KIRKBURTON AND HIGHBURTON COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
NOTES ON ACCOUNTS
YEAR ENDED 31[st] AUGUST 2025
Income over Expenditure
I am very pleased to advise that after three years of our finances showing excesses of expenditure over income we now show an excess income. Much of the past few years has been because of us awarding grants that we were only able to do following the Covid funds we received ourselves totalling just over £30k. So even though we paid out in total grants the sum of £1056.12 over the past year, it is an achievement to show a surplus (see below for breakdown). The total grants that we have issued since 2021 comes to £11889.58 plus works we have had done on the hall which were paid from the Covid scheme of £13790.85, therefore a total of £25680.43. We continue to make grants available from the Covid funds and in future whilst we do this our accounts could show deficits in our year-end financial figures.
The overall yearly income for this financial year comes to £4649, which incorporates a surplus of £1483 in the Burton Bulletin plus also the £2701 that we received from the Senior Citizens Tea Fund committee.
The continuing good news is that over the past year our rental income has surpassed our day to day village hall outgoings by £464.65 which means that we continue to maintain a healthy financial position with our rental income for the year increased to a record £21700 from £20242. Although groups have finished we have had new groups using the hall plus existing groups using the hall more.
Overall our bank balances show a healthy £58006, this does include the ring fenced funds of the Burton Bulletin as well as the Senior Citizens Tea Fund totalling a combined £7714, therefore our actual funds stand at £50292. Our good financial situation allows us to continue to help other local groups or individuals financially with projects that promote and enhance the villages of Kirkburton and Highburton.
KHCA Grants
This was the fourth year that our committee have agreed to continue the grant application process so that we can help other groups and individuals in the villages of Kirkburton & Highburton. There were four grants given this year totalling £1056.12:
Kirkburton History Group – Big Sing £300 Kirkburton Bellringers £150 Burton Environment Group – BioBlitz £156 Digno Films £450.12
We did allocate Covid funds for new windows in the hall £700 plus repairs to the roof and more barbed wire being installed £1769.58.
Hall Manager
You will recall that Kaye Emberton gave us 12 months notice that she intended to step down from this role come this year’s AGM. Due to recent personal reasons Kaye has found it necessary to step down earlier in August, however Kaye has carried out these duties since November 2005 and the whole of KHCA and all the User Groups would like to thank her for all the hard work she has carried out over the past two decades. I would also personally like to pass on my thanks and wish her well in her retirement. It will be a hard task to follow but John Birds has stepped up to take on the role and we are sure he will do a good job and help the village hall to continue to serve the community and continue to keep the hall in good condition.
Village Hall General Upkeep
As you will be aware we do carry out various general repairs and servicing at the village hall during the year. If you were to look back on previous years you will see that this does fluctuate, as it all depends on what is needed to be done. As a comparison our costs for repairs and servicing were as follows; 2022 £1716
2023 £1993 2024 £2695 2025 £1350
Roof
The last time we had people on the roof was before the end August 2024 however the repairs and extra barbed wire work was not carried out until this financial year. We have had no problems since and hopefully the increased barbed wire and notices saying that there is no more lead on the roof for them to pinch has worked.
Gas Boiler
One of the two gas boilers that we have in the cellar had stopped working in early Spring. I was successful in applying for a Parish Council grant towards the total cost of £3684.31 with the grant covering £2957.44, meaning that we covered the shortfall of £726.87. The reason we had two boilers installed originally was because of this scenario happening, if we only had one boiler and if it was winter the groups could not use the hall due to cold conditions. As previously mentioned in last year’s notes, an air source heat pump would not be suitable for our hall.
