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2024-12-31-accounts

ANNUAL REVIEW

AND

ACCOUNTS

for the period

1[st] January – 31[st] December 2024

Registered Charity No. 305007

CLAYGATE VILLAGE HALL ASSOCIATION

Registered Charity Number 305007

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REVIEW & ACCOUNTS FOR 2024

The Board of Trustees presents its Annual Review and Accounts for the year ending 31st December 2024.

1. GOVERNING DOCUMENT

A Declaration of Trust dated 20[th] July 1959 and incorporated into the Charity Commissioners’ Scheme dated the 21[st] February 1997 and amended on 27 May 2010 and again on 12 October 2021. This is a Scheme of Arrangement approved by the Charities Commission.

2. REGISTERED ADDRESS

Claygate Village Hall Church Road Claygate, Surrey KT10 0JP

3. CHARITABLE OBJECT

The main object of the Claygate Village Hall Association charity is the provision and maintenance of a Village Hall for the use of the inhabitants of the Parish of Claygate and the neighbouring area.

4. TRUSTEES

The Charity is an unincorporated association, governed by a Scheme of Arrangement approved by the Charities Commissioners and managed by a Board of Trustees who are all unpaid volunteers. They are elected as follows:

Community Trustees

7 Community Trustees and up to a further 3 co-opted Community Trustees.

These are elected at the AGM by any inhabitants of the Parish of Claygate and the neighbouring area who are at least 18 years of age who attend the meeting.

The Community Trustees at the 31[st] December 2024 were as follows with one position being vacant:

  1. Brian Howells

  2. John Bamford (Vice Chair)

  3. Clive Thompson

  4. Sally Williams (Chair)

  5. George Marcall

  6. Rosy Treasure (Secretary)

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Representative Trustees

Representative Trustees are appointed by affiliated organisations who use the hall.

The Representative Trustees at the 31[st] December 2024 were:

  1. Steve Fleming Claygate Gardening Society 2. Susanne Tunnicliff Claygate Flower & Village Show Society 3. Juliet Bagnall Claygate Dramatic Society 4. Gillian Hall Claygate Village WI

Trustees’ meetings in 2024 were held on Tuesdays 26[th] March and 15[th] October with the AGM taking place on 7[th] May .

The day to day running of the Village Hall and the associated administration is in the hands of the Hall Manager, the Treasurer and the Lettings Manager and overseen by 3 Trustees as Chair, Vice-Chair & Secretary. During 2024 this Management Committee met on 5 occasions: 1[st] February, 9[th] April, 6[th] June, 13[th] September and 28th November .

5. MANAGEMENT COSTS

The Village Hall Association has no staff costs but offers a payment to its officers for services rendered. At the meeting of Trustees on 26[th] March, in keeping with last year’s decision to review figures annually, it was agreed that the remuneration offered to officers should be increased from September 2024.Thus, officers’ payments at the end of the year were as follows:

6. AGENTS & ADVISERS

Bank Independent Examiner CAF Bank Barry Fitzpatrick 25 Kings Hill Avenue Holmwood Kings Hill 13 Oaken Drive West Malling Claygate Kent KT10 0DL ME19 4JQ

7. CHAIR’S REVIEW (Sally Williams)

2024 was a year which saw the completion of several projects to improve and renew the hall’s facilities. The hall is looking refreshed and welcoming to a high standard. In particular, we had new chairs in the main hall and small hall. There were many complimentary remarks made by our hirers about the main hall chairs, which are easier to move and store and a real improvement in the look of the hall. Additionally, we had new curtains in the main and small halls, which are fire retardant, updated CCTV, a hearing loop added in the main hall, a new surface for the stage floor and an updated PA system with Bluetooth available.

I acknowledge with thanks that a great deal of hard work went into the projects from obtaining the funds to sourcing materials and installing the new items and thanks are due to all our officers and to Tony Woolhead, the Hall Manager and Katie Ernest, the Lettings Manager in particular. The funds came partly from our own reserves and from grants from

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the Surrey County Council Your Fund Surrey, the Parish Council’s CIL fund allocation and from monies raised with the help of Claygate Dramatic Society from a Guildford Shakespeare Company performance in the hall in 2023 and a contribution from Elmbridge U3A. Katie managed to dispose of all the old chairs for modest sums.

I also wish to mention with thanks the contributions of Michael Elliot, our Treasurer for keeping our accounts and advising on financial matters and Rosy Treasure, our secretary and also a Trustee, who keeps all our paperwork in order, which is no mean feat. Rosy also monitors governance issues and with a great deal of hard work and thought, oversaw the review and launch of our new website in May 2024.

I also thank Barry Fitzpatrick, our Independent Examiner, for continuing to oversee and approve our annual accounts.

I thank all the Trustees for their support and help throughout the year with their suggestions and assistance on many fronts. It is right to say that the CVHA could not function without the help of all the Trustee and Officer volunteers.

