Conservation Trust for St Laurences Ludlow Annual Meeting 2024 TREASURER’S REPORT FOR FINANCIAL YEAR 2023-2024
Apologies that I am again unable to attend the Annual Meeting this year and thank you to Ian for agreeing to read my report. If anyone has any questions that Ian is unable to answer please do contact me.
1. Statement of Annual Account
A summary of the income and expenditure of the Trust in 2022-23 and our financial position at the start and the end of the year is provided in Attachment 1.
We have received income this year totalling £29,584. This is about £6,500 more than last year’s figure, helped by one significant legacy and much improved interest rates on our deposit accounts. Operating costs continued at a much lower level than pre-COVID and our operating balance before grants to the church was just over £27,000.
One grant was made to the Church of £8,130 for repairs to the Parvis tower stonework and roof. The bulk of our funds continues to be held pending decisions on funding of the major works to the Church windows which we have agreed in principle to support.
Over the year our asset position improved from £209,915 to £228,805. £2,000 of funds are restricted for use in restoration of the East Window at the request of the donor and a legacy of £5,000 received this year will be used for a specific purpose which will be agreed with the executors.
Our assets are held in our current account at NatWest (ca. £12,000), an instant-access interest-earning deposit account with the Church of England Deposit Fund (ca. £110,000) and two fixed-term accounts of 6 and 12 months duration within a new savings platform run by Flagstone for the Charities Aid Foundation (ca. £106,000). The Trustees have agreed that a transfer will be made from the CoE Deposit Fund to the Flagstone platform to ensure we remain within the FSC protected ceiling of £85,000 in any one institution. The Flagstone monies are split between two separate institutions.
Interest rates on our deposit and savings accounts have continued to improve over the year and this year we have earned nearly £7,900 in interest compared to £3,500 last year and only £165 the year before.
2. Supporters’ Donations
We continue to have approximately 90 active supporters almost all of whom donate regularly (monthly, quarterly or annually). The vast majority of these are able to gift aid their donations and we reclaim gift aid retrospectively every year making a significant contribution to our funds.
The Trust expresses great thanks for the generous support of all these donors plus those who give willingly of their time and effort to support our work.
This year we have continued to receive a small but steady flow of contributions from the EasyFundraising platform. When supporters who have signed up to the scheme buy online from many different online retailers, the retailer gives a percentage of the value of each purchase to the purchasers nominated charity. This does not affect the sale price to the purchaser. All our supporters are encouraged to join this scheme and to nominate the Palmers as their chosen charity as an easy way to help the Trust (see www.easyfundraising.org.uk).
This year for the first time we have started to receive donations via the text giving QR code displayed in the church. This adds one more arrow to our quiver of fundraising tools.
3. Events and Sale of Goods
We held four events during the year – Roy Thwaites’ Spring Church Crawl which raised £377, Francesca Bingham’s Autumn Amble (£216), the Christmas Social (£125) and the Brewery Quiz Night (£473).
We sold our remaining stocks of Christmas cards this year and sales amounted to £226. All costs were accounted for in previous years.
4. Newsletter and Administration
We have not produced a printed Newsletter since before Covid and communications have been mainly by email. As a result admin costs have been the main one being insurance at £694 (an increased of about £45 on last year).
The cost of administering the Trust (excluding income from and costs of events and sales) used 2.6% of our income.
5. Looking Forward
Assets and Liabilities
We have no assets and no outstanding liabilities at the start of the new financial year.
Planned Grants to the Church
We have a remaining tranche of funding of about £3,500 from an existing approved grant to the church still to be incurred and we have two current applications for further funding from the Church for repairs to two arched doorways amounting to approximately £22,000 under consideration. As reported last year we had agreed to fund the trial work on restoration of the first panel from the Ten Commandments Window, as match funding associated with the Church’s bid to the National Heritage Lottery Fund. A new application is currently being developed and we await information on the contribution that may be requested from the Trust.