Utilities
As mentioned last year we needed to check the outcome of the past years usage of both electric and gas to decide if we need to reassess our rental charges. The figures below show how much both of our energy usage total costs have increased. Gas costs have increased by 49% whilst the electric has increased by 61% before the electric charging points usage is taken into account. As we will only be receiving payment in arrears from the EV charging points every quarter the actual figures will never be exact. Therefore the payment we are receiving since their installation which was in March 2025, covers the period up to the end of June 2025 and amounts to £712.08. Once this is taken from the total yearly cost of £3585.22 we come to a figure of £2873.14 which gives us an increase in electric for the year of 31%. However that is not the true figure as we also have the usage figures of July and August to take into account, so also we now know that we received £831.60 covering up to the end of September quarter which has since been received. This therefore shows our electricity increase by 6% over the year. As our new charging tariff for electricity is going down in October 2025 our concern is therefore only with the gas costs. In the past year you will see that these have increased by £1110.
Electricity
Our current fixed contract is a two year term until October 2025. I have been able to secure a new two year fixed term at 21.202p kWh unit price from our previous 30p kWh unit price a reduction of 29%, however the daily standing charge has increased from 42p to 96.76p. Due to our usage of electricity we are better off having a lower unit price than we are having a lower daily standing charge.
With the continued help from all the User groups we hope to continue to have control on our overall expenditure. 2022 £1190.74 2023 £1370.03 2024 £2197.45 2025 £3585.22
Electric Car Charging Points
After two years of slow progress in getting these charging points installed, they were eventually up and running in March this year. The payments that we receive are paid at the end of each quarter, however as this was a new installation the payments have been delayed but we know we will be receiving £1286.40 + VAT £257.28, for the use up to the end of September. The continuing maintenance costs and any damage caused to the chargers will be covered by Kirklees Council as they remain their property and responsibility.
Gas
The three year fixed tariff which started in November 2024 has a charge of 8.54p per kWh plus a daily standard charge of 72.21p. This was an increase on our previous unit tariff of 69% and I reported last year that I wanted to see what effect this had on our overall costs before deciding if we needed to increase our rental charges. The figures below show that our gas costs have increased by 49%. Our gas annual costs over the past three years have been as follows: 2022 £2266.33 2023 £2572.50 2024 £2252.10 2025 £3362.63
As a comparison our combined heating and lighting costs have been as follows: 2022 £3457 2023 £3943 2024 £4449 2025 £6947 less £712.08 electric charging refund
Burton Bulletin
The Bulletin is now an established success due to the editorial team with a special thank you to Gerard Hetherington who continues to do an excellent job as editor and is supported by an excellent team who are Dave Hilton, Steve Kerridge Jan Moscovitch, Lesley Rattigan and David Russell. We also thank John Boden who organises the distribution and to all of the distributors for their time and effort.
This year celebrates the 10[th] anniversary of the existing Bulletin which was initially set-up by our late chair Mike Greetham. They continue to receive excellent articles and information from our local residents, which other residents enjoy and appreciate. The Bulletin has continued to have 48 pages due to the demand which has helped allow more advertisers to contribute and to cover the cost which currently is £928 per issue, and includes delivery from Lincolnshire.
The team also needed to purchase new software that helped them collate the Bulletin in preparation of sending it to the printers, this cost £238.75.
In the past twelve months the Bulletin has shown a financial profit of £1483.13 which was achieved due to the increased support from local businesses advertising and the financial situation is in a very stable condition and looks as though this will continue over the next year, the bank balance is in credit by £5012.09.
Carbon Footprint
Like all village halls around the country we want to do our bit towards reducing the UK’s carbon footprint. You will already be aware that many of the light switches in the hall are on auto turn on and off, which stops certain lights being left on by mistake. Most of the lights in and outside the hall are already LED lights, which reduces the power requirement to run them. The central heating in the hall is powered by gas, however we have a timer in the cellar that is adjusted weekly to ensure we do not use more gas than is needed. The thermostat in the main hall is not to be adjusted by anyone apart from myself and this is set at about 19-20 degrees. The solar panels on our roof since about 2008 help with reducing our electricity needs during the day and any surplus is returned to the national grid, you will see that we received £1118.48 from our feed in tariff rate. A smart meter is fitted in the cellar.
