Treasurer’s summary report for 2022
· The bank accounts and annual accounting practice are fully in line with the requirements for a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). The accounts include all the funds related to the hall, the play park and the skate park.
· The Hall Development Programme in 2022 was managed as a reserved account. Grant income was £25,625 from various sources (South Gloucestershire Council, Parish Council, Parish News, Leader Grant Scheme, Community Fund and Thrive Community Fund) and was supplemented with £16,000 from reserves generated in 2021 largely through Covid grants. The work included installation of solar energy, refurbishment and redecoration of the hall, hall floor, bar, entrance hall and corridors, inserting cavity wall insulation, installing a hearing loop system, replacing various pieces of equipment. Total cost in the year was £40,647 representing an underspend of £978, however refurbishing the meeting room and purchasing new external signage is still on-going and will be rolled into 2023.
· The difference between operating income & expenditure (excluding reserved Development Programme funds) represents an operating profit for the year of £2634.
· Hiring revenue in 2022 was £17,567 compared to £14,099 in 2021 (2021 reflected three quarters of a normal year due to covid restrictions). This revenue shows a growth in comparison to the last ‘normal’ year 2019 (£15,447). However, the two largest sources of hiring revenue left the hall in the fourth quarter of the year.
· Additional hiring revenue of £1,327 was generated from leasing the office to the PC
· Bar sales were significantly increased to £9,759 from £1,965 in 2021 mainly due to private events especially weddings.
· Fund raising for 2022 was £1,717 down from £2,206 in 2021. The clothes bin collections, donations from community involvement in Amazon, Kindlink & Easyfunding all generated funds. Most of the fundraising was from hall committee organised events and events run by other organisations.
· Hawkesbury play park funds of £679 were generated by the Christmas shopping evening. These funds are reserved to cover the insurance of the skate park.
· Expenditure for oil and electricity in 2022 were up in comparison to 2021. The figures reflect the major changes in the price of energy supply across the country.
· Maintenance expenditures were 25% higher than in 2021 reflecting inflationary increases, increased work required as the facility ages and more legislative checks are required, plus additional repairs to the play areas.
· Cleaner costs were slightly up from the previous year, but cleaning material costs were up reflecting increased use of the hall and the increasing cost of materials.
· Donations to the hall were £790, down slightly from £872 in the previous year.
· Licences & Insurance costs were lower in 2022 due to insurance premium reduction through competitive tendering and reducing insured value. The hall retains the same entertainment licences, the only change being cancellation of the TV licence.
· The Hall Master system for the booking, invoicing and receipt process has been a great success as has the Zettle system for contactless payments at all hall events.
W J Cullen
Treasurer – Hawkesbury Hospital Hall
Hawkesbury Hospital Hall – Chairman’s Year-End Report 2022
Charity Number 1176993
I am pleased to report that 2022 has been a much more stable year for the Village Hall as normality returned post Covid-19. The committee are particularly grateful to our regular hirers, hall user groups and societies who all returned enabling the Hall to offer a broad range of activities and recreation for the enjoyment of all ages. These included Dance, Karate, Yoga, Badminton, WI, Youth Club, Toddlers, Circuits, Evergreens and the Community Library. In addition, the committee worked extremely hard to organise several fund-raising events and to host the regular annual village events as well as some private parties, all of which are critical to the sustainability of the Hall. The key events held in 2022, in addition to the regular recreation activities, included:
· The return of the annual hall fund raising Big Breakfast.
· Two sold out Drama productions, including the November pantomime.
· Autumn music festival with 3 live concerts featuring a broad range of musical styles.
· Professional live theatre production from the Badapple touring company.
· The Horticultural Show and Bonfire Night, both of which had very high attendances.
· Three wedding receptions.
· Christmas gin tasting evening.
