2020-08-31-accounts

ANNUAL REPORT

COMEYTROWE COMMUNITY HALL

Registered charity no. 900119

Period of report: 1.9.19 – 31.8.20 Date of approval by trustees : 23.11.20

Trustees acting during the period:

Jean Allgrove Janet Braund Val Gilfillan

Colin Hogg

Val Gilfillan Marian Hudd Richard Hunt Brian James Una Lee

Simon Nicholls

Penelope Parham

Juliet Willey

Eileen Zoers

The location of the property is at Pitts Close, Comeytrowe, Taunton TA1 4TY but business is conducted through the address of the Chair at 1 Barrington Close, Taunton TA1 4YD

GOVERNING DOCUMENT

The charity’s operation is governed by the terms of a Trust Deed dated 1.7.89 between the Parish Council of Comeytrowe and the charity’s trustees.

The property is leased from the Parish Council for 99 years for a ground rent of £1 per annum and must be used as a village hall for the benefit of all the residents of Comeytrowe without distinction of political, religious or any other opinions with the purpose of improving their conditions of life

All members of the management committee are charity trustees of the charity. They shall all be competent to act as such and shall sign a declaration of acceptance of trusteeship at the commencement of their tenure

The committee consists of

• 10 elected members who will be elected at the AGM although casual vacancies may be filled by the committee during the year

• a variable number of representative members who are “user reps” appointed by organisations who use the hall or who have a specific interest in the area of benefit : they are chosen by their own organization and their name notified to the secretary by the organization they represent

There may in addition be a maximum of three co-opted members appointed by the committee at a meeting

All members of the committee will retire at the end of the AGM but may be re-elected or reappointed

The 13 representative members named in the original Trust Deed were drawn from regular users of the hall or were organisations with an interest in local community objectives. They were Comeytrowe Lunch Club; Comeytrowe Parish Council; Comeytrowe Short Mat Bowling Club; Comeytrowe Under Fives; Dave’s Bingo Comeytrowe; Somerset Social Services Homecare; Taunton Deane Borough Council; Taunton Shotokan Karate Club; Church of St Michael Comeytrowe; Friends of Bishop Henderson School; Taunton Sugarcraft Guild; Trull School of Dancing; Wendy’s Aerobics Comeytrowe. Some of these original organisations have now either folded or relocated elsewhere and no longer have an interest in the hall.

If any organization not currently represented has an interest in local community matters or is a regular user of the hall and wishes to be represented on the committee they must make application to the committee who may approve the appointment by a vote of a majority of not less than 2/3 of all members of the committee at that time. A minute of the decision must then be kept with the working papers of the committee

No members of the committee shall receive any remuneration nor have an interest in any work paid for by the charity

The trustees must maintain the hall and do everything necessary to keep it in good repair including arranging insurance against fire, theft and public liability. Any income shall be applied for the purposes of the charity including extending or improving the premises. Any surplus monies not needed as a working balance shall be invested appropriately

There must be at least 2 ordinary committee meetings a year, the quorum to be not less than 1/3 of the total number of committee members at that current time. Every matter shall be decided by a majority of committee members present and voting with the Chair to have a casting vote in the event of an equality

A special meeting may be summoned by the Chair or any 2 members giving 7 clear days’ notice to all other members of the matter to be discussed.

The AGM is held in November annually when reports and accounts for the preceding year are presented. All Comeytrowe residents aged over 18 years are entitled to attend and vote for elected members. The date of the meeting will be notified by a Public Notice posted on village hall property at least 14 days before the date fixed

STRUCTURE GOVERNANCE & MANAGEMENT

Management committee meetings are normally held bimonthly.

Officers are appointed at the first committee meeting following the AGM. The positions are Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, Minutes Secretary, Bookings Secretary and Health & Safety Officer.

All trustees are volunteers and are issued with an induction pack when they become trustees to help them understand their responsibilities. There are also some volunteers, mainly concerned with maintenance, who prefer not to be trustees. These two groups of volunteers together are the most important resource of the hall since there are no employed staff. Routine cleaning is done by a contract cleaner. All contracts with individuals or companies are awarded by joint decision of the committee.

The hall is GDPR compliant. Privacy policies are posted on the website and on noticeboards in both halls. Also posted there for hirers’ information are copies of the Premises Licence and Membership Certificate to Community Council for Somerset

The committee holds a comprehensive buildings and contents insurance policy through Zurich Village Halls Plus scheme and revises the sums assured annually to ensure they are adequate

As part of the Health & Safety brief an Asbestos survey was conducted in 2017. The resulting Asbestos Register and Log is available to contractors in both halls. Formal checks for gas safety, portable electrical appliances and firefighting equipment are conducted and certified by professional contractors annually. Checks on fire escape safety, emergency lighting and water safety are conducted by volunteers monthly and outcomes monitored by completion of ticklists in both halls

Use of the halls is subject to a Hiring Agreement signed by both parties to the hire. This sets out conditions of hire and identifies the respective responsibilities of each party to the agreement. It is reviewed on an ongoing basis by the Bookings Secretary and formally reviewed and approved by the main committee annually

The committee believes communication with users to be paramount. Regular hirers are sent quarterly statements of their accounts together with an update letter about ongoing issues. Input is

sought about any matters where user opinion would be useful.

