2024-07-31-accounts

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PROJECT
MYATT’S FIELDS mfpp PARK
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MYATT’S FIELDS PARK PROJECT

ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31ST JULY 2024

PROJECT MYATT’S FIELDS mfpp PARK

Contents

1.	Reference and administrative details............ 3
2.	Structure, governance and management..... 4
3	Objectives of Myatt’s Fields Park Project.... 5
4.	Chairman’s statement...................................... 7
5.	Our strategy.................................................... ... 8
6.	Achievements and performance.................... 9
7	Future plans ......................................................... 12
8.	Trustees responsibilities.................................. 14
9.	Independent examiner’s report.................... .15
10.	Statement of fnancial activities......................16
11.	Balance sheet..................................................... 17
12.	Notes to the accounts.................................... 19

Myatt’s Fields Park Project. Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee Charity number 1139256 Company number 07321235

1

Reference and administrative details

Myatt’s Fields Park Project is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 27th July 2010. It is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association. Charity registration number: 1139256 Company registration number: 7321235

Registered office Myatt’s Fields Park Project The Old Depot, Myatt’s Fields Park Cormont Road London SE5 9RA

Website www.myattsfieldspark.info

The Trustees who are the Directors of the company for the purposes of the Companies Act are responsible for setting policy and agreeing the strategy.

Trustees: Marjorie Landels: Chair Christabel Lines: Treasurer Rosemary Crehan Rebecca Kadritzke Jennifer Reeson Nadisha Henry Andrea Wright Krystyna Steflova Rashidah Conroy Emma Chandra Sean Walsh

Trustees resigned: Trustees elected: January 2023-4

Advisory members of the Community Engagement subcommittee:

Resigned May 2024 Tony Bailey Matthieu Chung Kate Ivey-Williams Michelle Killington

Advisory member of the Fundraising subcommittee Zazu Arnold

Principle advisers: Bankers: The Cooperative Bank Independent examiners: Additude Ltd 9 Rhapsody Court, Wakeman Road, London NW10 5DF

3

Structure, governance and management

All trustees are recruited through an open process of public advertisement and elected by vote during our annual general meeting- Our AGM was hled on the 6th July 2024 2pm - 4pm in the depot.

All Trustees are also Directors under the Companies Act 2006. No trustees have any beneficial interests in the company, the Charity maintains a Register of Interests.

The Board normally meets four times a year. Its principle role is to determine mission, policy and strategy, to monitor the performance, to manage the governance process and to appoint and manage the Park Manager and Community Development Manager.

The day to day management of the charity is delegated to the Park Manager and Community Development Manager.

The Trustees have pleasure in presenting their report and the unaudited financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 July 2024.

4

Objectives

The promotion for the public benefit of urban regeneration of Myatt’s Fields Park for the benefit of the socially and economically deprived Myatt’s Fields ward in the London Borough of Lambethand Camberwell Green in the London Borough of Southwark, by all or any of the following means:

• 1 The maintenance, improvement or provision of public amenities

• 2 The preservation of buildings or sites of historic interest

• 3 The provision of recreational facilities for the public at large or those by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disablement, poverty or social and economic circumstances, who have need of such facilities

• 4 The protection or conservation of the environment

• 5 The advancement of education training or retraining particularly amongst unemployed people with disabilities and providing unemployed people with work experience

• 6 The promotion of horticulture, food growing and healthy eating

Our vision statement

“In a diverse and vibrant neighbourhood, Myatt’s is a park where community and nature grow together”

5

Chair’s statement

Welcome to MFPP Annual Report for 1st August 2023 – 31st July 2024. This document outlines the work carried out by our trustees, staff and volunteers over the past year.

Leading a charity has never been easy, but right now? It’s brutal. The pressure is relentless. Demand is soaring, local authorities are on their knees, public services are collapsing, and costs are rising.

Meanwhile, funders and the council are hitting pause on funding while they ‘gather their strategic objectives’ and work out how to deliver on oversubscribed programs. It is worth remembering that demand isn’t going anywhere—it’s increasing because frontline organisations are seeing more people in need, while public funding shrinks and operating costs go through the roof.