The Claygate Village Hall Association continues to provide the service to the local community in accordance with its charitable objects and to a high standard at competitive and affordable rates. This is by a team effort with everyone pulling their weight.

8. HALL MANAGER’S REVIEW (Tony Woolhead)

This year was again a fairly quiet one Building Management wise.

We were however successful in obtaining substantial funding as Sally has set out above.

New chairs, curtains, a hearing loop, upgrades to the PA system, upgrades to the CCTV system and a new Stage floor were all completed.

These have all contributed to making both Halls look and feel much more modern and comfortable.

I have continued to try and bring down our energy costs by using smart devices wherever possible to control our heating / hot water systems. There are now smart fused spurs on all of the water heaters and also the wall heaters in the Committee Room, these enable us to program when they are on/off thereby saving a lot of electricity as before they were on 24hrs.

Also, the two Nest systems for the main heaters continue to produce substantial cost savings.

We have installed a Bluetooth system for the Gallery Sound system making it easier for hirers to connect etc.

I attended the May meeting of the Parish Council to present our CIL application and successfully obtained circa £10k.

In addition, I prepared and submitted an application for Your Fund Surrey Small Community Projects funding and successfully obtained a grant of £25k.

Other work completed was as follows –

All annual hall maintenance was completed for 2024 and the Committee Room & Small Hall were re-painted.

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9. LETTING MANAGER’S REVIEW (Katie Ernest)

The Hall continues to be used by a wide variety of local groups in addition to our regular hirers – in 2024 we had bookings from Hinchley Manor Operatic Society, Milbourne Lodge Parents Association, Friends of Capelfield, Claygate Primary School Parents Association, Esher Residents Association, The Grace Dear Trust, and concerts by local musicians. We may have picked up some one-off bookings that would usually have gone to the Day Centre as Elmbridge stopped offering single bookings. There was a little bit of increased use of the Committee Room, with CVWI deciding to hold monthly committee meetings there, and a chair-based exercise group booking one afternoon per week. We also hosted both national and local elections. We continue to host a good number of children’s parties, although not as many as we hosted in the immediate aftermath of COVID. Roshe School of Dance, who have been at the Hall since it opened in the 1950’s ceased operating in mid-2024 due to the ill health of the owner – the daughter of the original hirer.

We took a price rise of between 2 and 4% in September 2024. We moved to generating invoices out of Hallmaster in 2024, which has reduced the time needed for invoicing each month. The availability of the diary on our website has reduced the number of enquiries for slots already booked.

Hirers appreciate the improvements we have made, the general state of the hall, and the facilities provided. The simplicity of the Bluetooth connection to the PA system is much appreciated, as is the easier handling of the new chairs, which also store more compactly. The new stage floor is an improvement for dance and the new curtains have been largely well received.

10. FINANCIAL REVIEW (Michael Elliott)

Annual Accounts

I commend the Cash accounts for your approval. They have been examined by our Independent Examiner Mr Barry Fitzpatrick. The headline profit of £24,508 was assisted by considerable grants of £35,700 from multiple sources.

We have been advised that we should use an accounting package to manage the Hall accounts.

Lettings income

Our lettings have boomed, an increase of £8,200 over 2023, this significant gain in excess of 10% despite a far more modest price hike. A brilliant performance and we should be grateful to Katie.

Expenditure

Project expenditure of £34,200 to year end as set out above.

There are a couple of budget overspends I should highlight. In 2024 as a result of billing dates from our cleaner we paid for two November bills both 2023 & 2024, a drawback of cash accounting, approximately £1,000. Additionally, we underestimated the cost of the annual high clean.

PPL PRS Ltd (who manage music licences) omitted to send the 2023 bill & as a consequence we were double-billed in 2024.

We usually set the forthcoming year’s budget in October, and after that this year there was a UK budget (end of October) that increased employer National Insurance & the minimum wage and consequently our cleaning costs per hour increased by 7%. The budget is already looking a little tight.

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We have benefited from the reduction of energy prices over the last couple of years although this has now come to an end hopefully temporarily. We continue with Yu Energy for both electricity & gas having found them both competitive & professional.

Banking

CAF Bank continues as our main bank. We closed Virgin Money during the year & transferred the funds to a CAF deposit account, which provides secure easy transfer but not the best interest rate.

Reserves Policy

Our policy for Restricted Reserves changed at the Trustees meeting in early 2023 after much debate. Restricted Reserves were to be split in three parts, Business Continuity being 50% of our annual budgeted operational costs currently £38,775, an Earmarked Reserve to pay for long term maintenance plans of £60,000 and Restricted Reserves for grants, gifts or endowments where funds can only be used for a specified purpose currently remains of the existing grants. We carried over £1,390 into the current year to assist in the new curtains.

General Reserves at year end were general building society funds currently £16,382.

Looking forward to 2025; post Year End events

We continued the remainder of the authorised upgrades by purchasing replacement curtains at a cost of £13,847. I was asked to advise on available funds for 2025 development & I was happy to suggest £15,000.

