Charity Number: 301765
Bramley Village Hall: Bringing People Together
Bramley Village Hall Trustees: Annual Report for 2023-2024
Summary: A busy year in which we took greater control of some of our long-term maintenance issues, identified cost saving measures and made increased use of volunteers for delivery. Footfall was up and an increase in revenue helped in coping with inflationary pressures. More maintenance projects will be fulfilled in the year ahead, ensuring the continuing viability of the Hall as a community facility.
Objectives
The objectives of the Village Hall and its Trustees, as set out in the Deed of Trust, remain unchanged.
The Trustees Committee
Gareth Jones – Chairman
Richard Beale – Treasurer
Jo Whatley – Secretary Mike Hall – Maintenance
Jane Matthews – Health and Safety and the link with our Caretaker
Jenny Begent
Tony Walton Mike Welch Keith Oborn – Trustee nominated by the Parish Council.
——————–
Mr Max Fullerton resigned as a Trustee in May 2023.
——————–
Mrs Catriona Hayward continues to be employed as our Business and Events Coordinator. The Trustees are very grateful to Mrs Hayward for her continued efforts to support existing Hall users and in winning new business.
Mrs Caroline Keen took over as our Caretaker in February 2024. Mrs Emelia Rutt remains involved in providing Caretaking services for the Hall and we wish to place on record our appreciation of her continued commitment and support.
Policy Documents
We have policy documents covering all of the key areas of the Hall’s functions, including finance, Health and Safety, bookings, maintenance and safeguarding; these were updated in March 2023. A new policy was added this year for Environmental and Sustainability issues. We have a Business Plan which is updated annually and a Strategy Document for the 5 Year period, 2020-2025. All of these documents have been published on our website.
Key developments
During 2023, the hedging to the front of the Hall was reduced in height and a new Village Hall sign was installed; the Hall is now more visible from the road as is the new sign. The latter is illuminated at night from its own solar powered lighting system.
Maintenance issues have taken up much time and effort, chiefly dealing with wear and tear from hirings and occasional minor accidental damages. The floor in the main hall was refurbished in late July, funded by a National Lottery grant, and we now have a 15-year maintenance plan in place. Furniture in the Bramley Room was replaced, funded by a grant from the Parish Council.
Our solar panels are performing well and have achieved a significant reduction in electricity costs, but gas consumption remains a concern.
Gardening and external maintenance was brought in-house and provided by a team of volunteers (with the original name of the ‘Ground Force’), saving us several hundred pounds in costs. Their work plan has been shaped in part by the closer relationship we have established with Wilder Bramley, with whom we are working to re-wild parts of the front grounds of the Hall.
The past year has continued to see an increase in footfall by both regular users and for one-off event hirings; we continue to retain sufficient capacity and flexibility across our suite of rooms to meet the requirements of most hirers. However, there have been issues around late payments and some private hirers cancelling at short notice; this required a tightening up of payment procedures. We continue to monitor this closely. Our hiring charges went up by 10% during the second half of 2022; we have no plans to increase charges at present but will keep the situation under regular review.
We have contributed to the consultation on the draft Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill aka ‘Martyn’s Law’ and conducted an early study of how this might work in practice for the Hall and its users.
Financial situation
Our year-end figures have yet to be audited but income from hirings during 2023-24 amounted to £49,778, an increase of about 20% when compared to income from hirings for the previous year (£40,750). This is largely due to the increase in hiring fees in late 2022-23 and to a small increase in the volume of one-off hirings during the course of the year. These figures do not take into account grant payments for some of the specific projects mentioned above.
Expenditure in 2023-24 was £46,381, nearly 10% less than the previous year (£50,302). This was the consequence of the reduction in energy prices, and savings on maintenance and gardening costs. Wear and tear from higher user levels will increase pressure on our maintenance budgets as the fabric of the main hall building continues to age (now over 50 years old).
In addition, we currently hold a reserve of £17,000, some of which may need to be committed in support of our maintenance projects during the year ahead.
Pending audit, we reached year end with income exceeding expenditure by approximately £3,397, a slight improvement on the previous year.
The Year Ahead
A summary of our plans for the year ahead are set out in our Business Plan.
We will remain focussed on our running costs and will continue to seek ways of reducing the impact of price increases across the board: reducing our gas consumption and maintenance costs will be priorities. Completion of the refurbishment of the kitchen, installation of a new fire alarm system and replacement of the heating/air-con control panel will underpin our operations for the next decade. These are significant investments but are critical to the continued successful operation of the Village Hall.
We have had no further meetings with representative of Wates Developments nor with Redrow Ltd concerning plans for land to the rear of the Village Hall. We remain concerned about the impact the development will have on increased traffic density and access to our property, and the potential stress the development will place on the drainage ditch to the rear of the Hall.
Our ‘Kick Start’ scheme was discussed with one potential user of the Hall and we remain committed to making this scheme available to other potential users as part of our strategy to encourage use of our facilities. We are willing to offer partners in the community the space to develop ideas, to experiment and trial events or new groups without worrying about room hire costs, while we accept a degree of risk in the loss of potential hiring income while a new group gets established.
The Trustees remain committed to supporting the Charity Commission’s desire to encourage people under the age of 25 to become more involved in the governance of charities, large and small. We remain keen to recruit at least one Young Trustee and seek additional volunteers to support the work of the Trustees and to eventually join the Committee.
Issues
There are no significant issues, complaints or disputes to report.
Gareth Jones
Chairman
Bramley Village Hall Trust
07471 897810
9 April 2024