Brookeville Enterprises 2024.25 AGM
Good morning, everyone.
Can I begin by welcoming you all, on behalf of Tom, Stephen and myself, along here today to the Scullery O’Tullagh site, which of course is the principal project that Brookeville supports, for the AGM of Brookeville Enterprises, considering our Accounts, for the year ending, 30[th] April 2025.
As I did last year, I am circulating a copy of our draft accounts and this report, to all who have said they plan to attend our AGM, a few days in advance, so that you have time to have a read, consider what’s being stated, and if you so wish to comeback to me with any questions that you may have, prior to the meeting or on the meting itself, which we plan to start just after 10am on Wednesday 17[th] December.
As alluded to previously, Annual Report’s like this I always find a little bit strange for we are this morning considering a set of accounts that finished at the end of April 2025, and then we can have a general yarn about where Brookeville Enterprises is as an entity at the end of December 2025.
And of course, on occasions like this we also must remember that this is about Brookeville Enterprises as a whole, not just the project that you as a member or supporter of Brookeville may have a particular focus to.
Annual Reports can also of course can be a bit repetitive in that the same comments are made to the same people every year, and it all can get a bit boring so to speak, but I don’t buy into that sentiment, as I believe that it is vital that we always acknowledge the hard work of volunteers, whose efforts and commitments make projects, like the ones that Brookeville Enterprises support, the undoubted success that they are.
So therefore once again, it is my pleasure to thank my fellow directors Tom & Stephen, Joan, Fred, Chrissie, Hiliary, Harry, and any other volunteers that the SOT project, I’m delighted to welcome Karen now a DEA Officer at MEABC back to SOT today, and also I would give a special welcome to Mark McMahon, for those who don’t know him Mark is a very dedicated volunteer at the Services Club Ballymena, where if you access Canva through the SOT log-in you may have seen some of his design work, and in the Veterans Support Group Ballymena, whom we (Brookeville) have supported in past years.
2024,25 has been a little bit quieter for Brookeville, but in the year in question we still have been able to support a wide range of projects, not only here at Tullygarley but also in conjunction with and for GroundworkNI, Veteran’s Support Group Ballymena, Braidwater Senior’s Group, Ballymena Carer’s, the Service’s Club Ballymena Ladies Committee, Choice
Housing, Ballymena South Community Cluster, Ballymena Neighbourhood Renewal Partnership, Ballymena PeacePlus Partnership and last but certainly not least Castle Towers Senior School.
On a forwarding looking note, Tom & myself met with Neville, Karen and their team at the school last week and I am delighted to report that the kids will be coming back to the SOT site to work with us every Wednesday morning, beginning Wednesday 7[th] January.
As previously stated, we had a much quieter year, so when we turn to the actual figures that we are here to approve, as can be seen from the circulated draft accounts, total incomes in 2024/25 fell quite dramatically from £39,805, to £8,605, confirming the point that I have just made.
There are quite a few reasons why this fall took place, the previous year accounted for our ‘renewable energy’ project and we supported many more projects away from the SOT, especially with Choice Housing.
Moving forward, I expect something similar number in 2025/26, as yes, we have supported quite a few more projects away from the site here at Tullygarley, but as the SOT Project continues to establish itself, and look after more of its own monies, we (Brookeville) are having to handle less of their finances.
As would be expected, our expenditure fell in 2024/25 from £29,169, to £19,319, moving forward, I would expect to see parity on incomes v outcomes as Brookeville is not in a position to make money, something that needs to be considered very carefully with respect to insurance, ground rent at the SOT, annual accounts, annual Canva subscriptions and bank fees.
To bring this all into perspective, we face the following annual costs.
Insurance £1,213 last year Ground Rent £615 last year Annual Accounts £384 last year Canva £110 this year Bank Fees £50 last year
All this comes to £2,372 in total, so as you can see we will have to have a decent discussion about how we address these bills going forward.
All these figures mean that as of the 30[th] April 2025 we had funds of £4,060, which was made up of £2,827 in Unrestricted Funds and £1,233 in Restricted Funds, the £1,200 figure will be familiar to some, as they will remember we spent this on repairs to Tom’s Tunnel in May of this year.
And it also goes without saying that our thanks also are due once again to Heather of D.T. Carson & Co. for her help in the preparation of these accounts.
I fully realise that I have given out a lot of information in this report, and of course posed a few questions as well.
Hopefully, you will now get a chance to have a read at it, alongside the Draft Accounts, consider it and if you have any questions please comeback to me at sculleryotullagh@gmail.com
Otherwise, see you all on Wednesday coming the 17[th] December