Agenda item

The Committee received a report with the draft Annual Report and financial Statements for the Higginson Park Trust for the year ending 31 March 2021.  The accounts had been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 and had adopted the provisions of Accounting and Reporting by Charities Statement of Recommended Practice and Financial Reporting Standards.  They had been audited by Seymour Taylor Audit Limited, with the auditors’ report attached as Appendix 1 to the draft Annual Report.  It was possible that the auditors’ report could change once the outstanding audit work had been completed and finalised.

Members heard of the assets owned by the Trust and were informed that the net worth of Higginson Park Charity had decreased by £306k from £7,534k in 2020 to £7,228k in 2021, of which £190k was depreciation of assets.  The net operating expenditure for the year had been a net loss of £269k compared to net income £1,892k in 2019/20.  The difference being mainly due to the £2m grant received in 2020.

Covid-19 restrictions had a significant negative impact on the Charity during 2020/21, with leisure centre facilities at Court Garden required to close and events cancelled because of the national lockdowns and social distancing restrictions in place.  Places Leisure, along with all the other national leisure operators, had seen facilities in Buckinghamshire closing for more than eight months of the financial year.  During the short periods of reopening, levels of attendance at Court Garden Leisure Centre had been minimal due to the mandated social distancing requirements which meant significant reductions in capacity and type of activity allowed or on offer, however these were recovering and the leisure centre was currently operating at around 90% of pre-covid levels.  There had also been additional costs, such as increased cleaning regimes to ensure a COVID-secure environment.

The impact had been a loss of income of £117k from the closure of the leisure centre as well as a loss of income from events. There had been mitigation of £105k for some of these income losses through the Government’s Support Scheme – currently the accounts did not reflect this amount as a debtor at year end as the treatment in line with Charity Commission rules first needed to be agreed with the auditors.  If not included in this year’s accounts, the amount was expected to be reflected next year.

With the gradual easing of restrictions during the current financial year in line with the government roadmap, recovery was underway, with a positive trajectory being experienced in terms of people returning to the leisure facilities, as well as outdoor events starting to return.  However, the pace of recovery remained subject to the evolving position on the pandemic.

Members sought additional information and were informed:

(i)                  Pre-covid, the Trust produced a small amount of surplus income, and whilst recovery from Covid would take time the Trust had a reasonable level of reserves and was deemed to be sustainable moving forward. Energy costs were also being closely monitored.  

(ii)                That page 152, related party transactions would be corrected to read that the balance due to the Higginson Park Charity at 31 March 2020 was from Wycombe District Council rather than Buckinghamshire Council.

(iii)              Legally, the Council was comfortable with the position that the Section 151 Officer signed the accounts on behalf of the Council who was the sole trustee. This arrangement was the same at the legacy authority. However, the Committee was agreed that this may put the employee of the Council in a difficult position and appeared to be a conflict of interest. The Committee asked that this position be reviewed moving forward and it be explored whether the council could appoint an additional trustee(s).

ACTION LOG: Section 151 Officer in liaison with the Service Director for Culture and Leisure to discuss the potential appointment of additional officers, to act on behalf of the Council as signatories to the accounts on behalf of the trustee.

Having reviewed the Higginson Park Charity audited Annual Report and Financial Statement for the year ended 31 March 2021 attached at Appendix 1 and raised any issues which Members needed assurance on, it was –

RESOLVED –

(1)   That the Annual Report and Financial Statement for 2020/21 be approved.

(2)   That the Service Director – Corporate Finance & S151 Officer be authorised, following consultation with the Chairman, to make any final amendments to the Accounts arising from outstanding audit work prior to the approval of the accounts by the auditor.