This has been the year where we saw the end of our 5 year City Bridge funded project with both Fabrice and Rajia working towards writing up the report. It has been an amazing 5 years with fabrice giving out over 45,000 seedlings plants and seeds to over 50 growing groups EVERY YEAR over 5 years, that a phenominal amount of plant giveaways- we were also rewarded by the BBC finding out about this work, and sent Monty Don and his film crew to film what we have been doing- this programme has been aired on BBC 2 under the title Monty Don’s Gardens of Britain ... so we had to put him on the cover even if it was after the end of our financial year!!!

We still rely heavily on all our wonderful volunteers for all the added time and energy they give to the park. With an average of 5 local volunteers per session and 181 people enrolled online to volunteer in the greenhouse and park, we have made a huge difference. We now have a wild flower meadow which stretches nearly the length of Knatchbull road, a dead hedge, a haven for widlife, and many other diversity and climate tolerant improvements. For a fuller account please read the horticultural page later in this report.

This year we won gold AGAIN in London in Bloom and we have retained our green flag status. This is all down to Tony our horticultural manager, Taye and Marion our gardeners and a brilliant team of volunteers.

I would also like to thank all the people who donate monthly to our unrestricted funds- this enables us to buy plants and seeds and to support events going on in the park, and that mean we can keep the park looking gorgeous throughout the seasons, and have free events in the park.

Litter in the park is still a major cost and a problem for us, and we thank the 10 volunteers who are active during the week. We do have 36 people enrolled as volunteers, but we could use more.

I want to thank my fellow trustees, all the volunteers, and all our park partners, I would like to especially thank our amazing staff, Eliza our manager is full time as park manager, but taking maternaty leave - congratulations from all of the team. (She had a beautiful boy at the end of July, so just fell into this years report). Tony our horticultural manager is two and a half days a week, Fabrice our greenhouse manager is two days a week. Rajia our volunteer manager also on two days a week. and finally Patrischia as our not so new community engagement manager, on 3 days a week, Patrischia now has over 80 volunteers training up under Lambeth Community Connection Fund with over 378 participants. Plus the silver lunch club where 5 of the 7 Food heroes were over 55 and obtained a Level 2 certificate in food hygiene.

We have a great team looking after the park..

As i may have mentioned in last years report we have changed how we meet, we now have 2 sub groups communications and events and finance and funding. We hold these meetings every two months and hold a full board meeting 3 times a year Finance held 6 meetings, including finance fundraising and capital investment: Events, community engagement and marketing is the other subgroup, and they met 6 times last year.

With the new depot building about to start, hopefully! we are looking at how the building will be used in future and looking at the long term use of the park- so we are using this time away from the park, (We will be in the Minet Library for some time - but we will keep you all updated as the work starts.) to focus on planning for the next 5 years and starting to look at funding to support these aims

Thank you all.

Marjorie Landels Chair MFPP

7

Myatt’s achieved Green Flag and GOLD in London in Bloom in 2023 and 2024

Our Park

The park is a “true community hub”. It plays a huge part in bringing people together, with all the activities we have happening in the park to making the park a wonderful green oasis in the middle of London. It provides a place to relax and to exercise for thousands of people who live around the park and beyond. through all our workshops and events we give people the chance to learn new skills and gain employment in our neighbourhood.

Our charity is at the heart of a network of local organisations working together to bring about change.

Our challenge is not only to provide the resources to protect the park now and in the long term but also to do this in a way that maintains and grows the level of community benefit we provide. It is continuously challenging to manage the balance between income generation and community benefit:

8

Horticulture

Biodiversity and sustainability

In our time where climate change and environmental degradation have triggered dramatic, ongoing and widespread damage to ecosystems worldwide resulting in the serious loss of wild animals and plants, we at Myatt’s see increasing the park’s biodiversity – which means widening the range of habitats and plant species within the park to help support a wider range of species which rely on those habitats etc – as essential, and we strive to be exemplars in that respect. In previous years we worked on expanding our wildflower meadows into areas of mown turf, but we are now focussing on enriching our now established meadows with plant species which will extend the flowering season and provide nectar and food to a wider range of invertebrates. We built new dead hedges in the wild garden and by the Mulberry Centre to take our woody green waste and provide habitats for invertebrates and other small creatures. We planted a native-species hedge along the road boundary in the dog area. We continued the light touch on mowing grass (no close mowing) and trimming hedges (hedges left untouched mid-Feb to early August during the birds’ nesting season) and we rescued stranded tadpoles from our drying pond, rearing them to four-legged froglets. We now recycle all our prunings, weedings and mowings, keeping all our green waste within the park and using it to improve the rather poor soil at Myatt’s.

