Ashbury Village Hall

THE VILLAGE HALL ASHBURY

Registered Charity Number: 292821

https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/292821/charity-overview

Annual Report of the Chairman and Secretary, 1 April 24 to 31 March 25.

Management Committee:

We give sincere thanks to all of our management committee members who form our Leadership Team, giving freely of their time to support the efficient running of Ashbury Village Hall to benefit all in the local community. 

At the 2024 AGM, 3 long standing committee members stood down after almost 70 years collective service, Maggie Simons, Lin Clarke and Diane Lovegrove. The 2024 AGM approved the following officers and members:

• Chair – Chris Millard
• Secretary – Margaret Smith (and Church Representative)
• Treasurer – Jo Cholmeley
• Bookings Secretary – Steve Pilkington
• Buildings Officer – Roger Baker
• Parish Council Representative – Eliza Lewis
• Toddler Group and Community Club Representative – Jackie Baker
• Supported by the following members:  Julia Blake, Sandra Dagnall, Simon Edwards, Janice Honeyman, Lynne Phillips, Pete Smith

On 10 March 25, Maggie Simons received the Oxfordshire’s High Sheriffs award for her service to the Village Hall, the Church and the village over many years.  Congratulations are extended from the current committee.

Our Village Hall Profile:

Ashbury Village Hall now has a comprehensive on-line presence, with a new website, Facebook page and email.  These are linked to those of Ashbury Village, and importantly enable on-line booking and enquiries.  A simple internet search of ‘Ashbury Village Hall’ takes you straight there.  Together with card payment capability, we are able to effectively operate in the digital world.

A monthly ‘What’s On’ is now posted on-line and through Ashbury’s email news distribution.

We thank Steve Pilkington for creating and maintaining this on-line presence and capability.

• On-line: www.ashburyvillagehall.org
• Face Book: Ashbury Village Hall
• Email: villagehall@ashbury.org.uk

Use of the Hall:

The focus of the Management Committee remains to provide and maintain a venue primarily for the benefit of the residents of the Parish of Ashbury (which includes Kingstone Winslow, Idstone, Knighton and Compton Beauchamp). The hall has hosted a diverse range of events and activities, including:

• As a community facility: 
  • Toddler Group
  • Community Club
  • Yoga classes
  • Bowls
  • Craft and painting activities
  • Parish Council and community meetings and gatherings
  • The Parish Polling Station
  • Fund raising events such as jumble sales, plant sales and the like.
• As a performance venue:
  • Seasonal performances by the local community choir – the Rose and Crooners, led by Holly Royal.
  • Badapple Theatre Group.
  • Village Pantomime – Holly Royal and the Panto Team.
• Private booked functions and parties.

Financial summary:

Our village hall, as a charitable trust, has not been immune from the significant recent inflation particularly in utility prices.  We are part of a buying group in this respect, but costs remain significant.  For example, our annual electricity cost is around £2800.  At our standard hire rate of £12 per hour, this equates to 30 full days hire.  As a listed building, ongoing regular maintenance and improvements to provide the services we would all expect, together with those of cleaning and other utilities etc, combine to a total running cost for the period of £8331.00. Our funding comes from our long term investment trust, (£5500) and hire income (£2000) with the gap made up from our collective fund raising activities.  This provides a stable financial base, with our current account balance of £9273.

During the year, we benchmarked our hire rates to other similar neighbouring village halls and, from January, realigned our rates to remain competitive and supportive of our village, however to address some of the funding gap widened by inflationary pressures. 

Fund Raising:

We would like to give our sincerest thanks to all who support our Village Hall through generosity of time and support for events which provide valuable funds to balance our books.  The principal events have been:

• Badapple Theatre Production - £360
• Annual Village Quiz - £1100
• Village Pantomime - £620

We particularly acknowledge and thank the support of Holly Royal and the Rose and Crown Team, who have been more than generous in support for events. It was a pleasure that the Village Hall could host Holly’s Village pantomime which raised over £1800, donated equally to the church, school and ourselves.

Hall Maintenance and development.

The Village Hall Team operate a ‘Caretaking Rota’ where each team member takes on the role for a 2 week period, to ensure that the hall remains in good order for events, and importantly that it is treated appropriately and left in good condition follow an event or hire.  Numerous repairs and maintenance activities have been completed, a never-ending job on a listed building built in the late 1860’s. This included repairs to the roof and external walls, and completion of the renewal of our leaded windows.  We thank Jo Cholmeley, Peter King and Roger Baker for their hard work in this respect.

We are very grateful to our cleaner, Starr Williams and for our regular window cleaning by Tim and Alex Hobden. Our electrical systems have been maintained by Tim Reade and Les Simmons. 

Our facilities have been upgraded with the internet and PA facility widely used, and the addition of a high quality digital projector and screen.

The continued development of building, safety and fire legislation places potentially costly requirements for upgrades to the Village Hall, which will need to be addressed in the coming year.

