Cogenhoe & Whiston Parish Council sole trustee of Cogenhoe & Whiston Village Hall & Playing fields Annual report April 2021
Parish Council
The parish council took over the running of the village hall in September and since then all committee meetings have been carried out on Zoom and (as with the parish council) all minutes are published on the parish council website. If you wish to see how we run the hall then do please attend a Zoom meeting.
A lot of work was initially carried out by the Parish Clerk to enable this handover to occur and thanks to Elizabeth Packer for assistance.
Hall and Playing Field Users
We have had very few users of the village hall aside from the continuing use by the pre-school 4 days a week.
Due to the use of the field by the cricket club the Saturday dog users and also the Tuesday evening dog users will not be returning to use the field.
As soon as government rules allow and subject to a risk assessment, we expect others users like the Mature Movers and Slimming World to return to use the hall.
We have successfully operated a jigsaw and book swap area in the lobby of the village hall. This is open from 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday.
Finances
We had a COVID grant from SNC of £10,000 at the beginning of the pandemic and a further one more recently and this has enabled us to continue to have good reserves.
Village Hall Development
Plans were drawn up and approved by committee for internal changes. This will enable the pre-school to be secure in their own area in the main hall and therefore enable us to use the York Room, main kitchens and toilets while they are occupying the rest of the building. We applied for a Certificate of Lawfulness from SNC which has been granted.
The plans include new toilets, a small new kitchen off the main hall, the refurbishment of an old storage room which the pre-school will use for their own storage and meetings. There will be a back entrance (accessed through a new gate in the fence off the carpark) that will be used by the pre-school children and parents.
As per parish council rules this was put out to tender on the government website and we had a number of responses. Most of the builders visited the hall and, in the end, we had 8 formal responses with a large variance in quoted prices. The responses were discussed at village hall committee and a preferred supplier was identified. On the 29th March full Parish Council approved the expenditure of £30,000 to cover the building work, a contingency and potential other minor works at the hall and the supplier (RJ Installations) was informed.
The builders started work on 3rd April and have continued ever since. They have been working mainly while the pre-school has not been occupying the building and so far good progress has been made. They hope to finish week commencing May 3rd.
At the appropriate time we will have a grand re-opening.
Cricket Club
The village hall agreed a service level agreement with the Cogenhoe Cricket Club to enable them to move their club back to the village hall and playing fields. They will be playing every Saturday afternoon from about May to September and with some mid-week evening matches for the Youth under 17’s and All Stars and under 9s.
To enable this to happen the Parish Council applied for a grant of approximately £20K from the English Cricket Board to pay for the installation of an all-weather wicket. The village hall committee agreed that to enable this to be installed safely it would be necessary to remove the old skateboard park. This was removed and 50% paid for by the village hall and 50% by the cricket club at a cost of £3,400 excluding VAT which was significantly lower than previous estimate. Some of the bunds at the bottom of the fields were also removed and the soil was put back where it had originally been removed from where the skateboard park was. The new wicket can be used by anyone and indeed is likely to be safer as it is not surrounded by a metal fence and the surface is much softer than concrete. The bunds were remodelled and are now being used again.
The cricket club will be cutting the grass weekly during their season. In the past the grass has been cut fortnightly.
The first match of the cricket clubs’ season is 1st May.
Football pitch
The football pitch had to be moved slightly away from the village hall and this has been remarked and used already. Portable goal posts were purchased with a 50% grant from the Football Foundation. One of these will stay permanently in place and the other will be left up when possible, during the cricket season.
Play Area
Following feedback, we have ordered two extra swings, a flat and basket swing which are to be installed near to the existing play area to add to the facilities that the over 8s can use. We have also ordered two picnic benches to be also located next to the play area.
A recycling bin was purchased to be located just outside the play area and the two benches have been repainted.
Caretaker
We now employ a caretaker for two hours a week. He carries out tasks like the risk assessment and bin emptying and other maintenance tasks. He will also cut the grass in the play area.
Other Plans
We have temporarily paused the purchase of an outside table tennis table until the other play equipment has been installed. We will be looking for ideas as to how we might add to the facilities particularly for children in the playing fields. Ideas welcome.
Possible ‘café’ facility in the hall or playing fields.
Maintenance
Minor maintenance has continued and we had to replace the fire alarm system at a cost of £524 as it had a fault and was not fixeable given its age.
Cogenhoe & Whiston Parish Council sole trustee for Cogenhoe & Whiston Village Hall & playing Fields
Registered charity number 304168
| End ofyear accounts 31.3.21 | End ofyear accounts 31.3.21 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income | Village Hall | ||||||||
| From VHMC | £45,777.78 | Income(inc VAT) | £60,469.94 | ||||||
| Hirers fees | £3,617.00 | ||||||||
| Donations | £40.00 | Less expenditure(inc VAT) | £12,133.48 | ||||||
| Other(grants & refunds) | £11,035.16 | £48,336.46 | |||||||
| £60,469.94 | |||||||||
| Represented bycurrent ac closingbalance 31.3.21 | £18,336.46 | ||||||||
| Current Account asper bank reconciliation | |||||||||
| Expenditure | Buspremium | £30,000.00 | |||||||
| Hygiene services | £156.00 | ||||||||
| Elec | £2,790.56 | £48,336.46 | |||||||
| Cleaning | £540.00 | ||||||||
| Telephone | £48.00 | ||||||||
| Water | £193.68 | ||||||||
| Grass | £90.00 | ||||||||
| Insurance | £1,553.03 | ||||||||
| Supplies/Maint | £360.31 | ||||||||
| Staff costs | £1,502.87 | ||||||||
| Other | £2,614.50 | ||||||||
| Playground | £1,136.91 | ||||||||
| £10,985.86 | |||||||||
| VAT | £1,147.62 | ||||||||
| £12,133.48 | |||||||||
| Surplus | £48,336.46 | ||||||||
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