2025-03-31-accounts - Ashington Community Centre Trust

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The Ashington Community Centre

Ashington Community Centre Trust Foster Lane • Ashington • West Sussex • RH20 3PG

Registered Charity: The Ashington Community Centre Trust

Reg No: 305340 Registered Office: 19 The Sands, Ashington, West Sussex RH20 3LQ

info@ashingtoncc.org.uk

2025 AGM Report from the Chair of the ACCT

The Ashington Community Centre Trust has had a busy year expanding the offerings to the village and hosting or supporting several notable events.

Although the event ‘Days Gone By’ was held at the end of April 2024, prior to the last AGM, it must be recorded that we continued to receive a good many compliments well beyond the AGM for this two day event, so I should again record our thanks to Margaret for setting this event up and for all those who ably assisted her in putting on a lovely exhibition.

At the start of May 2024, we signed a tenancy agreement with Astrid Clarke to enable the creation of a coffee shop in the old Willards building which was lying vacant.

That initiative has proved immensely successful, and, thanks to the efforts of Astrid, she opened the café, named Tate at Home, early in the summer, after undertaking quite a considerable refurbishment. This has provided a wonderful meeting point for residents in the village, whilst providing excellent coffee and pâtisseries, together with some lovely curios, ornaments, home interiors and cards for sale, all of which are locally made, as is the produce which she provides to us. She originally opened for just five days a week but, due to the success of her venture, she has now extended this to seven days a week.

On June 1st, The Ashington Events Hubs held the ‘Picnic in the Park’. This was organized by Carl Smart and his team of volunteers who put on an excellent event for the village. It followed on from the Coronation Picnic the previous year and was equally successful with a great turnout from residents, friends, relatives and visitors to the village. We would like to thank all of those who put so much effort into the event, and those who were good enough to loan the requisite items such as gazebos and shelters that were needed to make it all possible.

In conjunction with the sponsorship and support from the ACCT, we were grateful to KWMartin Lundy - Estate Agents for their donation towards the event. A reasonable profit was made which was set aside for the Youth Club. I’m pleased to say that the success has led those who took on the task of running this to step up again this year, Liam o’Reilly being good enough to take the lead this time. Everything is coming together nicely, and the plans are well advanced for the event which will be on Saturday, 14[th] June.

Following the Picnic in the Park, the Rec facilities were again taken up for the annual Ashington Festival run by Margaret Alford and her incredible team of volunteers. Although there wasn’t a parade, the event itself still went off exceedingly well and we were blessed with fine weather. There were a good many stands featuring quite a few additional outlets, including the Sausage Roll Factory which supplied the most extraordinary marmite flavoured rolls – love’em or hate’em. The event continued well into the evening and judging by the beer and food sales, a good time was had by all. Our thanks go to the Wardens for overseeing security at the event, it is always appreciated.

As we went into the autumn, other events took place within the Community Centre, one of particular note being the Remembrance Event where we were royally entertained by the Sussex Band of the Royal Legion. Our thanks go to Lieutenant Colonel Graeme Macpherson for reciting the Exhortation and the Kohima Epitaph. The event was well attended and the profits of over £750 were set aside for the Youth Club project.

There were other events including the Halloween Disco, the Christmas Fayre, the Tree Lighting Ceremony and more, which will be covered in the Secretary’s report.

The final event I would like to refer to was the Village Halls Conference which we were asked to host by AirS, the government-backed body which provides advice and support to the hundreds of village halls all round the country. It was an excellent event, providing the many attendees with a great deal of useful information and advice. We are grateful to Angela Millighan, the Community Buildings Advisor of AirS for granting us the privilege of hosting this event and understood that it was well received by those who attended.

Over the course of the year, a good deal of time, money and effort has gone into various projects to enhance and maintain the facilities within the Community buildings such that we might maintain them to a high standard of repair. I set out a programme of tasks in my report last year and am pleased to say that everything has been successfully tackled.

There were projects to repair all the soffits and facias around the Main Hall, the total replacement of the flooring in the kitchen of the Main Hall and the refurbishment of the units and the bases; we are grateful for the work undertaken by both Morways Flooring and Tom Scott in the respect. Martin Jenkins took it upon himself to undertake a major cleaning programme for the floors in the toilets and the public area outside and the condition of these is hugely improved; an ongoing maintenance programme is now in place.