Our biodiversity efforts are bearing fruit – this year we noticed a large colony of Ivy Mining Bees establishing itself in a bank close to the Roundhouse. This species coming from the continent is fairly new to the UK, and shows the importance of supporting species which are being driven from hotter environments due to climate change.

Decorative planting

We continued to augment the decorative planting at Myatts, adding plants to the bandstand beds and particularly the Ginkgo tree beds where we replaced the previous annual flower display with resilient perennial planting in the modern prairie style. We planted daffodil, tulip and crocus bulbs around the bandstand, through the wildflower meadows and elsewhere, adding to the very generous gift of bulbs made in 2023 by a couple getting married in the Roundhouse. We continued to add new plants to the Quiet Garden, but these have suffered from trampling and theft, and so we are applying for a grant to pay for new planting there.

The Edible Park

The greenhouse project is the outstanding feature of our edible park, but within the park itself the Quiet Garden is being planted with medicinal plants from around the world with further grant-aided medicinal planting planned for 2025. In the coming year we have a new project which will increase the edible planting in designated areas, including a small forest garden – watch this space.

Our volunteers

We continue to be supported by a dedicated band of volunteers who we absolutely could not do without, with special thanks to John, Jill, Stone, Anne, Amanda, Dickie, Pippa, Sandie, Nia, Bella and Becky.

9

City Bridge

This project was accessible to more than 30,000 local people.

In May 2023 we created the MFPP Greenhouse and Community Connections Project through match funding the City Bridge grants with LB Lambeth funded Community Connections Project which focuses on providing inclusion, project participation and employability skills. Through this merger we were able to provide a seamless exit strategy in terms of continuing lifelong learning, skills and employability to those former volunteers who still required assistance after the end of the Greenhouse Volunteering element of the project.

In 2023/24, 34,000 plants were distributed amongst 25 sites and 3593 individuals; 70% of the sites received plants/ seedlings 4 or more times; 95% stated that the project helped them to grow more vegetables than the previous year; 76% were able to involve more people from the community; 90% stated advice from the project helped with vegetable growing; overall 504 individuals (including volunteers) were involved in food growing across the reporting period; in terms of target groups the highest was BAME at 73% followed by Children at 68% and the elderly at 63%. The highest user group at 53% were Community Food Growing projects, followed by neighbours getting together to serve their street at 29%. To evidence the need for this funded project one group wrote in the Survey response ‘We are only able to access our site once a week and we do not have a greenhouse or polytunnel, so the seedlings from Myatt’s Fields Community Greenhouse are invaluable as we are limited in what we can raise ourselves’.

In 23/24 there was a significant change in our services benefitting young people at 57% (27% more than the previous year). We worked closely with 17 schools to present food growing as an added value to curriculum. There was a slight decrease in the uptake of the unemployed/low waged at 47% (15% less than the previous year). This was due to the fact that we combined the 2 projects, therefore participants could directly join the Community Engagement and Events element of the project. We worked directly on 20 Housing Estates therefore benefiting those Low waged in Social Housing.

83 new volunteers completed an Independent Development Plan. During a 1hr one-to-one with the Volunteers Coordinator, Volunteers are asked whilst accessing the MFPP Greenhouse and Community Connections Project what are their goals; motivation for attendance; and any obstacles they need assistance to overcome. Of the 83 Volunteers, 45% stated improvement in Health and Wellbeing as their goal, and 41% new skills and employment; 26% stated the need to overcome anxiety, depression, and isolation as their motivation; 12% stated time/their job/ work as an obstacle for them.

10

Our biggest achievement was starting the process to becoming a City and Guilds accredited Training Centre for Level 1 Horticulture. We have passed the initial quality checks and inspection of our Greenhouse Project. We have aligned our workshops to incorporate the PTTLS (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector) standard which incorporates the VARK principles (Visual; Auditory; Reading (Writing); and Kinetic for each workshop/ lesson.