As mentioned earlier we did make enquiries about an air source heat pump for the future but it is not currently feasible.
All users of the hall can help with the reduction in our carbon footprint by ensuring all lights are switched off when not required particularly in the main entrance hall and main kitchen when not in use.
Rental Income
Once again our rental income has risen to its highest level ever. The main reason for this is the increased usage of the hall as it has never been higher, we continue to get enquiries on a very regular basis for regular potential bookings, but many of them have to be turned away as we do not have the availability to accommodate them. We believe that our hall charges are still the lowest in the area and are more than 50% below some venues. Other venues also operate a different charging structure to us and this can involve charging new groups higher rates than existing groups and another is when charges are unstructured and each group is charged differently. That is all too difficult to manage and keep up-to-date with as far as I am concerned. So we charge all regular groups the same rates, but they are slightly higher in the evenings due to heating and lighting.
| 2024/25 |
Budgeted | Actual | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | |||
| Utilities | 30% | 35% | 7606.29 |
| Maintenance/admin | 67% | 54% | 11614.20 |
| Community | 1% | 1% | 144.00 |
| Reserve | 0% | 7% | 1608.94 |
| Projects | 2% | 3% | 726.87 |
To show how our rental income is arrived at I wanted to provide a breakdown in the figures and show how much each User Group contributed to the overall figure.
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User Group Annual rental received Contribution as a percentage of total rental income
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| User Group |
Annual rental received |
Contribution as a percentage of total rental income |
|---|---|---|
| Highburton Playgroup | £6549.00 | 30% |
| Burton Out-of-School Club | £4038.00 | 18.6% |
| Kirkburton Parish Council | £3788.80 | 17.5% |
| Slimming World | £1787.00 |
8% |
| Private Parties | £ 1110.00 | 5% |
|---|---|---|
| Kirkburton Karate | £ 828.00 | 3.8% |
| Highly Strung Guitars & Ukulele £ 676.00 | 3% | |
| Burton Crafters | £ 504.00 | 2% |
| Embodied Yoga | £ 474.00 |
2% |
| Brownies | £ 450.00 | 2% |
| Dance practice | £ 360.00 |
1.6% |
| Women’s Institute | £ 296.00 (includes craft group) | 1.4% |
| Chichi-Fit | £ 288.00 (now finished) | 1.3% |
| Mothers & Toddlers | £ 270.00 (now finished) | 1.2% |
| Pyjama drama | £ 104.00 (now finished) | 0.5% |
| Kirkburton Labour | £ 82.50 | 0.4% |
| Nyte Ryde | £ 51.00 | 0.2% |
| Bluebell Garden Club | £ 28.00 |
0.1% |
| MP Surgeries | £ 10.00 | - |
| BabyBeats | £ 6.00 (new group) | - |
You will notice from the above information that one new group started and is due to continue after the school holidays. We also have another group that has started at the beginning of September on a regular weekly basis in the small hall. We have only lost three small groups during the year and were small in relation to our overall income.
Hall Bookings Manager
We were pleased when three volunteers came forward after our advertisement for this position in February and we had Elena and Amanda as joint managers and they have both been covering the position successfully since the end of February. However since September Elena has had to step down due to increased workload at her full time job and we have been able to call upon Darren who was the third volunteer in February to step into the role. It is also useful to have cover when one person is away.
Over the past 12 months our one off party bookings have been higher than ever before 14 in total. They have increased drastically since Covid when they completely stopped and only gradually increased over the past few years with an income of £1110 being achieved in the past year.
I continue to take responsibility for being the contact for regular user groups and those prospective enquiries wanting to book the hall on a regular basis. We do receive enquiries on a regular basis for people looking to start up new groups however the main hall is virtually in constant use during the weekdays and evenings so any new groups only have the small hall and snug available to hire. Even at the weekends the main hall is booked on Saturdays until 4pm, so the time for any parties is restricted, but we are better off with regular income than with adhoc bookings.
