AGM Treasurer's Report

We are indebted to John Hampton for auditing these Accounts.

The Leatherhead Residents’ Association has a very healthy bank balance at present, including a ‘General Reserve’ of £3000 - the amalgamation with the Leatherhead Society providing this. The three year membership fee, that the majority of our members have paid, has to be split over a three year period in the accounts – a third of it is transferred to the Income and Expenditure account each year and this is the amount of money that can be used for that year, together with the one year membership fees and any donations.

In order to give our members good value for their membership fee, anyone joining the Association after 1 September each year is recorded as being a member from January the following year and therefore receives four months free membership. Membership fees received in advance therefore go into the accounts for the following year – expenses of course for those four months still go into the accounts for that year, and this is why the Income and Expenditure Account and Balance Sheet show a deficit, when in fact the bank balance is healthy.

As the LRA started up from scratch eighteen months ago, there have been some startup expenses, such as starting up the Road Steward system based on the system used by the Bookham and Ashtead Residents’ Associations. These associations have found that a network of road stewards is the best way of maintaining a high level of membership, which is vital if the Leatherhead Residents’ Association is to represent the views of the residents to the local council and town forums etc.

Now that we have established a system for running the Association and for getting more members, we have made some changes and should not be incurring the amount of expenses we have had over the last eighteen months. However, we still need to set up more Road Stewards and the membership fees will also be used to cover the cost of hiring the meeting room, printing membership forms and of course producing the newsletters.


Paula Sabine
Hon. Treasurer