Following the last “normal” year of operation in 2019, when the Hall made an operating loss of £5,000, and with both 2020 & 2021 being influenced by Covid lockdowns and Government Covid grants, we started 2022 aware that the costs of running and maintaining the hall exceed the revenue from all our regular hirers and recreation groups by approx. £6,000 p.a. We planned to recover this deficit from fund-raising events organised by the committee and the other event bookings listed above, to meet our target of breaking even in 2022. I am delighted to report that due to particularly high attendances at a few events toward the end of the year, the hosting of three weddings and a relentless drive on reducing costs we managed to generate an operating profit of approximately £2,600. Also, during 2022 we were able to invest £41,000 in the development of the Hall and its facilities through capital grant funding as detailed below. Further financial details may be found in the Treasurer’s annual report. However, and it is a big however, in September we lost our biggest revenue hirer (Pre-School) and our second biggest (Chipping Sodbury Football Club) resulting in a reduction of approximately £8,000 p.a. in our hiring revenue which will create a huge headwind to our finances in 2023 and beyond. I will return to the future financial predicament later in the report.
In mid-2021 the committee launched a 3-Year Strategic Plan aimed at ensuring the Hall remains financially viable and can meet modern day requirements. The plan is based on improving the hall facilities, minimising operating costs and increasing the number and range of activities to increase revenue growth through greater utilisation of the hall. Last year’s report highlighted the key year 1 “behind the scenes” achievements around governance, policies, finance systems and operating efficiencies, and listed the key year 2 “Development Programme” activities around hall infrastructure improvement, modernisation and operational cost reduction. To undertake this major development in 2022 the committee approved £16,000 from reserve funds mainly generated in 2021 through Covid lockdown grants and successfully achieved additional grant funding of a further £25,000 from various third-party funding bodies. Excellent progress has been made on the development programme throughout 2022 with the main achievements listed below:
· A complete refurbishment and re-decoration of the main hall, the bar, entrance hall and corridors – enhancing appearance, use and attractiveness to potential hirers.
· Refurbishment/enhanced protection of hall floor – improved durability & appearance.
· Installation of a 11kw Solar Energy system with battery storage enabling the Hall to be net self-sufficient for our annual electricity usage – saving significant cost and enabling significant environmental benefit.
· Cavity wall insulation – reducing energy consumption and costs.
· Replacement of old pieces of equipment to modernise and enable improved efficiency.
· Improvements to the meeting room and office - creating a professional work & meeting environment to attract businesses use and rental of the office to the Parish Council.
· Installation of an induction loop hearing system in the main hall and meeting room – improving the facilities for those with hearing difficulties.
· Storage improvements for the key user groups of the hall to improve use of space.
· Introduction of a new hiring price framework to favour regular hirers and charitable events and to reduce the price for Hawkesbury residents’ private bookings.
· Significant cost reductions through competitive tendering - insurances, waste disposal, water checks etc.
Our Strategic Plan will continue through 2023 and we will strive to invest in the Hall infrastructure, as grants allow, to focus on completing our environmental strategy objectives, enhance our marketing and advertising activities for hall rental and continue to investigate and implement further opportunities to increase revenue generation.
Having successfully addressed the £6,000 deficit between regular hiring revenue and costs in 2022, and with confidence this would be sustainable in future years, it was hugely frustrating to lose our two main hiring income sources toward the end of the year. The result is a forecast deficit of £14,000 for 2023 and beyond. We have established permanent hire of the hall office to the Parish Council, made further cost reductions and have reluctantly increased the hourly charge rate (but reduced the cost for Hawkesbury resident private bookings to try to attract more of these). These actions should reduce the deficit to circa £9,000, but this remains £3,000 more than we can currently recover whilst maintaining the Hall in its current form. Increased utilisation of the hall, in line with the aims of our Strategic Plan, would of course help considerably. A dialogue has been initiated with the Parish Council to explore how they may be willing to ensure the future financial sustainability of the Village Hall potentially through an increase in the annual precept.
I will finish by offering my sincere thanks for the support and effort of the hall committee members and volunteers. Our village hall is operated as an Incorporated Charity and is self-funding – it is not financed or operated by the Parish Council, nor does it have any major beneficiaries or donors. All committee members are volunteers who provide their time and effort free of charge and take on the responsibility of trustees to enable the existence, operation and development of the Hall to benefit the residents of Hawkesbury. The village hall is a community asset, and its continued operation and success will only be possible through the community’s use and support of it.
Andrew Webb,
Chairman – Hawkesbury Hospital Hall Incorporated Charity