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2023-03-31-accounts

Mere and District Link Scheme Charity No: 1062328 Trustees’ Annual Report 2022/23

Introduction

  1. The Mere and District Link Scheme (MDLS) is a registered charity No. 1062328. Our registered address is Rosemary Cottage, Dark Lane, Mere, Warminster, BA12 6DT. During the period of this Report we had five Trustees John FitzGerald (Chair), Hamish Bell, Peter Martin, Peter Mason and Barbara Thomas.

Structure

  1. The MDLS was set up in 1997. We have a Management Committee made up of the four Trustees and five other members elected at our AGM. The Trustees met twice in 2022/23 to consider out links to the Mere Literary Festival and to discuss whether to a) financially support Mere and District Day Centre and b) the investment of MDLS funds into a two-year Nationwide higher interest charity account. The Management Committee met four times in 2022/23 to consider operational issues.

  2. We are all volunteers and we have no paid staff or property. Our co-ordinators work from home and our drivers use their own cars. Our Office Holders are:

Chair: John FitzGerald

Vice Chair: Peter Martin

Secretary: Hamish Bell (until February 2023) Judy Fray (from February 2023)

Treasurer: Peter Mason

Lead Co-ordinator: Barbara Thomas

Villages Co-ordinator: Simon Wager.

  1. Trustees are recruited on an ad hoc basis normally through volunteers agreeing to become a Trustee.

Objectives and Activities in 2022/23

  1. The MDLS provides transport to medical appointments and, where resources allow, other appointments e.g. Job Centre, shopping, hairdressing etc for the poor,

sick, elderly and disabled people of Mere and surrounding villages. We also provide a weekly prescription service delivering medicines to people in the local villages. Our volunteer drivers give their time for free and are reimbursed 45p/mile to cover the cost of using their own car to provide this service. We do not charge a fee but ask for a donation of what the passenger can afford. Additional funds are raised through fundraising by the Mere Literary Festival, collection tins in local shops and donations from local Councils and Surgeries.

  1. In 2022/23, MDLS volunteer drivers drove 38,435 miles on 981 trips and all our volunteers gave 3,670 hours of their time for free. This equates to £34,865 at the minimum wage rate of £9.50/hour.

  2. Our services are greatly appreciated by our clients who would otherwise find it very difficult (we are in a rural area with limited public transport) or very expensive (a taxi to our nearest District Hospital would be more than £70 one way) to get to their appointments.

Financial Review

  1. We ended the Financial Year with a deficit of £4,000. Our income was down by over £2,000 as the Gift Aid claim was not paid in the Financial Year. Also the Sundries figure of £2,185 is accounted for by items such as taking necessary legal advice regarding the separation of the Literary Festival from the Link Scheme and the transfer back to the Literary Festival of the original £1,000 seed funding.

  2. As usual, we donated the figure of £2,000 to Seeds 4 Success to assist with the costs of running their minibuses and, in addition, a special one-off donation was made to enable the purchase of a replacement second hand vehicle. The income from the Mere Literary Festival was anomalous, in that the amount received of over £7,400 included a donation of £1,000 as a 1/3 share of the profits, plus the balance of the Literary Festival’s audited accounts, less the original seed funding provided around 30 years ago. This then enabled the Literary Festival to begin operations independently.

  3. All other expenditure was in line with expectations.

  4. For the purposes of comparison, the 2021/2022 end of year figures were for income of £23.3k and expenditure of £19.6k.

  5. No funds are held as a Custodian Trustee.

  6. The Trustees consider the MDLS is in a sound financial position with a closing balance of £25,778 which equates to our average annual expenditure.

Mere and District Link Scheme Trustees

February 2024

AERE AND DIsTR￿TLIN￿$CHEI￿ 2022-23 kncomeond ExpendttureAeeountPerfod 12 InGom Ewditur• 202142 2022.23,, Grants SIknSurgEry TG Trnnspryt Mi TOTAL 15,993.98,, 16,1Dg.39', 125 150. Bourton P Kiltrnwon P_ West P lathn Biadty ffiP StOurton&G￿perP eBowlwClub Mwesurgyy P&F Siknn TOTAL 110 120 AdmSn Ctssts Telepho 1,039 72,, 387 38,, Insurance 4S)iKI 1S)iKI IC6&fX) 4S)iK) 1.033.08,' TOTAL 1.8eT.Te', 1.970.rx) Fundraisir Colkckn Ti LrterJy Fe51rwa ou￿ze5 TOTAL Oth•r R(￿m￿lre 7&4S 7487.37 170 7,735.82 46.27,, D￿￿e[S 65340, 2,185 8D', 9 500 DD,, 12.36B.I0', 85 LKh' Seets45uccess TOTAL 1.146.27', Oiwer5 Din TiansF 15.957113 199 161395J 16284 Bank Intrtesl 4.47T .28&96 TOTAL 1&314.18 SUB-TOTAL SUB-TOTAL 16i32 Transfer In Transfer Out OPENING BALANCE CLOSIN¢3 BALANCE *77&17 &8iA6 GR4NO TOTAL &8IA6 GR4NO TOTAL 26,￿01 -￿,16552 411531 ys.CalAIC TranSPort￿c Unitsd Trust Bank L055OIS Ch45 Closlng B￿￿¢+ 22,27391, 3,50426, Exwnsw EXc•s5•￿￿•￿￿t 217rn17

TrtasuT¢r'5 fte￿rt. Fi1wKi￿ Ytar 202Z123 We ended t￿ Fina￿1￿ Yew 4k der￿lI of£4.(MJ]. Ow irtcome wa5 ikntym bw over £2.(￿ &4 th¢ fiifi Aid Ll4im n4>1 pwd in the Fin#￿181 Ycar. A15() rhc SUrtdr￿s figure ot'L2.1¥5 LS icthulliLTrd t(w b) ilLm% ststh as ilking nLL¥tiTr leyl adi'iL'L'. rcgarding th¢ ￿p￿lIOn of Ik l.ilcrdry F¢Si1￿MI from th¢ Link &hcme ar￿ the trthster bAL'k LO the Lit Fest of tl origiTh￿ £l.¢XN) %¢ed (tsTrJin¥. A% wl. vle th)1￿￿1 tlie fi¥uit lif£? OOD SLiyJ% 4 9uLLC￿4 1{1 wjdi of nujniiig their minibuse5. and in ￿dition a SFeLial one-off th)￿￿0￿ ￿a$ tnade 10 bl¢ Ihr pu￿h￿ of ¥ lichirl¢. Th¢ iwmc trom lh¢ LYI￿aTr Pcsii%il 7hWS irt thai the &mouni r￿e￿e￿ ot'i>ver £7.400 ine1ud￿j a di)n￿l0￿ ol £l.(MMI &8 0 113 Sh￿ of ihc profits. p]l￿ ihc ba&a￿e uf t[￿ Liter￿, Fcsltv&l'5 a￿llEd a¢£(iunl& thr w1¥1J)￿ fundin¥ pr(?&tiJ¢d arUu[￿ 30 }eay5 •¥0. Th15 then All other exr￿dit￿re line with ex￿LI￿o For the purpm of compAriSOQ the 20?l.f2022 of yethr figurts wtte for incon￿ or &23.3k cxwdilurc of £19.6k Audilt F.o.A.