With the merging of the projects, the additional funded activities added value to meet the needs of our users as this includes the launch of a purpose designed Training Room; Job Club; basic/accredited training; and social events. In order to get an insight and experience of running courses, and in preparation of running the City and Guilds Level 1 Horticulture course, we ran 28 x 6 weeks horticulture workshops for 30 individuals and 5 wellbeing workshops for 35 individuals. 60% stated the workshops were ‘Excellent’ with the remaining 40% stating ‘Good’. The Horticulture courses covered ‘Make new houseplants’; ‘How to grow Mushrooms’ and ‘How to grow Winter salads’. In the 3rd Quarter of the final year, we reduced our services to deliver the courses and concentrate on the top 20 most disadvantaged food growing groups/projects.

As well as supplying groups with plants and seedlings, we included giveaways to visitors at 3 large events namely Windrush Celebration, Family Fun Day, Community Connections and Ekabo! This venture benefitted more than 400 individuals.

As the Greenhouse Project Funding ended in September 2024, sustainability and the need for continuation Funding are at the forefront of our planning. We are expecting some building works by Lambeth Council sometime early 2025, which may mean the Greenhouse would need to close at some point or services significantly reduced.

11

Achievements and performance

1: Business:

All income raised by our charity is reinvested in the park. We continue to grow through income funding and donations.We raised £164k from weddings, parties, sports hires, corporates, donations and more, including £52,500 secure income from long term contracts (cafe, compound, Mulberry Centre and cottage) We hosted Father Nature and Trees for Cities in the compound, the Mulberry Outdoor Preschool, in the Mulberry Centre and they run the two stay and play free sessions, and the Little Cat Café, and Lambeth Tigers in the park.

2: Organisation:

Communications.

We sent out a monthly ebulletin to over 4155 subscribers. (2022/23 1600 contacts) Volunteers:

we have 304 people currently registered for park gardening and 51 as litter pickers. Greenhouse Volunteers:104

Tennis volunteer online expression of interest form 31

Park volunteering online applications 75 applications for this year adding to the already 384 on file rom 2023/24

Trustees 11

Staff:

We are proud of our staff team – we employ 14 people (10 of whom live in Lambeth) who work hard for the benefit of park users and the park. Although it looks a big team, their hours add up to just 4.5 full time posts – this covers all administration, repairs, fundraising, strategy and business planning, income generation, party and wedding hires, horticultural management and gardening, events and community engagement, marketing and communications, volunteer coordination, litter picking and caretaking. We benefit hugely from the skills, experience and commitment of our staff team. All staff are paid the london living wage or higher.

3: Park:

Developing our horticultural business and managing soft landscaping MFPP continue to take responsibility for mowing, hedges and maintenance of the park beds. Many volunteers are helping to create new biodiverse wildlife areas, planted up the bandstand bed and create beautiful displays of wild flowers on the Knatchbull Road side of the park. We have re-oprganised the ginko tree beds. Tony has also started to propigate plants in the greenhouse for the park. the flower beds and the wildlife areas are all improving every year.

We have cleaned up the dog area and put up a shelter - the dog group have raised over £1537,18 which we hold for them. They raised the money through the yearly dog show in the park, we have meetings to discuss future spending and work on the dog area. We spent £1,200 in the shelter in year 2023-24 and ring fenced the balance, £337.18 for year 2024-25

4: People:

Hard work by staff and volunteers and funding from City Bridge Trust meant that we distributed over 30,000 young plants in the final year of the project to local food growing groups and individuals in 2023-24. We have volunteers in on Wednesday and Friday helping in the park and in the greenhouse on Thursday and Sunday.

12

Lambeth Community Connections

Funded by Lambeth Council, MFPP were tasked with meeting the following outcomes through a series of key performance indicators.

Outcome 1 : 16 local people from the African diaspora and people of colour will have new skills and knowledge that allow them to move towards enterprise or work over 2 years

Outcome 2: 16 people and 10 organisational leaders from the African diaspora and people of colour are better able to meet their wellbeing needs

Outcome 3: people from across our diverse community benefit from new services that build social cohesion, improve mental and physical health, improve community access to food, improve community safety and reduce isolation for older people, young people, families and children

Outcome 4 : MFPP is a sustainable, inclusive organisation: park users and MFPP board reflect the diversity of local communities

Outcome 5 : Park users have greater pride in their neighbourhood as a place they want to live and work

The statistics:

16 individuals receiving training over two years have new employability skills (soft and hard skills in events management). 24 individuals receiving Training , Year one. 16 individuals receiving training are able to organise an event or activity. 20 individuals have received Training experience of how to organise an event or activity. In Year one 16 people receiving training have improved wellbeing. In year two, 30 people receiving training have improved wellbeing. 6 groups supported over 2 years. 7 groups supported Year one 3000 attendances. 60% BAME at events and activities. 4116 attendances 60% BAME at events and activities in Year 1 50% park users are BAME 52% of park users currently BAME 26 events/activities per year 49 events/activities.

