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2025-10-31-accounts

Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Period start date Period start date Period end date Period end date
01 11 2024 31 10 2025
From To

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name STRAY CAT RESCUE Other names charity is known by SCR Registered charity number (if any) 1098984 Charity's principal address The Cattery Wood End Tingrith, Beds Postcode MK17 9ER

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

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20		 Trustee name Office (if any) Dates acted if not for
whole year		 Name of person (or
body) entitled to
appoint trustee (if
any)
HELEN WEBB CHAIR THE MEMBERS
BEVERLEY FAULKNER SHELTER MANAGER THE MEMBERS
ALISON WHITE SECRETARY THE MEMBERS
SUSAN HOURD CAT WELFARE OFFICER THE MEMBERS
GRAHAM HOWELL TREASURER THE MEMBERS
RITA MANSER COMMITTEE MEMBER THE MEMBERS
Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)
Name Dates acted if not for whole year

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Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
Type of adviser
Name
Address
BANK LLOYDS PLC HIGH STREET, LEIGHTON BUZZARD, BEDS
Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

CONSTITUTION ADOPTED 17 FEBRUARY 2003 AND FORMAL Type of governing document AGREEMENT TO THE AMENDED CONSTITUTION GRANTED ON 8 (eg. trust deed, constitution) JUNE 2017 CHARITABLE UNINCORPORATED ASSOCIATION CONSISTING OF How the charity is constituted CIRCA 200 MEMBERS (eg. trust, association, company) TRUSTEES ARE ELECTED BY MEMBERS ANNUALLY AT THE Trustee selection methods ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD IN FEBRUARY. (eg. appointed by, elected by) Additional governance issues (Optional information)

ALL TRUSTEES GIVE OF THEIR TIME VOLUNTARILY AND DO NOT You may choose to include SEEK ANY REMUNERATION OR OTHER BENEFITS. additional information, where relevant, about: BEVERLEY FAULKNER IS PAID A SMALL SALARY IN HER POSITION • policies and procedures OF SHELTER MANAGER. adopted for the induction and training of trustees; • the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;

Section C Objectives and activities

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Summary of the objects of the
charity set out in its
governing document
Summary of the main
activities undertaken for the
public benefit in relation to
these objects (include within
this section the statutory
declaration that trustees have
had regard to the guidance
issued by the Charity
Commission on public
benefit)		 TO RELIEVE DISTRESS AND SUFFERING OF CATS AND KITTENS,
MAINLY IN THE BEDFORDSHIRE AREA BY PROVISION OF RESCUE,
FOSTERING AND REHOMING, PLUS VETERINARY TREATMENT
WHERE AND WHEN REQUIRED.
A SUMMARY OF THE MAIN ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN BY STRAY
CAT RESCUE FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT:
SHELTER
Looking back over the period 1 November 2024 – 31 October 2025, our aim
continued to be to rescue, help and re-home as many cats and kittens as we
are able within Bedfordshire and surrounding area. In doing this we have
strived to make a difference to the lives of all cats in our care.
We have continuing issues with vast numbers of cats being abandoned. We
believe this to be animals dumped due to the cost-of-living crisis and also from
people who think kittens can generate money from sales.
We appear to have increased numbers of very poorly kittens or those with
genetic defects. Caring for these and frequently losing them is both expensive
and devastating to everyone, especially our fosterers.
We continued to rescue & rehome as many cats as possible and have
introduced pre-booked rehoming days, which are proving to be very successful.
We continue to use social media to advertise available animals, with a
stringent adoption screening process and trained home checkers team in
place.
Social media is also used to fundraise and advertise events and it is very
successful.
Stray cat rescue is very grateful to the vets in Leighton buzzard, Barton le
clay, Bedford & Luton for discounting their services to us. We are also
so grateful to our fosterers along with those who collect the cats, do the vet
runs and the re-homing checks.
We have strengthened our rehoming process to include greater financial
checks, checking adopter affordability and understanding of vet costs.
Many checks are still conducted via video calls, as this has proven to be a time
& cost-effective way of operating & no more cats have been returned following
online checks than with physical checks. We do a physical home check if we
have any concerns about the adopter or their location.
Our 2025 calendar featured stories about some of the Cats & kittens we have
rescued and again this proved very successful. We will continue to use this
format as it’s so popular and sets us apart from a calendar just with pictures.
The open day was again very successful, we continue to build on this.
Supporters are keen to bring their artisan items to sell and it is popular with
our guests.
Our patron, Simon Tofield is a great support for us, throughout the year, but
especially for the open day. He will create bespoke drawings for raffle prizes
and commissions for a sufficient donation to SCR.
Members and sponsor events were combined with cats N cakes fundraising
events and continue to be very popular.
FUNDRAISING
We continue to do a variety of fundraising activities to support the charity
throughout the year.
At the end of 2024 we focussed our efforts on selling merchandise for the
upcoming Christmas period with our own designs of Christmas cards and the
2025 edition of the Calendar, all of which sold in every increasing quantities.