The hall maintains an e-mail ([e-mail]) , a website

(www.comeytrowecommunityhall.org) and a Facebook page. It is also a frequent contributor to the Facebook page of “Everything Galmington & Comeytrowe” and to hard copy editions of the “Galmington & Comeytrowe News”

LINK BETWEEN LEGAL PURPOSES / AIMS & OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN TO ACHIEVE THESE

There are two halls independently accessible and usable within the premises. The Main Hall is the larger facility while the Walker Room is designed for smaller gatherings.

Prior to the lockdown for the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 both halls were used almost every day.

During school terms the principal hirer of the Main Hall is the Comeytrowe Under Fives which operates a preschool for more than 70 children aged from 2 to 5 years from 8.30am to 4.30pm on Mondays to Fridays. Since this preschool caters for children of key workers and children with special educational needs it continued to operate during lockdown periods together with some other services specified as essential by government (eg blood donor sessions) .

Other regular main hall hirers include children’s karate and kickboxing clubs; adult aerobic classes; machine knitters; dance classes; an art club and table tennis. These activities stopped during lockdown periods with a consequent loss of hiring income

The smaller Walker Room is used regularly by four different art groups; the Parish Council; seated exercise classes; Ladies’ Circle; a children’s game club; and for band practice sessions. The Walker Room also hosts “Wednesday Welcome”. These are gatherings which welcome any vulnerable, lonely, elderly or otherwise challenged local residents for some refreshments and a chat, a raffle and card games. The committee does not charge for the hire by Wednesday Welcome since we see the provision of this free facility as a definite benefit to the local community and one which helps to alleviate distress amongst those living alone. All these activities stopped during lockdown periods but we welcomed some new hirers catering for behavioural development of special educational needs children, an activity classified as essential.

Both halls are usually available on a casual basis to private hirers for children’s and family parties, weddings, markets, quizzes and other social functions, elections, blood donor sessions, residents meetings, band and choir practices, committee meetings of other local organisations etc. Hiring rates are arranged so that charges for casual hirers subsidise those for regular hirers.

BENEFITS TO BENEFICIARIES AND SOCIETY AND IMPACT OF CHARITY’S ACTIVITY

The hall establishes a meeting place to facilitate activities that benefit the local community.

The provision of a preschool enables parents to work and young children to engage in early years education; various children’s groups encourage physical fitness and intellectual development in the young; adult exercise classes and table tennis are aimed at keeping those in mid life fit; seated exercise classes, art groups and machine knitters tend to cater for the fit elderly; Wednesday Welcome is aimed at the less able and more vulnerable

The impact is that these facilities which benefit members of the local community are available locally so there is no need to travel outside of the area to access them. Such activities are therefore available to all since not everyone is able to travel

SUCCESSES DURING PERIOD

• completion of full COVID-19 risk assessments based on government guidance

• as a result of these risk assessments, provision of new measures (such as hand sanitizer stations) in order to ensure premises are COVID secure

• information successfully disseminated about new requirements for hirers to ensure maintenance of COVID-19 secure environment and monitoring of same

• premises made available as required to essential hirers (eg preschool, blood donors) as per government guidance

• achieved successful negotiation for agreement of terms of Occupational Licence between hall committee and Under Fives for implementation from 1.9.20

• greater use of our social media channels has been monitored throughout the period

• adoption and publication of Complaints Procedure

• purchase and installation of industrial dishwasher which was the final stage to complete the kitchen refurbishment

• following extensive consultation, a new Hiring Policy was adopted and published; hire charges were raised within a fair framework to realistically support our modern vision for improved hall facilities

• new lighting was installed to the car park

• resilience demonstrated by committee in moving from in person committee meetings to electronic decision making in order to continue business as usual as far as possible during pandemic measures

• maintenance of continued healthy financial position despite lack of hire income achieved by applying for various government grants as these became available

FAILURES DURING PERIOD

• problems of unauthorised parking in the hall car park have remained unresolved

• it has not been possible to maintain a full committee due to a lack of volunteers to become trustees. This places more responsibility on those who are trustees and limits our ability to deliver objectives

• no progress has been made on plans for refurbishment of toilet provision

• limited progress only has been made towards Hallmark accreditation (mainly due to suspension of inspection regime during pandemic measures)

FUTURE PLANS

• production of plans and costings for long term refurbishment of main hall toilets

• make progress towards gaining Hallmark accreditation

FINANCIAL REVIEW

A set of accounts and the Auditors Report for the period are attached at the end of this document.

The hall operates two bank accounts.

The first is a current account with Lloyds Bank. The balance in this account at the end of the reporting period was £3857.32

The second is a savings account with Skipton Building Society which yields a variable rate of interest. The primary purpose of this account is to provide reserve funds which would allow the hall to continue servicing debts over a period of six months of closure due to any unforeseen emergency.

The amount earmarked for this purpose is £6K

The secondary purpose of the Skipton account is to provide a vehicle for saving up for forthcoming large projects. To this end, monies accumulated in the Lloyds account will periodically be transferred to the Skipton account if not needed for foreseeable running costs or maintenance. The balance in the Skipton account was £22344.30 at the end of the reporting period

There are four trustee signatories to both accounts and two of these are required for all outgoing payments

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