Highlights:

Community Representatives

Providing skills to 36 individuals in terms of setting up/running activities in the Park

Events

Introducing new events to the annual programme including Windrush, Community Connections, Ekabo! (Harvest Festival) Stalls

Assisting local entrepreneurs with participation at events through providing a market-pitch, equipment, training and business planning support

13

Achievements and performance

5: Growing our neighbourhood:

Partnerships

We are proud to work in close partnership with other local community and statutory organisations. including Marcus Lipton Community Enterprise, CHIPS, Loughborough Junction Action Group, Indo-American Refugee and Migrant Organisation, Loughborough Community Centre, Vassall and Coldharbour Forum, Longfield Hall Trust, Vinyl Memories, Happy Drums, Migrateful, and Max Roach.

Urban Health funding.

Research Project ended June 2024:

The community gardening project aimed to investigate the impact of access to green spaces and community gardens on children’s mental health. The partners engaged local children and their families in food growing gardening activities with the aim to encourage healthy eating and an active lifestyle. The research found that growing food and gardening in general has a positive impact in children as well as their adult carers mental health and wellbeing. The project developed a set of resources that can be used by other communities interested in developing similar projects.

Key project partners: Myatts Field Park Project, Loughborough Community Centre (Maxroach, The Grove and The Loughborough Farm. Project Deliverables – Myatts Field Park Project 10 days participation of advisory support, horticulture expertise, practical support and facilitation to both group partners The Grove and The Max Roach Centre. Supporting the project activities and delivery of two core groups of 10 children and young people 8 – 13 years of age and their families. Allocated Project Budget £1500. The primary entity overseeing the project and managing its funds is the Loughborough Community Centre (Maxroach).

Finally

Many thanks to our funders:

Lambeth Council

National Lottery Heritage Fund City Bridge Trust London Community Foundation Fiends of the Elderly London Tennis Association Urban Health Friends of the Elderly and St Claire and St Francis Trust Individual donors

14

Events Held in 2023-24

IN-HOUSE EVENTS

Saturday, 26 August 2023 Spoken Word Nadz event Saturday, 2 September 2023 Dog show Saturday, 23 September 2023 Ekabo Friday, 6 October 2023 Bat Walk Annual event. This year co hosted with Sound Tent Saturday, 16 December 2023 100 voices + luna gazing Saturday, 15 June 2024 Pride Picnic Saturday, 22 June 2024 Windrush Celebration Saturday, 29 June 2024 Fiesta del Sol(Andean Festival) Sunday, 14 July 2024 Family fun day

PARTNER FREE EVENTS 23-30 August 2023 Boundless boxes pop-up theatre/workshop space for young people 15 to 25 years Friday, 25 August 2023 Insight into Islam family funday and picnic for children Thursday, 31 August 2023 Lambeth Food partnership Saturday, 23 March 2024 Easter egg hunt Organised by Christ Church SW9 primary school Sunday, 26 May 2024 IEL plant swap event IEL members and growers then share in the spring. Sunday, 9 June 2024 Pico Players - Conduct me! 40 member orchestra let the public conduct them. Sunday, 16 June 2024 Eid al-Fitr event Muslim picnic day Saturday, 20 July 2024 Bloombury Wind Ensemble Land Free classical concert (20 piece) in the bandstand Sunday, 21 July 2024 Justice Fair Saturday, 27 July 2024 Together with Mulberries 5,12,19,26 July 2024 Shamah wellbeing Summer african drumming in the park

PARTNER PAID EVENTS

Sunday, 20 August 2023 Circus aerial Longfield Hall/Hikappe Sunday, 23 June 2024 The Dream Sequence performance Longfield Hall/Open bar 5, 12 , 17 Aug 2023 Migrateful cookery classes help support migrants and refugees rebuild their lives.