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Our activities on the social media platforms Instagram and Facebook have raised significant amounts of funds for the charity, with several raffles organised, special appeals made and our popular ‘Donate a Pound on Payday’ scheme growing still further. Our social media presence has grown throughout the last 12 months. We now have 12.5k active and engaged followers on Instagram, alongside 15k on Facebook with both platforms being our main source of rehoming. The ‘Donate a Pound on Payday’ scheme has now over 1100 contributors as of October 2025 and is generating over £19000 in donations per annum. Social media is a vital tool for making people aware of our charity, raising money and for publicising our events and it is now our main vehicle for rehoming as well. We have continued with our ‘Cats & Cake’ afternoon tea and cake events at the Shelter, which continue to be extremely popular and successful and then at Christmas time we have the special ‘Moggies & Mince Pies’ event. Our Open Day held in September 2025 was also highly successful and well attended, raising a large amount of funds for us and raising awareness of the charity. We continue to do events in the local community to keep our name in the public eye. We attended several events in Leighton Buzzard as we have done for many years, and we also attended the Summer Fete at Toddington. We also receive a lot of donations from people who have had Cats & Kittens from us previously and they just send us donations without any prompting, knowing we have helped them in some way the past. Sheila Parkes is a case in point of this. I would like to thank all the people who have supported us throughout this period and all the volunteers who have given up their valuable time fundraising for SCR. Without our fundraising activities, we would not be able to carry on our work of helping stray and lost Cats & Kittens. . MEMBERSHIP We continue to promote our membership scheme as means for people to engage with the charity. We actively promote our Membership scheme at all major events we are involved with and also on our website. For this period, we had 123 paid up Members and 19 Life Members. During this period, we had 19 new Members joining us and 13 Members which didn’t renew. In July we held our Members Open Day, which was well attended, it gives Members the opportunity to see the work we do with Cats and Kittens and meet the Committee and helpers. We also invite Members to the various functions we organise throughout the year. Many Members contribute considerably more than their required annual subscription. Membership fees are a valuable source of raising funds for the charity. So, we thank very much our valued Members and Life Members for their continued support.

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CAT SPONSORSHIP

The Cat Sponsorship Scheme continues to provide a valuable source of income for the rescue.

At the end of the 2024/25 reporting year, we had approximately 109 active sponsors, and we'd like to thank every one of them for their continued support.

During the year we had four resident cats available for sponsorship, along with a memorial sponsorship pack for Harry, who sadly passed away in the summer of 2025.

Our annual Sponsors' Day took place in June and was a huge success. It was lovely to welcome so many sponsors, both old and new, who came along to meet the cats and volunteers.

Thank you to everyone who continues to support the scheme. Every sponsorship helps us provide the care our resident cats need while they wait for their forever homes.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

Following on from the previous year’s windfall. Where we started with a healthy balance of just under £285k. With careful management, we have been able to keep the outgoings below our income, to end the year with total cash balance in the Bank, of £301,578.

Income:

· Bev’s wage £14,838, generally rises with minimum wage increases. · Electric bills up this year to £12,311. Still rising. · Council Waste removal £1,741, down slightly. · Ongoing maintenance costs £1,178. · Equipment purchases £2,750 · Advertising and event costs, mainly cakes for events! £698 · Administration costs, Phone £450, Insurance £211 Accounts fees £1,440 and General expenses £1,592.

We currently have one fixed term investment deposit running now, £75,000 which matures October 2026.

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Many thanks to James and his team at Mayflower Accountancy for the preparation of these accounts. James has suggested that we invest in some Digital Accounting software, which will save us some time in spreadsheet preparation and speed up the year-end process. He has offered to discuss with me the various options.

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

SOCIAL MEDIA

Our social media presence has grown considerably throughout the last 12 months. We now have 12.5k active and engaged followers on Instagram, alongside 15k on Facebook with both platforms being our main source of rehoming.

We have had an additional 50 people sign up to DAPOP which is bringing in an additional £182 a month.

