This year saw the continuation of our focus in delivering group activities for Older People and it was pleasing that many continued to be delivered with the substantial help of the membership themselves. Our thanks go to them.

Michaela Kent also deserves considerable thanks for her hard work delivering both Exercise Classes and Tap Dance Classes in a totally professional manner but perhaps more importantly with great enthusiasm which adds entertainment value to them.

Our footcare service continues to be very busy and we expect this activity to expand as the NHS withdraws from its Podiatry service. Anna Detka’s clinics were fully booked and Catherine Baynes came on board as a visiting podiatrist. As an aside we were all pleased that Anna delivered a beautiful baby girl in June so thanks go to Catherine for taking over the office based clinics during Anna’s maternity leave.

The Guild actively maintains its links with the community and has given logistic support to, and received assistance from, other charities in the borough:

Abundance Wimbledon, The Fridge Foodbank, Friends in St Helier, Merton Charity Events, North East Mitcham Community Association and The Rotary Club of Morden.

We have received support from Wimbledon High School for Girls, who send parties of girls during term times to mix with our users and produce events such as Karoake, games and craft afternoons, and Kings College School Wimbledon for inviting us to their splendid Christmas Party for Older People.

We were also pleased to continue our contact with the Baitul Futah Mosque and look forward to working with The Muslim Women in Merton over the next year.

Special thanks go to The London Borough of Merton for their continued support and I am pleased to tell you that will continue in the year 2026 – 27.

My retirement, and the Minibus.

At last years meeting I announced that our minibus was due to come out of service in October 2025 when its exemption from ULEZ regulations ended and that, having been the main driver of it for many years I would retire in March 2026.

I am very pleased to say that Transport for London, having recognised that replacing minibuses was for many small charities too difficult, extended the ULEZ exemption until October 2027. Replacing drivers is also very difficult so I am also pleased to delay my retirement until March 2027.

Volunteers.

The support given by volunteers remains substantial, and mostly they are Older People themselves. They are a resilient bunch and have been extremely reliable. From simple but valuable tasks such as making the tea to maintaining our online news I estimate about 800 donated which if paid at the current minimum wage of £12.21 would be worth around £9700 to the Guild.

The Trustees.

My grateful thanks are due to the Trustees who have been very supportive over the year.

In particular the appointment of Anjela Winson has give much needed administration support and improved with the community.

The Next Steps.

As well as continuing our current range of activities we hope to add three or four new activities that increase the variety of events on offer that will attract more to our membership and potentially encourage a slight increase in intergenerational activity.

Our volunteer Kasim has been a great help in advertising our activities on social media and I look forward to increasing our online presence as Anjela works to introduce a new website. She is also working to increase our connection with other organisations in the Borough. This should gradually increase recruitment of new members and also help us point members to other agencies which provide services we do not. For instance several of us have used the local branch of The Wimbledon Guild to help with claims for benefits or help with applications for statutory services.

Transport is a big issue for Older People in the borough so it is likely we will attempt to fundraise for a new minibus as our old bus will need replacing when it reaches the end of its ULEZ exemption.

The refurbishment of our office building will continue and we were pleased to hear the comment “it looks inviting”

Thanks go to the current Mayor of Merton, Cllr Martin Whelton, who has nominated us as one of his charities this year. This will help play an important part of our fundraising in 2025 - 26