Hall Cleaners
Joanne and Kathryn who jointly carry on as the self-employed cleaners role and have been doing a great job. I would like to thank them both for all the hard work they do to ensure the hall remains a clean and safe place for all the groups.
Budget For 2025-26
I am including a budget forecast for the year 2025-26 which is set based on an estimated rental income of £21,000.
Utilities 35 % Maintenance/admin 62 % Community 1 % Reserve 0 % Projects 2 %
Due to the increase in our utility unit rates I have amended the projected budget for next year which hopefully reflects a more realistic picture. As mentioned before the electricity price will impact on our running costs as well as the new gas prices that start in November 2024, Our electricity usage is helped by our solar panels on brighter days, however our gas usage to heat the building especially during cold spells needs to be monitored.
The setting of the budget figures helps the committee to ensure we keep on track, and it highlights any discrepancies during the financial year.
-
Utilities: as mentioned we have increased the budget for next year due to the increase in the gas unit price.
-
Maintenance/admin: we have slightly decreased the budget for this coming year. This section covers cleaning, general running repairs and the up keep of the village hall on a day to day basis.
-
Community: we keep this budget in anticipation of us having a good financial year, the budget takes into account the Covid grant scheme.
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Reserve: I believe our opportunity to add to our reserve monies will be limited if not impossible, however overall a suitable reserve needs to be maintained, so should anything serious happen to the hall we will then be in a position to act quickly, and it gives us a sound financial footing for the future. A reserve policy is in place which states that we should keep a minimum of 100% of our year’s expenditure in reserve as a minimum.
-
Projects: We keep a small budget figure in place as they can always be unforeseen circumstances which
-
require work, however we have been using the Covid grant scheme to cover some of our additional costs.
Rental Charges For 2026
Last year in my report I mentioned about the difficulty in predicting the affect that the gas price increase would have on our overall costs as the new prices only came into effect from November 2024. Please see my previous comments about this under utilities.
Our margin between covering our day to day village hall costs has been shrinking over the past few years but until now we have maintained a positive position, but this past year was only possible due to the Covid grant scheme we setup. Hopefully (fingers crossed) the continuing cost of roof repairs will cease now that barbed wire and signs are erected. We last increased our rental charges in January 2023, but not by much considering that before this they were last increased in 2007.
We have now had a year since the new increased gas prices came into effect however we continue to be in a healthy financial situation with plenty of fall back should we need to cover the coming year. My philosophy is that we run the village hall for the benefit of the community and as long as KHCA is financially stable, which we are, then this should in turn help everyone that uses the hall.
My proposal for the rents for 2026 is that they remain the same but formal approval is sought at the AGM so it will come down to a vote on that evening. Our room rates are still very favourable when compared to other similar local venues and the more we can do to help the various groups who rent the hall the better, especially in the continuing current economic climate.
We must remain vigilant with our finances, but prudent accounting will keep us on a steady course.
The proposed rates will therefore remain the same as follows if voted through at the AGM:
| Time | Old School Room | Thorncliffe Room | Woodsome Room | Snug |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| Before 18.00 hrs | 6.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 |
| After 18.00 hrs | 8.00 | 5.00 | 5.00 | 5.00 |
| Combined use of Old | School Room | Kitchen Only | ||
| and Thorncliffe Room | ||||
| £ | £ | |||
| Before 18.00 hrs | 10.00 | 7.00 | ||
| After 18.00 hrs | 12.00 |
8.00 |
Parties & One-Off Events
We currently charge £70 for a child’s party lasting no more than 4 hours and £150 for an adult evening party. It is proposed that these charges also remain the same with the refundable bond deposit staying at £50.
