Folkestone Parks and Pleasure Grounds Charity - Wednesday 25 March 2026, 4:30pm - Folkestone & Hythe webcasting

Folkestone Parks and Pleasure Grounds Charity
Wednesday, 25th March 2026 at 4:30pm 

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  1. Cllr Jim Martin
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  1. Mr Jake Hamilton
  2. Cllr Jim Martin
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  1. Cllr Tim Prater
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  1. Cllr Jim Martin
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  1. Jonathan Smith
  2. Cllr Jim Martin
  3. Cllr Jeremy Speakman
  4. Cllr Jim Martin
  5. Cllr James Butcher
  6. Cllr Jim Martin
  7. Jonathan Smith
  8. Cllr Jim Martin
  9. Cllr Tim Prater
  10. Cllr Jim Martin
  11. Mr Alan Mitchell
  12. Cllr Jim Martin
  13. Webcast Finished

Cllr Jim Martin - 0:00:08
Good evening and welcome to the meeting of the Folkestone Parks and Pleasure Grounds
charity.
This meeting will be webcast live to the internet.
For those who do not wish to be recorded or filmed, you will need to leave the chamber.
For members, officers and others speaking at the meeting, it is important that the microphones
are used so viewers on the webcast and others in the room may hear you.
Would anyone with a mobile phone please switch it to silent as they can be distracting.
So good evening everyone.
Good to see you.

1. Apologies for absence

Maybe we could start, Jake, with apologies for absence.
Thank you, Lida.
Mr Jake Hamilton - 0:00:54
Cllr Jim Martin - 0:00:58
we have apologies from Councillor McConville. Super and declarations of interest, do we have

2. Declarations of interest

any declarations from anyone? No, super, okay, jolly good. We'll move on then to the minutes.
Do anyone, this is the meeting, Wednesday the 25th of February. Does anyone have any comments or
What matters to raise on the minutes?
No, jolly good.

3. Minutes

Cllr Tim Prater - 0:01:24
I'll be able to sign those then.
Oh, sorry, that's a good idea.
Thank you very much, Councillor Prater has proposed
Cllr Jim Martin - 0:01:32
that we sign the minutes.
I will second.
All those in favour, please indicate.
It's my eagerness to get onto the first substantive item,
obviously.
So item four, annual report and accounts 24, 25.

