Yiewsley and West Drayton Arts Council
Registered Charity: 1173801
Southlands Arts Centre
75 The Green
West Drayton
UB7 7AW
AGM: 26th March 2026 7 pm
Trustees:
Chris Wright (Chair)
Lisa Tompkins (Dep. Chair) – Apologies
Jason Merry
Olivia Smith (Resigned)
Alan Boyd
Dr. Ben Parker
Vanessa Bonner
Attendees: Paula O’Shea, Dr Ben Parker, Jason Merry, Vanessa Bonner, Chris Wright, Mike Cook, Clare Alford (member), Cllr Jan Sweeting, Cllr Scott Farley, Gwen (member), Ray Wasti, Wendy, Janet Quinn (member)
Apologies:, Sylvia Taylor, Tony Sandell, Mohammed Islam, Jayne Towndrow, Natashia Gravett, Jayne Towndrow, Alison Quinn, Luke Bryant, Lisa Tompkins, Sue Williams.
Agenda
*Chairman’s Statement (see copy attached)
During the last year we’ve advanced from a loss-making position, and we’ve turned the situation around. Many, many, events have been run in the past year. Exhibitions, lessons, craft fayres, speaking functions,
Classic music, we’ve brought the place to life. A large part of this is the café, which was considered impossible until recent years. It is essential for bringing people into the house. The gardening group have had a spectacular year which has attracted prizes and funding, it is an excellent example of what has been going on at Southlands.
CW is disappointed that the lease has still not been finalised during his tenure, but he is hopeful that the changing staff and the contacts we now have will move this forward. We will be fundraising on the basis of a rolling lease.
Pleased to say that from a fairly dismal position, the finances have improved substantially. Mike Cook has been extremely valuable in this.
*Treasurers’ report given by Mike Cook (See additional page)
24/25 accounts have been submitted and are available to view on the
Charities Commission website.
Not making a huge fortune, and in fact, in 24/25 we lost £1,814.
Context being that, in the previous year, we lost nearly £17k, and lost
£9k in the year before.
Turnover is shown in the increased activities, which are providing more
of the income. Steady growth in these areas.
Expenditure is not increasing in the same way.
YTD unaudited figures show £38k turnover and expenditure of £25k,
which should mean an overall profit in 25/26.
This is a major turnaround.
This is due to volunteers/staff/Trustees etc.
Cash in bank reserves is back up to £21k.
Managed to reduce the aged debtors also, with just a few currently on
the list. This was high due to a changeover in treasurer and Barclays
cutting off access to the bank. This means some of the old invoices have
been closed off, as they should have been marked as paid
previously, but this will not continue; it is an anomaly.
V6.1.26 AGM Agenda
Membership scheme – please sign up. Link on front page of website.
This helps the charity as it means more money coming in, but it also
means that we have numbers for funding, other organisations, and it
allows us to contact you easily to update you.
20% discount on Chess, Carrom and Scrabble club.
Café is currently open Saturday/Sunday – please do come along.
Easy fundraising – please sign up. Link on the website. It costs nothing to join but allows a small percentage of the money spent to be given to the charity
https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/southlands-arts-centre/qr
*Re-election of annual Auditors – Lee Mathers
No objections.
* Retirement of Existing Chairman – Chris Wright.
[insert small paragraph written by Chris]
*Stand down of one existing Trustee – Olivia Smith (letter on file)
*Re-election of existing Trustee by Proxy forms
Vanessa Bonner – to stand down and hope to be re-elected this year. Happy for personal statement to be sent out.
*New Potential Trustees to be proposed:
Clare Alford – personal statement can be sent out.
With regards to the trustees,
3rd of the trustees must step down at the AGM. Chris Wright and Olivia Smith are resigning. Vanessa Bonner was co-opted and so needs to be re-elected during the time.
Anyone else is able to stand. It is the members who will vote on the trustees.
Election of trustees
Any member can make suggestions.
For trustee elections, we will be putting a ballot to the members, this will be emailed to all members, and a vote will be carried out. This is a blind vote.
Trustee application forms are to be filled in and can be sent out with the permission of the applicants.
7 days from the meeting – personal statements for new Trustees to be sent out to the members, with a ballot.
14 clear days for voting to be carried out.
*Election of new Chair to be subject to later selection by the Board of Trustees
This will occur once we have finalised the trustees. To be decided at the May Trustee meeting.
[Insert job description for Chairman]
*Award of Exceptional Support to Charity
Sylvia Taylor (not in attendance) is to be recognised for her long service to the centre. She has been an attendee, a volunteer and a trustee over her (25 yr) tenure at the centre.
This will be deferred to a later meeting.
*Questions from the floor
Clare – What is the situation on the roof?
Jason – The roof has been sealed and fixed and is water-tight, and we are now in the process of sorting out the ceiling in the room. As this was preventable, and the council were informed 18 months before the leak caused the issue, there is a debate on who is responsible. Our insurance will cover the interiors of the house.
Café
CW is very happy to have been involved in the birth of the café, along with Paula, and wants to encourage the trustees to back this going forward as it is a vital part of the centre.
Over the course of the year, the café was being run by Mark as an independent enterprise. He left in October. We tried various things over the winter. Paula has been managing for first quarter. Consultation was held with interested parties, mostly sensible suggestions were given. Opening hours were agreed as weekends and possibly Friday/Monday. Most thought relaxing the USP to be vegetarian would be more amenable. Some people thought too expensive, some too cheap.
Meeting before this:
Café is highly seasonal – breaking even in winter is hard
We’ve decided to advertise for a manager for the next six months.
Big Thanks to Janet, Jason (in attendance) and Dawn, Kieran (not in attendance), who have been a huge help in the café.
Paula has other responsibilities within the charity, so she cannot continue to manage.
The idea is to open over the summer with paid staff and volunteers.
We are mostly breaking even.
Cream teas will be making a recurrence during the summer.
Ray – Are we able to cook on site?
Paula – This will be dependent on the lease, as it involves a change of use for the kitchen and then an application for the license.
Ben – When we did have a full range, it wasn’t as popular as expected, wastage was high, and people had many ideas about what they wanted.
Janet – Has anyone spoken with Kay’s Kitchen? Could be a win/win with them.
Ben – There is a lot of opportunity to discuss local suppliers. This has not yet been done. Pre-made sandwiches are on our list to discuss with them.
Paula – Kays and Sharon are both preferred suppliers for private functions. We’ve worked with them both on prior events.
Clare – We did that for our event, and it would be good to publicise that outside caterers are allowed on site and how to go ahead with that.
Paula – We are working on getting the “preferred list” of caterers on the website with the new room hire rates and private hire aspects.
Chris – Worth mentioning that even with Craft Markets, if someone makes food items, they need their own insurance.
Ben – just to highlight, this is why the café is an independent business, which is registered on Companies House to protect the charity.
Ray – Are there any plans for lights in the car park?
Paula – We were on the list for the council for 2025. As you can see, that hasn’t occurred. I have a budget for temporary lights in the car park, and I’ve had the bushes cut for more light on the stairs. This should be addressed in the coming months.
Jan – I brought it up with the council recently. Please do bring it up to me again via email, and I will chase it with them.
*A.O.B.
Huge Thank You to Chris Wright for his work.
Author: LukeAdmin
Web designer at FAS Media