The Year Ahead

The AGM gives us an important opportunity for us all to consider the year ahead, and what we, as the leadership team, should aim to complete during the year.

We welcome input from all Team members and supporters of our VH into our objectives and plans for the year ahead.  Set out below is our proposed plan. 

Overall Objectives:

• To provide a quality sustainable Village Hall for the people of the Parish of Ashbury, to give a safe and practical facility for community events and activities which enhance the well-being of all.
• Update and maintain the hall so that it remains fit for purpose and stands the test of time.
• Ensure a safe, secure and compliant facility.
• Ensure that the hall operates on a long term financially secure basis.

Proposals for the Village Hall for the Year ahead:

• As a community facility:
  • Continued support to regular clubs, groups, charities & sales.
• As a Centre for Health and Well Being:
  • Support continuation of Yoga.
  • Opportunities for other exercise classes.
• As an Arts and Crafts Studio:
  • Develop and host regular arts & crafts classes, for Ashbury and the wider local villages.
• As a Concert Hall:
  • Support our community choir, their concerts and charity fund raising.
• As a Theatre:
  • Badapple Theatre – Friday 26 September.
  • Ashbury Pantomime 2.0?
• As a Cinema:
  • Hold a film afternoon for kids?
  • Hold a film night?
• As a Private Hire Venue - revenue target £2500
  • Seek to attract more (appropriate) private party and use bookings.
  • Election venue.
• Ensure Financial Security:
  • Fund Raising – target £3000.
    • Village Quiz – 8 November.
    • Burns Night – 24 January 2026.
    • Bingo – TBC.
    • Promise auction - 11 October – To be joint with the Church and School.
  • Review longer term financial security, recognising inflationary pressures and variable investment returns (with new treasurer).
• Update, and ensure Fit for Purpose:
  • Complete actions following fire risk assessment.
    • Electrical repairs and updates c. £1000.
    • Asset protection fire measures c. £2000.
  • General decorating refresh c. £500.
  • Car park patching refurbishment  c. £500.
  • External wall replacement – Funded through Entrust grant.

Chris Millard.                                                              Margaret Smith

Chair.                                                                            Secretary.

Minutes of the Ashbury Village Hall Management Committee Meeting

including the Annual General Meeting

13 May 2025 in the Village Hall

1. Attendees

Present: Jackie Baker, Roger Baker, Julia Blake, Jo Cholmeley, Judy Clarke, Sandra Dagnall (Minutes), Eliza Lewis, Chris Millard (Chair), Lynne Phillips, Margaret Smith, Pete Smith, Anne Taylor. 

Apologies: Simon Edwards, Janice Honeyman, Laura Pilkington, Steve Pilkington.

2. Minutes

2.1 Minutes of the meeting held on 15 May 2024 (AGM)

The Minutes had been previously circulated.  There were no corrections and were signed and filed. 

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
 

3. Committee Membership

3.1 Retiring Officers and Committee Members

Julia Blake, Margaret Smith and Pete Smith have resigned.  Notably, Margaret has been on the Committee for 17 years and, along with the thanks of the other Committee members, she was presented with leaving gifts. 

3.2 Election of Officers and Committee Members

A Committee Membership paper, summarised below, that was provided with the Committee pack was discussed and agreed.  New members were welcomed to the Team. 

It was noted that Jo Cholmeley has given notice of her intention to leave the Committee at the next AGM and so a suitable replacement will be sought. 

Action 1: Sandra to reflect the changes within the Charity Commission data, Entrust (Jo), websites WhatsApp Group and internal documents.

(for nominations, please see table below)

4. Reports

4.1 Chairman and Secretary’s Report 

The report had been circulated prior to the meeting (an updated copy will be included with the Minutes), there were no material questions and the report was agreed. This will be shared with Christopher Prentice and Holly Royle for comment prior to signature and making public.  

4.2 Treasurers Report

Jo said that the draft accounts are now with the Auditors.  At the year end, there was an unrestricted amount of £9,272.00 in the current account and £164,739.28 invested with Blackrock which, over the year, supplemented the income by £5,505.24.  There is no current desire to move away from Blackrock.  Net income following expenditure was £949.19.  The figures indicate that, although some bills have risen, the combination of the Blackrock investment income, hall hire (up on the prior year) and event income is covering day to day expenditure but renovations and improvement will diminish capital.  The Committee discussed the importance of holding two or three strong fund-raising events per annum and increased hall hire days can only be helpful.   It also recognised the generous support from the community and Holly Royale and the Rose and Crown team.

4.3 Year Ahead

A supporting paper had been provided with the AGM pack which summarised the objectives, aims and typical events for the coming year. This was discussed within the meeting and members agreed that this will be the basis on which the Management Committee will progress during the year. 

At this point, the AGM was closed and the Committee Meeting commenced.