PRIVATE EVENTS

10 Weddings: 2 Films: 16 Sport Days: 6 Others:

REGULAR PARK ACTIVITIES in 2023-24

Mondays	Hip hop dance Gentle dance class open to all (donations)	1pm - 2pm
Mondays and Fridays	Stay and Play Outdoor stay and play for children under 4 years old
	sponsored by Mulberry Outdoor Preschool	9:30am -11:30am
Wednesdays	Senior Brunch Activities in Depot, food heroes cooked lunch	11.00am -14:00pm
Wednesdays and Fridays	Park gardening volunteering Gardening sessions	9am - 1pm
Thrusdays	Greenhouse project Group workshops	9am - 2pm
Sundays	Greenhouse project Volunteering sessions	9am - 2pm
Number of hours	PRIVATE SPORTS HIRES
2860 hours	Football PItch FREE community use
1092 hours	Football pitch community hire
780 hours	Football PItch hire
48 hours	FREE park tennis
45 hours	Walking tennis
3011 hours	Tennis courts
Number of bookings	PRIVATE BUILDING HIRES
93 bookings	Mulberry Centre
36 bookings	Summerhouse
12 bookings	Depot

15

Future plans

We welcome the following developments in 2024-25:

Growing our business; developing our hires and income generation activities

We have put together a business plan from 2023-26 with Our vision is that in our vibrant and diverse neighbourhood Myatt’s is a park where community and nature grow together.

Our mission is to protect and develop Myatt’s Fields Park as a haven of wellbeing for our urban neighbourhood Our values: you can read about it all in our business plan 23-26 on our website.

ONGOING WORK

Depot renovation: Lambeth Council is investing in a full renovation of the park depot to create a new community space with a focus on food growing. This will include a new community kitchen, a large eating/meeting space. The work was planned to start in January 2025 and to be completed in spring/summer 2026, BUT work has yet to start.

Tennis courts - re-developed with new play surface. we now have a sinking fund for repairs

Compound : on going.

In consultation with locals, we have greened up the area with green roofs on all the containers and planted a new evergreen hedge along the perimeter of the park. Planted climbers up the containers and installed new gates.

Park Cottage : Lambeth Council has hired this out, giving MFPP the funding to support park management.

Football Pitch: lighting has been installed at the pitch, ensuring it can be used in dark winter evenings, and a new green 3G pitch has been relaid, thanks to Nike, and Lambeth Tigers. we now have a sink fund in place for ongoing repairs to the pitch

Corporate Volunteering: We facilitated corporates and small companies to volunteer at the park.

Donations: to grow our donations.

Diversity and inclusion: MFPP priority is to ensure that the park fully serves our whole community. We will seek funding to upskill people from across the community and our organisation so they can play their part in supporting and developing the park as trustees, volunteers, staff and park users.

Park horticultural maintenance: MFPP will continue to maintain the park as a green space, managing and developing its flower beds, grass and internal hedges. We will implement our plans to create a place that benefits people, flora and fauna, is adapted to climate change and resilient in a time of austerity.

Establishing a pyramid of training, mentoring, accreditation, volunteering, business development support and therapeutic activities in the park to improve health and wellbeing and provide stepping stones into employment

We are at the end of the 5-year City Bridge funded greenhouse project. We will seek funding in the future

16

Financial review

In 2023/24 MFPP raised the total income of £280,986 (2022-23 was: £225,676), an increase on last year. This increase is made of the combination of restricted funds, donations and earned income.

The expenditure for the year was £238,163 (2022-23 was: £225,208). This is an increase on last year and is mainly due to staff costs and event costs.

We ended the year with a surplus of £42,823 (2022/23: £468), made up of the unrestricted surplus of £34,267 (2022/23: £6,077) and restricted surplus of £8,556 (2022/23: deficit of £5,609). Our total reserves increased to £209,901 (2022/23: £167,078). Our unrestricted reserves increased to £194,856 and we held restricted funds of £15,045.

MFPP’s reserves policy is to hold unrestricted funds of 3 months’ worth of expenditure. At the end of 2023/24 MFPP held over 6 months’ worth of expenditure (2022/23: 6 months).

17

Trustees’ Resposibilities

The Trustees, who are also Directors of Myatt’s Fields Park Project for the purposes of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). Company law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company at the end of each financial year, and of the incoming and outgoing resources for the year then ended.