We would like to thank Tom Scott for the work which he did to replace the door to Willards; he also built and installed the Book Nook and installed the replacement garage door which we acquired for the garage adjacent to the Youth Club, without charge. I would also like to thank Carl Smart for the work that his team did on replacing the side door into the same garage.

Robin Botting and Mark Adsett continue to do a wonderful job maintaining the ACCT grounds and repairing the various items which have been damaged during the year. This includes the fencing round the new car park, the installation of new benches in the playground and the planting of new trees.

The repairs of the garage were needed to accommodate the new equipment which the Ashington Football Club are acquiring as part of a new maintenance and repair programme which we have established with them. It has long been apparent that the condition of the Recreational Ground has deteriorated due to the increase in the amount of football played

as the Club is growing so rapidly. It was therefore agreed early in the year that, with a grant which they had received, the Club would work closely with the ACCT and use these funds to contribute towards the upkeep and enhancement of the grounds. We hope to see the benefits of this during the next football season with less matches cancelled due to the state of the pitches. Our Treasurer, Michelle, has worked hard on creating and agreeing new contracts with the AFC and the associated Maintenance Variation Agreement which is now bearing fruit. It has also led to a requirement for the AFC to use the 1 acre area of ground as a training area whilst the maintenance work is undertaken during the summer months.

Another issue which has been encountered due to the increase in football matches is that of parking in the area. We were approached by the Wardens during the course of this year to see if we could assist in alleviating the problems, so we asked the AFC to make as much use as possible of the Main Hall car park, the over-flow area beyond the car park and even the 1 acre.

The issue isn’t helped by the state of the car parks by the Sports Pavilion and Willards, so we initiated another programme of maintenance here which is being led by Martin Jenkins working in conjunction with Robin Botting. We are still in negotiation with WSCC about the flooding in the Willards car park and continue to press them to implement the solution which had been previously agreed.

Regarding flooding and drainage, we have also worked closely with the Youth Club in supporting them in the replacement of their roof. As stated earlier, profits from events which the ACCT have held were channeled towards the Club with a contribution of £2,000 being made. It was agreed that we would enhance the drainage at the back of the club to deal with the considerable run off of rain from the new roof and install a new soakaway. We are also in the process of dealing with the repairs of both the Sports Pavillion and ‘Youth Club’ garage roofs. The other item which we agreed to investigate in conjunction with the AYC was that of the installation of solar panels. It was determined that this would require an upgrade of the electricity supply coming into the Youth Club and protection of the panels, once installed. The Chair of the AYC, Steve May, and myself continue to work on this.

All these projects have led to a considerable increase in costs of running the ACCT, but we have enhanced our income through the tenancies which we agreed with both Tate at Home and RH20. Both have been very supportive of our aims and have made contributions of varying nature to the ACCT, supporting events, making donations to events and enhancing the quality of our buildings. RH20 have built a new shelter at back of the old Scout Hall to expand their business, which they also make available for our outside events.

The EV chargers, which became fully operational in May 2024 are, after a slow start, now being used on a regular basis, particularly for overnight charging. This provided us with a slight conundrum, since, due to the threat of Travellers trying to obtain access to the main car park, we have now installed a chain to be used at night. We also granted access to the local ice cream vendor and for a charity plant sale every Saturday during the summer.

The day-to-day running of the ACCT continues to be well managed by our sub-groups and we continue to work to achieve our aims in providing a wide range of community services to the village. As in previous years, I would again thank both Derek and Katie for the excellent work they do in maintaining and safeguarding the facilities; the notes of praise we have received from the public in this respect are much appreciated.

We continue to support the Wardens and the Storehouse in the provision of facilities without charge and I was very pleased to successfully agree a new Facilities and Services Agreement with the Parish Council such that they might use the Main Hall for the monthly Parish Council meetings and the Small Hall or Upstairs office, as appropriate, for their Planning and Finance meetings. We continue to work closely with the Parish Council, especially in respect of the issues regarding the Land West of Ashington School - Planning Application DC/23/0406 and challenges that it puts upon all of us. Various initiatives are currently under discussion, and we shall see what materializes over the course of the coming year.

I would like to thank my fellow Trustees for their excellent contribution towards the running the operations and administration of the ACCT. There are unsung heroes who put in a very considerable amount of time and effort in their endeavours to provide the facilities and services that the village requires.

Unfortunately, due to the pressures of running both AFC and his role with the ACCT, Carl Smart recently stepped down as the representative of the AFC on the Committee and we would like to thank him very much for the great contribution he made during his term as a trustee. His energy and dedication to the tasks we have undertaken over the course of the last few years will be sorely missed. We have also lost Nikki Carter as our PC Observer as she has stepped down from her role as a Councillor. We are sorry to see her go and thank her for the time that she put into working with us.

