Hatfield Woodhouse Village Hall and Old Peoples Centre ## Chairman’s Annual Report to the AGM ## 2021-2022 Good evening everyone and welcome to the village hall for tonight’s annual general meeting. As chairman this is my seventh report to the annual general meeting and the first of a year in which we were able to operate normally without pandemic restrictions since 2019. The village hall year which starts after this meeting, unfortunately did not start with the usual brass band Christmas concert. However, this was compensated for by another fantastic, pantomime production by our sub group, ‘Woodhouse Phoenix’.’ Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’, transported packed audiences to a colourful Old Baghdad from a grey Woodhouse January. This was the first outing for the completely new rolling backcloths which the group obtained for the hall with a grant from Future Biogas just prior to the pandemic. Spring saw the replanting of the car parking amelioration trees, and the installation of the new adventure play equipment, after much hard work by our Secretary. Shortly thereafter the new picnic tables and benches arrived. The whole installation has proved most popular and well used. Many thanks to James for his hard work and persistence. The early part of the year also saw the purchasing, with the help of a grant, the defibrillator and its installation for free by Fowler’s electrical. Our retiring vice-chairman was instrumental in its acquisition as well as the acquisition and installation of the new CCTV system. Again, many thanks to Mark. Thanks also to that old friend of the hall and Phoenix Group, Mick Gladders for the acquisition, at cost, and the installation of the equipment. This was funded by a grant from Hatfield Town Council. At this point I should like to pay tribute to our retiring Vice Chairman Mark Goulden. Mark has over the years rendered great service to the village hall and was indeed a power behind the rebuilding of the new hall over twenty years ago, following the burning down of the old hall. His hard work saw the rebuilding and his service since then has been greatly to the villages benefit. Thank you, Mark. I also need to thank John Reeves, our Treasurer, who is stepping down . He stepped in at short notice during the pandemic and has done sterling work setting up the online banking system. Thank you John. Spring also saw the return of Hatfield and Askern Brass band for a wonderful and moving Spring Concert. It was truly uplifting both in the music and the fact that it reinforced the return to the normal village hall cycle. The early part of the year saw the village lighting upgraded and the loss of the finger post identifying the village hall. This apparently small omission led to many problems for hall users unfamiliar with the hall’s site. We subsequently identified that the hall was shown as sited on Somerton Drive on Google Maps and that we did in fact, apparently, have two postcodes, neither of which was accurate. With the help of a most efficient contact at DMBC the village hall was able to obtain its own unique postcode and the lane upon which we stand has been given back it’s historic name of ‘Darking Ing Lane’. New signage to that effect is in the process of being installed. Summer saw the Phoenix Group performing its summer show ‘A world in Union’ to packed audiences. Again, a village staple returned. Unfortunately, after the pantomime it had become apparent that the lighting desk and some of the spots were nearing the end of their useful lives. With this is mind, a 3-year rolling upgrade program was scoped and it was hoped to obtain funding for this from grants over the years. Fortunately, the Phoenix group were very successful in their grant applications and the monies, totalling £4500, were obtained in just 3 months from Future Biogas and Doncaster Airports grant funds. The new equipment for the village hall was installed last week. The increased use of the play equipment has necessitated the purchase of a new litterbin for the field and funding for this has been obtained from Future Biogas, it is on order. This year has seen the, loss of some of our hirers, ‘West Coast Swing’ and the ‘Radio Hams’. The latter due to unresolvable electronic interference problems arising in the village. Mitigating this has been the starting of puppy dog training in the hall and dogs ‘Flyball’ on the field as well as increasing use by the footballers. After all this good, positive news, I feel somewhat deflated to have to report on the significant challenges to the Hall’s future viability that we now face. Since the start of the year the terrible events in Ukraine, the economic crash and energy inflation have all had a very serious impact on the future viability of village halls across the country and ours is no exception. We are in the fortunate position that we have managed to fund all of the above amenity improvements through grants and have not had to resort to our quite significant ‘rainy day’ reserves. However, the astronomic rise in our energy bills will quickly lead to us having