In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently, making judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent. The trustees must also prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue its activities.

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. The trustees are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Small Company provisions

This report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions for small companies under the Companies Act 2006, Charities Act 2011 and the Financial Reporting Standard FRS 102.

Signed on behalf of the trustees

……………………………………….......................................... Marjorie Landels Chairman

Approved by the trustees on

…………………………............................................................

18

Independent Examiner’s Report

We report on the accounts for the Charity for the Year Ended 31 July 2024, which are set out on the following pages.

This report is made solely to the Trustees of Myatt’s Fields Park Project as a body. Our examination has been undertaken so that we might state, those matters we are required to state to them in an examiner’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law. We do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Charity as a body for my examination, for this report or for the opinions we have formed.

RESPECTIVE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE TRUSTEES AND THE EXAMINER

As the Trustees you are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements. It is our responsibility to state, whether particular matters have come to our attention.

BASIS OF INDEPENDENT EXAMINERS REPORT

An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking any explanations from you as a Management Committee

concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently we do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts.

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S STATEMENT

The trustees have confirmed that other than the related party transaction as mentioned in the notes to the accounts (note 12), there were no other transactions or conflicts of interests.

The trustees recognise the risks associated with related parties and conflicts of interests and have

implemented procedures which help to recognise, report, authorise and record these transactions when they occur.

No other matter has come to our attention:

1. Which gives us reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements

2. to keep accounting records; and

3. to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and to comply with the accounting requirements

have not been met; or

1. To which, in our opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed ……………………………………….....................................

Date……………………………………….........................................

Independent Examiners: Additude Ltd

9 Rhapsody Court, Wakeman Road, London NW10 5DF

19

Statement of Financial Activities

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2024

		Unrestricted	Restricted	Total	Total
		Funds	Funds	Funds 2024	Funds 2023
	Notes	£	£	£	£
INCOME FROM
Donations	2	21,599	-	21,599	20,729
Charitable activities	3	79,370	116,920	196,290	156,704
Other earned income	4	60,340	-	60,340	47,149
Investment income		2,757	-	2,757	1,094
TOTAL INCOME		164,066	116,920	280,986	225,676
EXPENDITURE FROM
Raising funds		5,959	-	5,959	-
Charitable activities	5-6-7	123,840	108,364	232,204	225,208
TOTAL EXPENDITURE		129,799	108,364	238,163	225,208
NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE)
FOR THE YEAR		34,267	8,556	42,823	468
Transfer between funds		439	(439)	-	-
NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS		34,706	8,117	42,823	468
FUNDS BROUGHT FORWARD		160.150	6,928	167,078	166,610
FUNDS AT 31 JULY 2023		194,856	15,045	209,901	167,078

20

Balance sheet as of 31st July 2024

		2024	2023
	Notes	£	£
FIXED ASSETS
Tangible assets	8	24,270	18,828
CURRENT ASSETS
Debtors	9	32,193	11,588
Short term deposits and cash in hand		185,860	209,897
		218,053	221,485
CREDITORS: DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR	10	32,422	73,235
NET CURRENT ASSETS		185,631	148,250
NET ASSETS		209.901	167,078
FUNDS
Restricted	11	15,045	6,928
Designated funds		60,000	60,000
Unrestricted: General funds		134,856	100,150
TOTAL FUNDS		209,901	167,078

The directors are satisfied that the Charity is entitled to exemption from audit under Section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.

The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of the Act with respect to accounting records and the preparation of the accounts. These accounts have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies’ regime.

These financial statements have been approved by the directors on ……………………………………………........

and are signed on their behalf by …………………………………………………………................................................