Laura White continues in her role as the Trust Administrative Clerk, taking on more of the administration to assist Margaret, and Sarah Mansfield-Osborne continues as our accounts Bookkeeper. Laura continues to be a very industrious and supportive member of our team, and I thank her for the work that she continues to do for us.

In my report last year, I said that the primary objective during the previous year was to focus on creating a structure that could target more on business development to secure our financial viability and that this proved to be very successful. We continue to consolidate this position, but with the loss of groups such as Short Mat Bowls, we are extended the focus on expanding upon the recreational facilities that we can offer, especially given the advent of the ongoing growth in the population of the village.

The initiative that we have with the Theatrical and Musical Society is an example of this and we are now engaged with another government body, Applause, who are supporting us in this respect. We are also investigating the establishment of other outdoor recreational facilities and have been encouraged by the response that we have received from local residents in this respect.

As we move forward into the 2025/2026 year, we shall continue to work on other initiatives to enhance the service offering that we can make to the community. Sadly, the pressures of the current economic climate continue to affect us, like many other institutions, but we have a dedicated team of Trustees who will always do their best to deliver. I have every faith that we shall continue to service the community to the very best of our abilities, enhancing the charitable aims of the Trust.

Christopher Wood

Chair, Ashington Community Trust

25[th] May 2025

Income Statement Ashlnglon community Centre Injst For tha yèar ended 31 March 2025 Aeeount 2025 2024 Tumgver Admin Fee Alcohol permit Chrlstrnas fayre and tables Cleanlngfee Full stage HSre of large hall Interest Income Ucense fees Non involced recelpts Other Revonue F>ltch and outdoor ¢ourt hlre 0.00 0.00 1.786.25 40.00 0.00 33.896.91 31,952.92 306.34 0.00 1.978.70 28,105.69 S,803.OC 4,853.50 Scout hut hlre Small hall hlre Sports Court hlre Sports pavllllon lèa fowel sales Wlllard Roo Youth club Total Turnov•r 11.166.70 9,788.70 7,934.35 11,858.30 4,851.60 393.00 6,728.20 77,707.14 B5,017.21 Other Incom• Donatlong Galn on Invesrment Total Qlh•r¢nE•me 233.00 6,577.65 e,8fO.65 603ffj0 2.557.26 4•626 ..Totil In¢omè.' 84.517.79 98,677A7'. C05t of Sal Dlrect ExpEnses Total Costof 8RI•s 408.34 soo.00 84.109AS 198.171A7, Admlnlgtrntl¥• CMts Advertlslng 8 Maiketlng Audlt & Accountancy fees Bank Fees Cleanlng CDmputer Consultlng Depreclatlon Expense Donatlons madè General ExpÈnses Gr¢und5 malntenance rr software and consumables Interest Paid Llcerces and Insurance UF.ht. Power: Heatlng Paypal fee5 Postage, Frei8ht & Courler Prlnting & Statlonery Ra¢es Repalrs & Maintenan Salarfes Staff Trainlng Subscrlptlons SubslsieDce and travel Telephone & internet Water oi 232.61 1,834.92 17.07 9,263.25 662,00 8.789.04 2,070.OD 3,234.09 50.00 3,167.80 1.200.00 6,109.49 528.00 6.299.42 4.82 3.970.35 8.528.79 19,48259 12.80 3.553.31 2,728.93 19.38i).63 42,9S4.71 11,070.70 11,432.25 ofj 98.20 1,143.75 "OpufvllngsknIUtjtdOl1Crtl

Surplijs blfwd Surplus/ldeficitl for year Surplus clfv 118.272.82 446.34 118,719.16 114789.18 3.483.64 118,272.82 Represented by: Dank SavinES Paypal Investment FiKed assèts Debtots Roundlng on above Creditors 3,586.51 30,397.59 122.65 79,592.76 8.577.00 11,614.82 4,119.03 30,591.25 73,015.11 11.587.10 6,749.85 1.00 115,173.211 17,790.S21 118.719.16 118.272.82 l am satisfied the Trust accounts are in Jccordance with the book5 and records and explanation5 given to me IL/-,/- Nlcholas Belton FCCA MA (Hon51 34 Rectory U05e Ashlngton West Sussex RH20 3LP