To view the detail from the statement of accounts, please take this link and the document will open in a separate browser window.
These accounts show the financial affairs of the Society for the year ending 30 June 2020.
Receipts were lower than in the previous year, when they had been unusually high due to a County Councillor grant and a successful appearance in the Waitrose “green token” scheme. The HCC grant was given for specific Gazebo Garden maintenance work, most of which was completed during the current year. Events conspired to prevent another bite at the Waitrose cherry this year. The result is that last year’s large operating surplus has become this year’s large deficit.
Expenditure was higher than the previous year, due to the maintenance work mentioned above. Alternative arrangements for the Gazebo Garden website were put in place by our web guru Chairman, resulting in a very large saving in hosting costs, from which we will continue to benefit in future years. The cost of our insurance cover was unchanged.
Our reserves are held entirely in our bank account and at year end were £446. Disregarding the atypical aspects of the past two years, this represents a drop of £112 over the past 24 months.
What does this tell us about the financial health of the Society? Our reserves are adequate, given the limited extent of our inescapable, recurring costs, namely insurance, web hosting and garden maintenance. However, a modest increase in income would allow us to spend more on maintaining and enhancing the Gazebo Garden and better publicize our activities. A new lease is currently under negotiation with Havant Borough Council that we expect, for the first time, will allow us to charge a fee for use of the Garden. Before Covid-19, we were starting to find organisations that were interested in using the garden and this, together with your help in adding to our membership, will facilitate this increased income.
Vernon Stradling
November 10
Havant Civic Society 