Dry Doddington Village Hall Charitable Trust Main Street Dry Doddington Lincolnshire LN23 5HU Charity Commission registration number 521834
TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE PERIOD 01/01/2021 to 31/12/2021
Peter Stenton-Guest CHAIR Rebecca Lett VICE CHAIR Lynne Stenton-Guest TRUSTEE Rachel Pygott TRUSTEE Robert Pygott TRUSTEE Daniel Smith TRUSTEE Vickie Birnage TRUSTEE
We are a Village Hall that upholds its original Conveyance and Trust Deed, which states that it was formed for the use of “the inhabitants of Dry Doddington and the neighbourhood without distraction from sex or political religion or other opinions and in particular for the use for meetings, lectures, classes and other force of recreation and leisure time with the object of improving the conditions for the said inhabitants.”
This can be illustrated by the fact that, despite the very difficult circumstances of 2021, we were able to open our doors in May and from then until the end of the year, provide an ever growing range of activities for the benefit of the local community.
These included regular weekly bookings : Craft classes on Monday afternoon and evening; Children’s dance academy on Wednesday afternoon and evening;
And, in addition, bookings were made to hire the hall for: Birthday parties and other celebrations; Church harvest supper; Christmas craft fair; Floral workshops; Parish council meetings; WI meetings; Pop up weekend café; Entertainment.
2021 was a year of extremely trying circumstances.
The continuing Covid pandemic was still dominating the year and our doors remained closed until government guidelines allowed us to open to certain activities in May.
However, the long closure period was used as an opportunity to assess the future of the Village Hall.
Proposals to look at major internal improvements to the whole of the building were agreed on and the search for any available grants, which had been in progress for a few months, was accelerated.
THE NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND was the first to confirm £9000 as a grant to begin the first stage of alterations to insulate our building and conserve future energy use.
This was in no way a minor project as it entailed insulating the internal face of the external walls and was a development requiring planning permissions from several sources. Fortunately, this was all approved and full costing and quotes were gained.
The estimated costs were £17.5K for the major part of these improvements so, consequentially another £8.5K had to be found to cover the whole cost.
Help appeared when Westborough and Dry Doddington Parish Council agreed a grant of £6K from their CBF funding.
This meant that the project, with the final shortfall being covered by the Village Hall’s own funds, could go ahead.
It was during this period that conversations were held with the design team and the installation company of the air conditioning heat source system already in use, to discuss the possibility of introducing a secondary heating system to the main hall.
This heat source system was effective for most of the year. However, during very cold periods it was felt the Village Hall needed an additional heating source to ensure temperatures allowed for comfortable all year round use
The position of the building, on the top of a hill and wide open to extreme winter conditions, needed this secondary system to take it forward into the future.
The trustees agreed to go ahead with a new set of energy saving radiators to be initially installed in the main hall.
The added cost was funded out of the Village Hall funds which had been boosted quite significantly by the government help paid through SKDC Invest.
The Contractors began in late January, with the hope that a time frame of 8 weeks would see the major works completed. Delays were kept to a minimum and we were lucky that materials were still available, even though there were some supply issues.
The works were overseen by one Project Manager so that the possibility of covid contamination was kept to an absolute minimum.
Unfortunately, anyone interested in seeing the progress had to wait until the evening and peer through the windows because we had to keep our contractors safe in their own isolated work area.
The project was completed on time without any accidents or incidents.
Our thanks must go to a fantastic team of contractors who worked extremely hard in very difficult circumstances to bring this huge undertaking to its conclusion.
Other major improvements identified, included the complete refit of the three toilets areas. It was thought that this would only go ahead when funds could be found. However, the government monies previously mentioned from SKDC Invest, gave us the monies required to commence this major investment in the future of the building.
Unfortunately, there were some supply issues and, therefore, it was decided to delay the refit of the disabled toilets until later in the year. However, the ladies and gents toilet areas were
completed in May, including new toilet doors being fitted and we were able to go ahead with decorating the whole Village Hall.
June 2021 brought us a new grant. This time to be used to improve the meeting room with the hope that we could possibly open a community weekend pop up café that would provide residents and visitors to our village with an area to meet and enjoy.
The grant came from THE PRINCE’S COUNTRYSIDE FUND - a very helpful £5500. New tables, set of storage units and carpets in the meeting room and entrance were fitted. In addition, two further energy saving radiators were installed, creating a new multi-purpose space for all our hirers.
The proposal for a community café was now able to go ahead and hopefully it will become something that can be a success in the future.
A lot of thanks should also be directed at our Westborough and Dry Doddington Parish Council who played a significant part in helping us plan the improvements and provided finances. The CBF funding had already financed a kitchen refit in 2019 and the further funding received form them in 2021 was extremely helpful.
You will not see it in the ANNUAL RETURN because the £6K was invoiced directly to the Parish Council.
During 2021 raised beds were created to improve the look of the external areas around the Village Hall. They were a riot of colour throughout the summer months and were hopefully enjoyed by residents, visitors and passers by.
These were replanted in the autumn with winter flowering plants and spring bulbs.
The raised beds were built by a village resident and jointly sponsored by the Village Hall and the Parish Council.
In addition, a small hedge has been planted on the kitchen side of the building, once again with help from a village resident. This will develop over the years and help hide some of the ugliness of the wheelie bins and air conditioning unit on that side of the building!
We also now have our own website, created to improve the way our potential users can view our building and facilities.
This has received positive feedback but are aware of the importance of keeping the site up to date.
The restrictions that had changed our lives, possibly forever, began to lift very slightly in May and we were able to consider opening the doors to those of our users whose activities were within Government guidelines.
A further relaxing of the guidelines enabled a Grand Opening at the end of August, where the new look Village Hall could be viewed and, hopefully, appreciated and admired.
As this report is the first one produced for two years due to the pandemic, we would like to thank all those who helped in any way and played their part within the community to ensure our residents were always cared for and helped in as many ways possible.
It became obvious as the weeks became months and inevitably months became years that the possibility of long term loneliness and mental states were issues we might help even if only a little.
Thanks to the grants obtained from local sources, including Lincolnshire Community Foundation, and once again with help from our Parish Council, we were able to give help and support to most of the community, which was so gratefully received.
Of course, from time to time there will be changes in the management structure and, importantly, there is a constant need for volunteers to support the work of the trustees. Without active volunteers it is difficult to maintain and improve the Village Hall. Volunteering can be satisfying and there is always a need for extra hands. If you have some spare time and would like to get involved, please feel free to speak to one of the trustees to register your interest with them.
The Trustees hope that this transformation of our Village Hall will benefit all our residents and our communities for many years to come.
The financial help received from a range of sources has been spent, we hope very wisely and presented a building that every user will admire, make use of and, more importantly, enjoy.
FINANCIAL OVERVIEW FOR 2021
OPENING BALANCE : £13468.08
Income from grants = £32169.21
Income from hall hire, 100 Club, entertainment, donations = £7441.14
Expenditure : £41235.27
Closing Balance : £11842.76
Loss for 2021 : £1625.32
A full financial overview will be attached to this report. These figures are only as a guide.
The accounts will be inspected, and any minor adjustments made by our chosen accountant.
The Trustees.
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