to do so if the economic /energy outlook does not rapidly improve and we do not take urgent steps to mitigate this. With this situation the committee took the decision at the last committee meeting to raise hall rents by approximately 10% across the board. This is the first rent increase in 15 years! The decision was taken reluctantly, knowing the economic pressures on our users and indeed only goes a little way to wards keeping the hall viable. The committee had discussed last year the possibility of solar power generation and indeed our hard-working secretary had investigated this and has again led on this. However, with the world events at the beginning of the year we were a little cautious in proceeding, not wishing to deplete our reserves, till the direction of future income streams and economic shocks became a little firmer. This situation obviously became more not less precarious and it was decided to try to go ahead with this. Funding grants were sought and we have been very lucky to obtain a grant of £13000 from Well Doncaster to fund a 10 KW solar array. The installation of this will hopefully begin this week. This is only Phase One of the energy security project as we are seeking funding for the associated battery storage and potentially we have the capacity to double the KW collection should we be able to afford this. We are also seeking to maximise the efficient energy usage of the hall through reprogramming of our present system. Unfortunately this requires specialist help. The committee is taking every step to ensure our future viability and we do have contingency reserves but these are finite and at present the economic outlook is far less than rosy. However, we remain optimistic that we will weather this storm and the hall can continue to be a great asset for the village. I can only now end by thanking the committee for their hard work, persistence in the face of stumbling blocks and vision for the future. Ian R. Weeks Chairman HATFIELD WOODHOUSE VILLAGE HALL AND OLD FOLKS. CENTRE Rogl$t¢r941 Charlty No. 619079 Rgvanuo Account for the Financial Yaar to 30 bgr 2022 2021122 2020r21 Fund Raising Grants and Donalions Haffield Town Council DMBC Vulcan Renewables Haffield Woodhouse Phoenr Donation Hirings Interest and Diwdends Insurance Light & Heal Water Rates Waste Disposal Costs Cleaning costs Treasurerfs and Committee Member Expenses Playground and benches Tree planting MaintenancelElectrical EX￿dIture Miscellaneou5 rtems 1.500 4.522 6.030 3,695 26. 143 19.638 4,775 3,326 5,249 127 1.689 5.260 3, 148 3,247 85 1.028 5. 164 748 41,075 3,004 11,525 958 6,655 504 (Deficitysurplus 136,8271 10,943 35.386 35.386 30,922 30,922 I confimi that the attached Revenue Account and Balance Sheet for the Financial Year 10 30 September 2022 are in agfeement wth the accounting records and infomiation ed by Hatrield Woodhouse Village Hall and Old Fdks. Centre. S D Boyall. FCCA 23 January 2023 HATFIELD WOODHOUSE VILLAGE HALL AND OLD FOLKS, CENTRE Rgglgtsred Cha￿ty 140. 519079 Balance Sh•&t for thg Financlal Year to 30 Se mbgr 202Z 2022 2021 Fund Account Ba13n¢e brought forward 1110r2021 Surplusl{Deficill for the year 927.154 136,827) 976.211 10,943 Balan￿ carried foiward 301912022 890.327 927, 754 R8presentgd ty: Buildi andE ment Costs Balance brought forward 1110r2021 Additsonal expenditure 847.553 847,553 847,553 847.553 Funds available HSBC Current Account HSBC Money Manager AcC￿￿t Co-operative Community DireCt￿uS Accourrt 41,534 38,067 42.774 Net assets at 301912022 890,327 927, 154 HATFIELD WOODHOUSE VILLAGE HALL AND OLD FOLKS. CENTRE Rogl$t¢r941 Charlty No. 619079 Rgvanuo Account for the Financial Yaar to 30 bgr 2022 2021122 2020r21 Fund Raising Grants and Donalions Haffield Town Council DMBC Vulcan Renewables Haffield Woodhouse Phoenr Donation Hirings Interest and Diwdends Insurance Light & Heal Water Rates Waste Disposal Costs Cleaning costs Treasurerfs and Committee Member Expenses Playground and benches Tree planting MaintenancelElectrical EX￿dIture Miscellaneou5 rtems 1.500 4.522 6.030 3,695 26. 143 19.638 4,775 3,326 5,249 127 1.689 5.260 3, 148 3,247 85 1.028 5. 164 748 41,075 3,004 11,525 958 6,655 504 (Deficitysurplus 136,8271 10,943 35.386 35.386 30,922 30,922 I confimi that the attached Revenue Account and Balance Sheet for the Financial Year 10 30 September 2022 are in agfeement wth the accounting records and infomiation ed by Hatrield Woodhouse Village Hall and Old Fdks. Centre. S D Boyall. FCCA 23 January 2023 HATFIELD WOODHOUSE VILLAGE HALL AND OLD FOLKS, CENTRE Rgglgtsred Cha￿ty 140. 519079 Balance Sh•&t for thg Financlal Year to 30 Se mbgr 202Z 2022 2021 Fund Account Ba13n¢e brought forward 1110r2021 Surplusl{Deficill for the year 927.154 136,827) 976.211 10,943 Balan￿ carried foiward 301912022 890.327 927, 754 R8presentgd ty: Buildi andE ment Costs Balance brought forward 1110r2021 Additsonal expenditure 847.553 847,553 847,553 847.553 Funds available HSBC Current Account HSBC Money Manager AcC￿￿t Co-operative Community DireCt￿uS Accourrt 41,534 38,067 42.774 Net assets at 301912022 890,327 927, 154