Account Check
I would like to thank Simon Coulthard for checking the accounts.
iaRKBURTON AND HIGHBURTON COMPJIUNrrY ASSOCIATION STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTrrfmES YEAR ENDED 31- AUGUST 2025 2025 2024 INCOME Hire of hall Burton BUltin Burton Bulletin- One Communrty grant Bank Interest reIVed Bank charges intyjme Solar panel Party bond Items rented oul Front door key & fob Burton Open Gardens Donations- Give as you Live Donations Senior C)tvzens Tea Fund Grant- KPC Small grant KPC Boiler KPC WindoY+8 KPC Defibrillator lQrklees Councbl Dn0 Films 217(Kl 5415 20242 3510 1500 1015 931 1118 1477 100 35 15 36S8 15 18 12 271 300 2957 342 56 37351 32383 EXPENDITURE Burton Bulletin Burton Bulletin- Software Repairs Security System Refuse collectK)ns Websrte Burton Open Gardens New windows New gas boiler Window cleaning Cleaning Light and heat Water rates Insurance Telephone&BroadbarKI Office stationery Postsge Licences Xmas tree lights Subscriptions Miscellaneous items PAT testing Paty Bonds Asbestos checks Roof repairs Barbed wire New Vacuum Cleaner ICIoL¢d storage Defibrillator nSUM8b1s Bank charges- KHCA Bank chaiges- Burton Bulletin 3692 239 1350 3361 239 2695 261 744 3658 934 1500 140 4358 6948 658 2015 673 231 105 4908 658 1769 615 31 115 144 35 152 112 112 13 193 100 510 1770 3778 3404 370 60 493 67 342
Bank charges- Senior Citizens Tea Fund KHCA COVKI grant scheme lQ'rkburton History Group- Burtrm Cross Woven BioBlitz Kirkburton Bellringers Digno Films Sing 992 144 156 150 1450 3272 34791 2408 EXCESS EXPENDITURE OVER INCOME EXCESS INCOME OVER EXPENDITURE
KIRKBURTON AIYD HIGHBURTON COMMUNrrY ASSOCIATION BAkn%NCE SHEET YEAR ENDED 31" AUGUST 2025 Unresrricted Fund 2025 Unrestricted Fund 2024 FIXED ASSETS Tangible &8sets 283173 283173 CURRENT ASSETS Cash in bank and in l]aThl 58LKJ6 53357 NET CURRENf A&SETS 58(X)6 53357 £341179 £336530 Balance brought forward 336530 338938 Excess Expenditure over Income 2408 Excess Income over Expenditure £341179 £ 336530
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteosl members of Kirkburton & Hwjhrt0n Communty Association On accounts for the year endad 31 August 2025 Charity no (rfany) 507813 Set out on pages I report to trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (Ihe Trusn for the year ended 31108 12025 Responsibilities and basls of report As the charitys trustees, you are respryBible for the preparation of the accounts in accordan wtth the requirements of the CharItS Act 2011 A). I report in resFd of my examination of the Trusfs accounts carried out under secb'on 145 of fv 2011 Act and in carying out my examination, I have folloN%d all the apFAicaNe Dire(#sons gNen by the Charity Commission urKler section 14515)(b) of the A(a. Independent I have completed my examinatton. I confimi that no material matters have examinerfs statement come to my attentbon in conneciion with the examination (other than that disclosed below") thich gsves me cause to bele that in. any material the accountiro records Ere not kept in accordan 1th section 130 of the Charities Act; or the accounts did not accord wryth the accounting records; or the accounts did not comply %*ith the applicable requirements onoming the fomi and content of accounts set out in thé Charities (Accounts and ReFts) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a and fairf view is not a matter considered as part of an indetEndent examination. I have no concems and have come a¢yoss no other matters in connection with the examination to 1¢h attention should be draTr in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reaGhed. . Please delete the W(ts in the brackets rfthay do not apply. Signed." Date: SK(> Namo: Simon Coutthard Relovant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): 6 z ftiooL LW¥ Address:
Section B Disclosure Only complete rf the examiner needs to hHJhlight material matters of conrn (see CC32, Indepent examination of charity acrounts.. directions and gubdance for examiners}. Glve hère brief dotsils of any items that the examlner wishes to disGlose.