Karen Raymond-Blake Treasurer 28[th] May 2024
Attachment 1 Annual Accounts 2023-24
Receipts and Payments Account for Year Ending 31 March 2024
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2022-23 2023-24 Notes
Receipts
Donations
- gift aided £8,577.00
- not gift aided £3,225.00
-collections £61.00
Legacies £5,000.00
Easyfundraising/QR Donate £401.00
Gift Aid Recovery for Previous Year £2,343.86
Event takings £1,796.11
Sale of Goods £263.50
VAT Refund from Church £0.00
Deposit Account Interest £7,896.45
Miscellaneous £19.65
£8,873.01 TOTAL RECEIPTS £29,583.57
Payments
£644.22 Cost of Events £1,845.77
£0.00 Cost of goods sold £0.00
£0.00 Publications £0.00
£0.00 Publicity/Advertising £0.00
£75.80 Stationery, Printing, Post £22.80
£0.00 Training £0.00
£0.00 Studies re grant funding £0.00
£649.08 Insurance £694.29
£23.00 Miscellaneous £0.00
£1,392.10 OPERATING COSTS £2,562.86
£21,627.49 OPERATING BALANCE £27,020.71
£0.00 Grants to SLL £8,130.00
£1,392.10 TOTAL PAYMENTS £10,692.86
£15,607.21 NET £18,890.71
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Assets 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024
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01-Apr-22 31-Mar-23 Notes
£16,315.49 Current Account Balance £12,323.67 a. b.
£92,008.11 CBF Deposit Account Balance £110,369.54
£101,577.02 Flagstone Platform balance £106,112.04
£13.92 Petty Cash £0.00
£209,914.54 TOTAL £228,805.25
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a: £2,000 reserved for restoration of the East Window at request of donor.
b. Use of £5,000 legacy to be agreed in advance with the executors
CTSLL Annual Account 2023-24
Receipts and Payments Account for Year Ending 31 March 2024
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2022-23 2023-24 Notes 01-Apr-23 31-Mar-24 Notes
Receipts Assets
Donations £16,315.49 Current Account Balance £12,323.67 a. b.
£8,873.01 - gift aided £8,577.00 £92,008.11 CCLADeposit Account Balance £110,369.54
£3,285.00 - not gift aided £3,225.00 £101,577.02 Flagstone Platform Account Balance £106,112.04
£547.08 -collections £61.00 £13.92 Petty Cash £0.00
£60.22 EasyFundraising/AmazonSmile £401.00 £209,914.54 TOTAL £228,805.25
£2,408.02 Gift Aid Recovery for Previous Year £2,343.86
£2,653.03 Event takings £1,796.11
£566.00 Sale of Goods £263.50
£950.00 Legacies £5,000.00 b.
£0.00 VAT Refund from Church £0.00
£3,677.23 Deposit Account Interest £7,896.45 Signed Date:
Miscellaneous £19.65 Karen Raymond-Blake (Treasurer)
£23,019.59 TOTAL RECEIPTS £29,583.57
Payments
£644.22 Cost of Events £1,845.77 Ian Marshall (Chair) Date:
£0.00 Cost of goods sold £0.00
£0.00 Publications £0.00
£0.00 Publicity/Advertising £0.00
£75.80 Stationery,Printing, Post £22.80
£0.00 Training £0.00
£0.00 Studies re grant funding £0.00
£649.08 Insurance £694.29
£23.00 Miscellaneous £0.00
£1,392.10 OPERATING COSTS £2,562.86
£21,627.49 OPERATING BALANCE £27,020.71
£0.00 Grants to SLL £8,130.00 Notes
£1,392.10 TOTAL PAYMENTS £10,692.86 a. £2000 reserved for use in restoration of the East Window at request of donor.
b. Use of £5,000 legacy to be agreed in advance with the executors
£21,627.49 NET £18,890.71
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CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of Conservation Trust for St Laurences Ludlow On accounts for the year ended ST 31 March 2024 Charity no (if any) 1114678 Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity ("the Trust.) for the year ended 71/03 /,'J cl* Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust. you are re ponsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ("the Act"). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145{5)(b) of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confirn that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in. any material respect: accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord with the accounting records Independent examiner's statement I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Signed: Date: 13 Dernber 2024 Name: Ralph Tingle Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy Address: Weavers Bam Watling Street, Leintwardine, Craven Arms Shropshire SY7 OLL Section B Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concem (see CC32. Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners). IER October 2018
Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose. /Vory/ g IER October 2018