4. Folkestone Parks and Pleasure Grounds Charity - Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25

and who is going to, oh Jonathan, thank God,
is going to lead us through the accounts
and the annual report.
Thank you very much, Jonathan.
Thank you, Chair.
Jonathan Smith - 0:02:03
So trustees, the paper before you brings
the Folkestone Parks and Pleasure Ground Charity accounts
for the financial year 24 -25 before you for approval.
These have been audited and achieved
in unqualified opinion, as you'll note
from the appendices to the report.
Once approved, these will be filed with the charity commission and published on their
website.
There are four recommendations with the report.
In summary, we're requesting approval of the accounts and receiving and noting the paper
book before you and noting the appendices.
Turning to substantive content, as you'll note from section two of the report, the charity
of performance, which was largely in line with budget for the year with an operating
deficit of 39 ,000 against a budget of approximately 26 ,000 deficit.
This was indicative of the climate in 24 -25,
with continued pressures on the cost of living,
and the budget was set accordingly
to consume a modest amount of the charity's reserves,
which proved to be the case.
Obviously, the filing of these accounts
will follow the trustee's approval
and will bring the charity accounts fully up to date.
There's only one item I just needed
to bring to your attention,
specifically on page 32 of your substantive pack.
There was a late adjustment
that was needed for the auditors.
It was just basically two lines in a table
and those have been updated in the accounts to be signed,
but effectively it relates to the management support services line
where in the 23 -24 comparative column that's been updated,
just adding in 141 ,000 and the subtotal below that has been also updated.
All the rest of the numbers remain the same.
That's the only minor amendment I needed to bring to your attention.
But other than that, the accounts are as before you
and I'm happy to take any questions.
Cllr Jim Martin - 0:03:39
Thank you very much, Jonathan. Members, sorry, not members, trustees or representatives.
Councillor Speightman.
Cllr Jeremy Speakman - 0:03:52
Sorry, no, the light's coming on. Yeah, I think I may have spotted an error in the accounts.
Page 24 in the pack says,
financial activities for the year ended 31st of March, 2025.
And then it goes 23, 24, 25.
And then, sorry, this is incredibly minus,
don't worry about it.
Page 25, folks in parks,
the statement of financial activities
for the year ended 31st of March, 2025.
Should that be 2024?
Jonathan.
Thank you, Chair.
So the headline title is just the headline of the document.
I assume you're reading from the State of the Financial Activities for the year ended
31st March 25 at the very top.
Oh, right.
So it doesn't relate to that page.
Correct.
You'll see below that in blue, at the very top line of the blue.
Well, that's what I mean.
It doesn't go.
It's simply a title.
Oh, it's a title that goes through, right.
Okay.
Got you.
Yep.
Okay.
I'm happy with that.
Councillor Butcher.
Cllr Jim Martin - 0:05:01
Cllr James Butcher - 0:05:06
Just on the Paragraph 2 .1 and the operating deficit being met from reserves, are we expecting
a similar call on reserves for this next financial year just in terms of then is that prudent
for us to be working our way through the reserves at that kind of rate?
Cllr Jim Martin - 0:05:24
Thank you, Jonathan. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Councillor Butcher.
Jonathan Smith - 0:05:30
Well, I mean, the budgets, we've set the budget obviously for 25 -26. So there'll be, I think
there's a call on reserves for 25 -26, but a smaller one. I'd have to cheque back the
exact figure for the 25 -26 budget, but obviously it was approved by the trustees last year.
And obviously we've got the 26 -27 budget, which has also been approved again, but those
took into account the position of the reserves. I believe at this stage in the
this set of accounts think the reserves stood at the general reserve stood
around about 120 ,000 or so. Of course the charity is paying down the loan from the
council in terms of the investment and that was made over a ten year loan and
that will come to an end and that was a 56 ,000 pound payment every year for
for example, so taking those things aside,
once those loans are repaid,
you expect the position to be better to an extent.
Of course, we do monitor this,
and we set a budget accordingly each year.
Thank you.
Councillor Proctor.
Cllr Jim Martin - 0:06:33
Thank you.
Cllr Tim Prater - 0:06:36
I'm not gonna try and catch Jonathan out,
because it never works well for me.
I just wanted to note that I think this is the last
in the cycle of sets of accounts that the team needed to get out for this financial
cycle and in the previous ones. So not only have we been through the Council's accounts,
but also these and also Oportunitas and also the Otterpool LLP. And this set marks the
last set that needed to be done for the last cycle. As of this moment, for the next four
days, we owe nobody any account.
And I think that's an exceptional piece of work, and I just wanted to put that on the
record and thank Jonathan and the team for doing so.
I do enjoy those four days of luxury before the financial year closes and we owe another
full set of everything.
I'd also like to make the point that all of these accounts are somewhat else are slightly
different.
So local authority accounts work to one set
of accounting principles, and the Perks and Garza's
charity accounts work to a slightly different set
of again, principles, and the LLP and the Autopidit
Tuna TAS accounts work to slightly different ones as well.
This stuff, it's not even all the same.
It's not even doing the same thing in different areas.
It's doing different things for each
of those different areas.
I mentioned to Jonathan earlier that I think the only way
we could make that slightly more difficult
is if we buy a bank in the next year,
and he asked us not to, in order to make that.
But I think the fact that we are now on the acceptance
of these audit accounts fully up to date across the piece,
at both council level and the charity and the businesses,
is a remarkable piece of work.
I'm really happy to move the recommendations on this report
and thank the team for all that they work on.
Cllr Jim Martin - 0:08:30
Terrific, thanks very much, Councillor Perriello.
and I heartily endorse everything that you've said.
I think it would only get more complicated
if we actually became a church.
I think they have different, yeah.
Alan, you wish to make a contribution?
Thank you, Chair.
Mr Alan Mitchell - 0:08:50
In order to save Jonathan a little bit of homework
after this, the movement in reserves that was agreed
in part of the budget was 10 ,985.
So quite substantially less than the 25 ,000 niches counts.
and that was approved by Council and the Obviously It's Committee back in February.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Cllr Jim Martin - 0:09:08
Any other questions, queries or comments to make?
Councillor Prater has proposed.
I'm very happy to second the report.
All those in favour, please indicate.
That's unanimous, I think, and thank you all very much for your time.
.