The Ashburnham Village Hall Appeal bank account was opened at Lloyds Bank in 1986 by the Village Hall Committee in order to have a separate account for fund raising events income and expenditure. The treasurer for the Village Hall Committee generally also acts as treasurer for the Appeal Fund which has an informal committee comprised of former trustees of the Village Hall Committee. Brian Holdstock has been treasurer since 201 and the other members are Gill Ratcliffe, Christine White and Richard White.
For many years money raised from events was transferred from the Appeal Fund to the Village Hall Committe’s funds, but after June 2015 fund raising activities for the village hall came to a virtual standstill when many represented organisations withdrew to concentrate on fund raising for a new village hall to be built at the cricket ground in Church Road.
Since then the Appeal Fund bank account has continued to be used as a repository for specific fund raising initiatives such as Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee where monies for a specific cause can be ring fenced. Today there are two ring fenced funds in the Appeal Fund account. One is the original Village Hall appeal for which the fund was set up. Funds are added only when there is a specific donation or fund raising event for the village hall. These monies are generally only spent on maintenance projects in which case they attract a generous grant from Ashburnham Thanksgiving Trust (to whom ownership of the hall would revert should the hall be given up). The grant is £3 for every £1 spent from the fund and is capped at £50,000. Today the funds remaining in this ring fenced account are insufficient to breach that cap.
The other ring fenced account in the Appeal Fund is money raised for the new village hall. Accounts since the closing of the Diamond Jubilee Fund can be inspected here.