreed that the endowment fund would be designated The Saint New Millennium Endowment to commemorate Mrs Saint, the original benefactor of the village hall and other subsequent benefactors. £45,000 was endowed to this fund. Interest on the cash deposit it represents, is credited to the Unrestricted Fund. The management committee aims to sustain this fund to finance, in the longer term, the major renovation and construction work on the Hall.

• Restricted Fund: This represents the capital receipts raised to meet the construction costs of the new Hall. The management committee has agreed to depreciate these costs over the remaining estimated useful life of the Hall and to charge that depreciation against the Fund.

• Unrestricted Fund: This represents the balance on the current operating account of the Hall. The management committee aims year on year to achieve a modest surplus of income from hall hire and interest over operational and management costs. The aim of this policy is to sustain the short to medium term capacity to keep the Hall in good repair as the cost of so doing predictably accelerates.

• (b) Financial results

Year ending 30 April 2025 produced a surplus of £7,674.72

• (c) Investment policy

The Trustees consider that they have a duty to minimise investment risk. Since we are exempt as a charity from corporation tax on our investment income there is an investment of £50,000 in a Shawbrook Bank one-year fixed rate saver and £28,150 in a Shawbrook 2-month notice account whilst the balance of our cash is retained in a current account and a savings account with the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF).

11. Future Plans

The village hall is now 25 years old and fixtures and fittings are aging. The energy price increase over recent years put capital projects on hold for a while but it is hoped that once electricity costs have settled, refurbishment projects, such as new toilets and kitchen, can start to be considered once again. Firstly we need to fix the heat pump and then look at other projects.

Page 5 of 8

12. Public Benefit

The Village Hall is a community building for the pursuit of art, culture, recreation and sport, and a facility in which the community is able to hold events, celebrate personal milestones and allow clubs and societies to flourish, which benefit not only people in the village of Upham but also the wider community. Residents of Upham enjoy a discount on hire prices.

The village hall is designated as an emergency rest centre as part of the Upham Parish Council Community Emergency Plan.

13. Trustees’ Responsibilities in relation to Financial Statements and Accounting Records

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Trust and enable them to ensure the financial statements comply with the Charities Act.

They have a general responsibility for taking such steps as are reasonably open to them to safeguard the assets of the Trust and to prevent fraud and other irregularities.

The Trust’s incoming and outgoing resources fall below the limit set in the Charities Act for requiring the financial statements to be audited, and the Trustees have decided not to have them audited. They are examined by an Independent Examiner whose report is included.

The Trustees have taken advantage of the exemption available to the charity in preparing accounts in the receipts and payments format.

Page 6 of 8

Upham New Millenium Village Hall

Receipts and Payments Accounts for the year ended 30 April 2025

Page 7 of 8

NAME: CLAIRE PARRY

Date: 18[th] August 2025

Page 8 of 8

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF UPHAM NEW MILLENNIUM VILLAGE HALL

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Upham New Millennium Village Hall (the Charity) for the year ended 30 April 2025.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the trustees of the Charity 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 Charity’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:

1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act; or

2. 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.

Mr J P Foxwell FCCA FCIE independent-examiner.net

12 Hillbourne Road, Poole, BH17 7JB

Date: 23 August 2025