Treasurer's report for 2007/8

Clifford Jaques

An increase in our assets

By Clifford Jaques, NLCA Treasurer

During 2007 the NLCA saw an unprecedented increase in our assets. This was due to a number of welcome developments.

Lottery grant

The big one, as regular readers of the North Laine Runner will know, was our successful bid for a grant from the lottery of £5,835, to be used for the redevelopment of our website. Our thanks go to Peter Crowhurst and his team for putting together the application with a good case for it - not a trivial task. By the year end of 2007 we had spent £2,250, which covers the initial down-payment for the setting up of the site. The remainder cannot, of course, be counted as part of our general reserves because it has to be used specifically for this project. It appears in the accounts as 'Restricted Funds'. There are further bills to come from Community Sites, not least for the training of the website team and the purchase of more suitable personal computers. In the meantime, it is gathering interest nicely.

Benefit CD

Secondly, we are very grateful to the University of Sussex Students Union for generously donating the proceeds from the sale of a music CD, which they made specially to raise money for the NLCA. Two such donations were received during 2007, totalling £1,284. They would prefer the money to be used on the project to redevelop our website. I am sure there will be no shortage of bills arising from this project in the current year on which to spend the money.

North Laine Runner

Thirdly, the Runner has had a good year. The accounts show that it more than paid its way during the year and gone are the days when appeals had to be put in the Runner to keep it going. Thanks to Jackie Fuller and Paley O'Connor for working so hard to produce this result.

Street parties 

Fourthly, we have to thank B&H City Council for a grant of £300 towards the street parties held on Car Free Day on 23 September 2007. Our thanks go to Elly Hargreave, Sara Bragg and others for making them such a success.

Other fund raising

And fifthly, our own fundraising has gone well too. The table sale on 14 July at St Peter's Church raised £133, breaking last year's record, for which we owe Gabrielle Villermet and Sandy Crowhurst a big thank you for all their hard work that day. Our anniversary postcards have been a new source of income, bringing in a total of £143. For this, we must thank Mark Erickson and Sara Bragg, who had the weary task of visiting all the newsagents in search of ones who were interested in selling them. The Christmas raffle and collection raised nearly £80. We are indebted to the numerous traders in the area who contributed prizes for this raffle; to Jackie Fuller who spent the evening selling raffle tickets; and to Peter and Sandy Crowhurst for organising the food and drink. Thanks also to Cocovino, who organised a wine tasting evening that raised a profit of £30.

Expenditure in 2008 

However, in 2008 we are likely to see a marked decrease in our total assets. We will be spending the rest of our lottery grant on the website. In addition we will be developing the plans for improving Pelham Square and the £1,100 that was left in the Warburton fund at the end of 2006, plus a further legacy of £1,000 from Joan & Ted Warburton (received in January 2008 and so not shown in the accounts), could be made available for this project.

Inspection of accounts 

The accounts show a fee of £353 for the independent inspection of our accounts. In previous years David Martin and his team of chartered accountants at Mazars kindly provided this service to us for free. This year, however, as our total income exceeded £10,000, they needed to scrutinise them more thoroughly, but that bill is still less than their actual costs. We are very grateful to Mazars for all the work they have done for us over the years. I am also grateful to Margaret and Kevin Daly for their advice on preparing the books for the auditors as well as their help when I first started out as treasurer. In addition I am indebted to Peter Crowhurst, Mark Erickson, Sara Bragg and Jackie Fuller, who helped me assemble the pile of non-financial papers that were needed for this year's audit.

[Previously published in the North Laine Runner, No 191, March/April 2008]