Charity Number: 301765
Bramley Village Hall: Bringing People Together
Bramley Village Hall Trustees: Annual Report for 2024-2025
Summary: A busy year in which we delivered some major upgrades to the Hall infrastructure and continued to seek more cost-efficient means of delivering our services. A planned maintenance programme began to get into its stride and we continued to make good use of volunteers for delivery. Footfall was up and an increase in revenue helped in coping with inflationary pressures. Some major works lie ahead with regard to the Hall roof and we face a period of potential disruption as the Barratt-Redrow development gets underway to the rear of the Hall.
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.
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There have been no resignations or recruitment of new Trustees during the year.
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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 for the continued commitment and support of Mrs Keen and Mrs Rutt.
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 2025. We have a Business Plan which is updated annually. All of these documents have been published on our website. A Strategy Document for the 5 Year period, 2025-2030 is under development and will be published later this year.
Key developments
Martyn’s Law: An issue that the Trustees monitored closely over the past year was the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill which is likely to pass into law during 2025 and is frequently referred to as ‘Martyn’s Law’ after one of the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing. Early drafts of the legislation set the bar at a low level for those venues to be covered by the new legislation and Bramley Village Hall, like many others across the country, gave feedback to the Home Office about the nature of the activities at our Hall and the volume of people crossing the threshold every week. As a consequence, the latest draft of the legislation sets the threshold for additional security measures and training for those organising and conducting events at 200 people:
It is reasonable to expect that from time to time 200 or more individuals may be present on the premises at the same time in connection with one or more uses specified in Schedule 1.
[Section 2 (2)c, Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill.]
We have checked carefully and none of our users have a capacity near this number. Two of the largest events held at the Hall do not have more than 150 people present at any one time. In addition, we do not have multiple users on site at the same time which would take us close to the figure of 200. We have written to all of our users to explain the terms of the Bill and to allay any concerns. In doing so, we also offered some general advice about the security of events, utilising Government advice in the wake of the Southport incident in July 2024 which resulted in the death of three children.
Hall Infrastructure: At the end of July our contractor, SECOM Ltd, replaced the fire alarm system across the entire Village Hall with a modern system that is compliant with fire regulations and will ensure the safety of our users for the foreseeable future. This project was funded by the Parish Council. Secondly, we completed a major project in early August to replace the kitchen adjacent to the main hall. Hampshire Kitchens were awarded the contract and were very efficient in removing the old kitchen completely and installing the new cabinetry and worksurfaces, along with plumbing and electrics. This project was jointly funded by Hampshire County Council, the Bernard Sunley Foundation and Bramley Parish Council.
During the summer we received a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund to support the work of our team of volunteer gardeners who manage the green spaces around the Hall. The grant funded the purchase of new tools to facilitate that work and the acquisition of a new secure storage facility to replace the old garden shed on the eastern side of the Hall. The new storage facility will also be used by some of our regular hirers and the Bramley Show organisers. A team of volunteers demolished the old shed at the end of July and the ground works were completed in early August by our contractor, Harman Oliver Landscapes. Some of the timber from the demolished shed was repurposed to build the walls for a new compost heap at the rear of the Hall.
Gardening and external maintenance continues to be delivered by a team of volunteers (with the original name of the ‘Ground Force’), saving us several hundred pounds in costs and their efforts are greatly appreciated by the Trustees. Their work plan has been shaped in part by the closer relationship we have established with Wilder Bramley, who provide us with helpful guidance, and they have facilitated replanting schemes in some parts of our perimeter.
The Parish Council funded the installation of a new gate on the entrance to the track running along the western boundary of the Hall. This has previously witnessed some fly tipping and use as a short-cut to the Frith; with the withdrawal of the agricultural contractors following the sale of the fields behind the Hall for development, the Trustees were keen to ensure the security of the track. The developers, Barratt Redrow Ltd have a right of access via the track and we worked together to ensure that contractors undertaking an archaeological survey for the developers were able to utilise that point of access. We have now established liaison with representatives of Barratt Redrow Ltd and detailed discussions have taken place concerning use of the track and its maintenance.
Utilities: Our solar panels are performing well and have achieved a significant reduction in electricity costs; during summer months we are nearly self-sufficient in terms of electricity usage but during the depths of winter they produce less than ten per cent of our needs. Annually, they provide an average of around fifty per cent of our usage but a continuing concern remains our gas consumption. During the year we commenced work to ensure that our networks across the Hall are compliant with Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) legislation; this work is continuing and eventually will enable us to sign off on a new policy for this area of our infrastructure.
Hall usage: 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. We held our hiring rates at the same level as the previous year and we remain confident that our charges are competitive when compared to Halls in neighbouring villages. Although there was some evidence of a decline in private hirings for parties during the autumn of 2024, an increase in bookings in early 2025 suggests that demand remains strong. At present we have no plans to increase charges but will keep the situation under regular review. One inevitable consequence of increased usage has been the growing incidence of wear and tear across the Hall. The need for minor repairs and repainting is manageable but only with the efforts of our Caretakers and volunteers in dealing with defects.
Financial situation
Our year-end figures have yet to be audited but income from hirings during 2024-25 amounted to £47,185.54 (compared to income from hirings for the previous year of £47,780.30 (audited figure)). While this suggests that income has fallen slightly year on year, we reached year end with a significant sum owed to the Hall Treasurer as a consequence of late payment by hirers; we will be taking steps to reduce the number of late payers during the year ahead. These figures do not take into account grant payments for capital expenditure on some of the specific projects mentioned above.
Expenditure in 2024-25 was £42,055.14 (compared to £42,106.22 (audited figure) in the previous year). This slight fall in expenditure may reflect the efforts made by Trustees and volunteers to deal with maintenance and gardening issues, thereby reducing costs. But wear and tear from higher user levels will increase pressure on our maintenance budget 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.
The Year Ahead
A summary of our plans for the year ahead are set out in our Business Plan and the key points are:
to remain focussed on our running costs and continue to seek ways of reducing costs;
engage with volunteers to achieve a rolling programme of minor repairs to deal with wear and tear issues;
develop plans to fund and deliver any repairs or works arising from the roof survey;
continue to manage the green spaces around the Hall in a more sustainable manner; and
develop our liaison with Barratt Redrow Ltd concerning the development of 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 remains available to new groups considering using the Hall’s facilities for events and meetings; this is 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
10 April 2025