In summary

We have a significantly upgraded Hall that should attract a good share of the local society’s organisations’ bookings. The management team in place are responsive to issues and provide good service.

11. RISK MANAGEMENT

The Management Committee and the Board of Trustees regularly review any major risks affecting the Charity. This includes, for example, the loss of any regular hirers.

Alternative lettings initiatives are vigorously pursued to reduce such losses. Our Reserves Policy means we can, if necessary, cushion the effect of losing major hirers.

12. CONCLUSION

2024 was another good year for the Association. We made improvements through our projects and continued to ensure we offer competitive facilities and rates and fulfilled our charitable objects.

Key tasks for the year ahead are:

Continuing to monitor the situation for our key hirers as part of our risk management

Applying for grants to assist us to maintain and improve the quality of the facilities and in particular, refurbish the main hall floor and replace the small hall floor.

Monitoring the financial position carefully to avoid any significant losses and retain levels of Restricted Reserves to help meet future expenditure on items identified in the Asset Management Plan

Aiming to become even more environmentally friendly

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CLAYGATE VILLAGE HALL ASSOCIATION

STATEMENT OF TRUSTEES' RESPONSIBILITIES

Charity law requires the Trustees to prepare Financial Statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Charity and of its financial activities for that year, and adequately distinguish any material special trust or other restricted fund of the Charity. In preparing those Financial Statements the Trustees are required to:

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper Accounting records which disclose, with reasonable accuracy at any time, the financial position of the Charity, and enable them to ensure that the Financial Statements comply with applicable Accounting Standards and Statements of Recommended Practice and the Regulations made under Part 8 Charities Act 2011. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The Charities (Accounts & Reports) Regulations 2008 requires charity trustees to confirm that they ‘have regard’ to the Commissions public benefit guidance when exercising any powers or duties to which the guidance is relevant.

Trustees can show that

This is demonstrated by the work of the Trustees and the Management committee as set out in the respective minutes of the meetings of those bodies, and in the Scheme of Arrangement approved by the Charity Commissioners which governs the business of the charity and with which the Trustees and the Management committee comply”.

By order of the Board of Trustees.

STATEMENT OF COMPLIANCE

In addition, the Charity Governance Code for smaller charities, of which CVHA is one, which was published at https://www.charitygovernancecode.org/en/pdf in 2017 was examined by the Management Committee and recommendations discussed with Trustees at their meeting on 29[th] March 2018. All actions agreed as a result were taken and, where necessary, documented in the Association’s Operations Manual and policies which are reviewed regularly. Compliance with the code will be scheduled for review in the coming year.

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endix A- Recei ts&Pa ments CHARITY COMMISSION FOR IN(JlAND AND WAIES c Recei ts and ments accounts CC16a For lh¢ pertod Irom 01ffj1r2024 To 31112f2024 Section A Receipts and payments Unrestricted Restricted Endowm•nl lurbdg fund fund• ID ¢h• n•￿11 t thè wre•l£ tolM flmtÉ tyth• M•rn•t£ •)0• Totsl fundB A1 Roeoi Lettirrj IrLYY* rrt5 n,619 35311 3.141 3.141 Re¥igons >)23 IrrcrfrK 120 ARJ •1.375 X712 117A 1.375 117.C47 A3Pa ents 11m4 18.874 34,J73 4.$27 6,J24 17.642 19.313 4.21J IOA07 611 1029 7.137 375 853 527 6,824 879 2112 Wa InsurwK Lethrp Ex￿ge$ Clewi 2.202 7JW) 13M2 67J 2.473 87) PrLY 279 70,637 Sub total 59.324 93.646 A4 A•set •nd Inv¢slment Sub totsi $9J24 70.637 N•t of rnc•Ipt￿fP¥yMQ￿ts) A5 Tr•n$f•rn between hNMIs A6 Cash tund¥ lasl y••r end Cash fvnds thls y••r 23.410 110• 128.752 1.390 140.142 11Q702 CCXX R1 (ssi 2&11tw2(Y25 Page8of10

Appendix B - Statement of Assets & Liabilities

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- Appendix C Independent Examiners Report

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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Endowment funds to nearest £ Categories B1 Cash funds CAF Bank 24,800 Cashplus p￿paid 185 Building S(xJety & ieserve a(xthnts 16.382 41.367 Endowment funds to nearest £ B2 Other monetary assets &Jsiness Continuty Resetve in Building ety t￿"n9 50% 01 approved 2025 38,775 BuildiThJ Scriety & DetM)sit accojnt funds earmarted for loThJ temi plans 60,000 98,775 Current value tional 83 Investment assets Current valuè tional B4 Assets retained for the charity's own use When due tional B5 Liabilities Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the tTuslees Dale of roval zl1012( 10 CCXX R2 accounts ISSI 2811012025

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. IER October 2018