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

Nacho was nominated our Face of SCR 2025, which is something we have been doing since 2023 to enhance engagement and create a big buzz around our Instagram page ahead of the new year, our insights show during the period of Dec 2024- Jan 2025 views were up to over 1 million across the month; the highest it’s ever been.

On the 18th January 2025 we had our largest rehoming event ever. This was advertised predominantly on Instagram with over 30 cats finding homes. £2720 was raised on my Brighton Half Marathon, all advertised through Instagram. This went live 2nd Jan 2025 and was live for a month.

We continued to receive packages of catnip toys, treats and blankets via a company called Percy and Pye which I gifted the cats each month and made video’s for. They then also began donating 15% of each sale to us and raised £404 over the course of 6 months.

In Easter our catnip cushions went live, created by Cheryl, in which we raised

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£874.60. 3rd August saw a sold-out cats and cakes event which raised over £1000. In October 2025 we also raised a further £977.15 on a further batch of catnip cushions.

It was a very successful year for our social media growth, our following grew, support grew and our rehoming numbers also grew. The platform found a handful of new volunteers and has began building very strong traction across the Bedford/Luton areas for people now wanting to adopt as opposed to buy cats/kittens.

We hope to see this continue into 2026!.

Section D Achievements and performance

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Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

Cat work figures for YE Oct 2025

Before rehoming, all kittens are fully vaccinated & adult cats are neutered & microchipped.

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Section D Achievements and performance

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Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the WE HOLD CASH AT THE BANK OF £296106, ALL OF WHICH IS charity’s policy on reserves UNRESTRICTED FUNDS. THESE FUNDS ARE HELD TO MEET VET BILLS AND ANY URGENT UNFORESEEN EXPENDITURE THAT MAY OCCUR. Details of any funds materially NOT APPLICABLE in deficit

Further financial review details (Optional information)

Section F Other optional information

FUTURE PLANS

WE WILL CONTINUE TO LOOK FOR ADDITIONAL WAYS TO FUNDRAISE, WITH A GREATER FOCUS ON SOCIAL MEDIA AS THIS HAS PROVED VERY LUCRATIVE. THE CARD READERS WHICH WE PURCHASED HAVE PROVED TO BE HUGELY BENEFICIAL AT MANY OF OUR EVENTS, MAKING IT EASY FOR PEOPLE TO SPEND MONEY WITH US AND WE PLAN TO HAVE THEM AVAILABLE AT ALL PUBLIC EVENT WE ATTEND IN THE FUTURE.

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s) Full name(s) HELEN LESLEY WEBB Position (e.g., Secretary, Chair, CHAIR etc) Date 27 AUGUST 2026

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StRAY CAT RESCUE REGISTERED CHARrfY: 1LW984 Statsm•nt of Flnanclal Acllvlll•s & P4ot• to th• Accounts Totsl 121. 972 9612 121A95 219r2 9612 1>.e44 11.1 315J29 T•tsl 154.27• •xpw4•1 81• 167.8YO 8247 IW.•93 iJa.T21 J.eP2 T•tsl 11.1$0 11.1 146A TolAI Ic¢•rd Trans 106 .11 Pptr7of11

StRAY CAT RESCUE REGISTERED CHARrfY: 1LW984 Cagh al bank X11.5rn 1 054 Crthjiorn &5 14.771 Net tutyert T¢)l81 8•ts ￿ c4vmnt 6.108 Tb• fvnd• rf th• eh•ry 296.1CII a••.1 Th• nol•s ￿ pagos 9 to 11 lomi part ol thfrs• sWem•nts. The finarKo1 slatom•nts approved ar￿ authrrf￿ lor Issuo by Ih Board ol Trusl••s lof Is￿0 on 24* ALVWSt 2026 and swJn•d on rts b•haN by.. Tn#bl 8of11

STRAY CAT RESCUE

REGISTERED CHARITY: 1098984

Independent Examiners report to the Trustees of Stray Cat Rescue (‘the Charity’)

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Charity for the year ended 31 October 2025.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the Charity Trustees you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the 2011 Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent examiner's statement

I am qualified to undertake that examination as a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe:

  1. Accounting records were not kept in respect of the Charity as required by section 130 of the 2011 Act; or

  2. The accounts do not accord with those records;

  3. The accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair view’ which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

James Colvin FCMA

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants

Mayflower Accountancy & Tax Limited

Unit A, Angel Business Centre 1 Luton Road Toddington LU5 6DE

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