Marjorie Landels, Chairman

21

Notes to the accounts for year ended 31 july 2024

Note 1. Accounting policies

Basis of accounting	Basis of accounting
The fnancial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention and in accordance with the
Statement	of Recommended Practice “Accounting and Reporting by Charities” (SORP 2015).
Depreciation
Depreciation is calculated so as to write off the cost of an asset, less its estimated residual value, over the useful
economic life of that asset as follows:
Equipment	25% Reducing balance basis
Fixtures and fttings: 10 years Straight line basis
Fund accounting
(a)	Unrestricted funds are those that can be expended at the discretion of the trustees in the
	furtherance of the objects of the charity;
(b)	Restricted funds are those that may only be used for specifc purposes. Restrictions arise when
	specifed by the donor or when funds are raised for specifc purposes.
Income recognition
Income is recognised and included in the Statement of Financial Activities (SoFA) as follows
(a)	when the charity becomes entitled to the income, receipt is probable and the monetary value can be
	measured with suffcient reliability;
(b)	when income has related expenditure, the income and related expenditure are reported gross in the SoFA;
(c)	bank interest is recognised when credited to the account;
(d)	Income, which is subject to conditions that the charity is yet to fulfl, or which is specifcally for use in a
	future accounting period, is treated as deferred income.
Expenditure and liabilities
(a)	Expenditure is recognised on the accruals basis;
(b)	The charity is not registered for VAT thus all costs are shown inclusive of VAT charged;
(c)	Liabilities are recognised as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation to pay out resources.
Tangible assets
Tangible assets are capitalised if they can be used for more than one year, and cost at least £500. They are valued at cost or,
if gifted, at	their market value.
Debtors
(a)	Debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due;
(b)	Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid.
Creditors
(a)	Creditors are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that
	will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the
	obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors are normally recognised at their
	settlement amount.
(b)	Accrued charges are normally valued at their settlement amount.

Going concern

The trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern.

23

Note 2. Income from donations

	Unrestricted funds	Total funds 2024	Total funds 2023
Donations	£	£	£
Donations and grants	21,599	21,599	20,729
Gifts in kind	-	-	-
	21,599	21,599	20,729

Note 3. Income from charitable activities

		Unrestricted	Restricted	Total	Total
		funds	funds	funds 2024	funds 2023
Grants	)	-	116,920	116,920	94,997
Hire of football pitch and tennis courts		51,625	-	51,625	35,377
Café		6,350	-	6,350	5,700
Mulberry Centre: hires		8,295	-	8,295	8,402
Festivals: stall hires and park sales		1,076	-	1,076	898
Weddings in the park		12,024	-	12.024	11,330
Total		79,370	116,920	196,290	156,704

Café income represents a contribution towards the depreciation of the equipment in the café by the licencee. MFPP has an agreement with the local family to run the café. Mulberry Centre income represents hires of the centre for children’s parties and events.

.

Restricted grants:

Funder	Project name	Total	Total
		funds 2024	funds 2023
Lambeth Council	Park management	9,000	20,000
Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP)	Vassall Ward Family Engagement Team	-	5,990
Friends of the Elderly	Friends of the Elderly	6,000	4,950
City Bridge	Greenhouse project	53,000	49,957
Lambeth Council	Bandstand Programme	5,020	3,500
Lambeth Council	Community Connections Fund	42,400	10,600
Lambeth Council	Other	-	-
Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation	Impact on Urban Health	1,500	-
Total		116,920	94,997

24

Note 4. Other earned income

	Unrestricted	restricted	Total	Total
	funds	funds	funds 2024	funds 2023
Park hires and sales - other	60,340	-	60,340	47,149
Total	60,340	-	60,340	47,149

Note 5. Expenditure from charitable expenditure

	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total costs	Total costs
	costs	costs	2024	2023
Direct project costs	15,552	88,193	103,745	77,316
Support costs	114,247	20,171	134,418	147,892
Total	129,799	108,364	238,163	225,208

Note 6. Charitable activities by expenditure type

	Raising	Direct	Support	Total	Total
	Funds	Costs	Costs	Costs 2024	Costs 2023
Salaries & freelance	5,259	61,986	83,963	151,208	144,335
Meeting and event costs		24.203	920	25,123	19,300
Repairs, renewals & depreciation		7,852	14,554	22,406	22,817
Professional fees		-	1,978	1,978	1,636
Fixtures, fttings and equipment		-	4,142	4,142	6,447
Cleaning materials		-	913	913	596
Insurance -			1,726	1,726	2,261
Offce costs		-	8,118	8,118	7,503
Seeds, soil and plants		3,399	4,842	8,241	12,416
Training		1,122	3,081	4,203	412
Consultancy fees	700	-	-	700	-
Publicity		5,183	3,227	8,410	793
Governance costs		-	995	995	1,004
Sub-grant expenditure		-	-	-	5,688
Total	5,959	103,745	134,418	238,163	225,208

25

Note 7. Staff costs

Note 7. Staff costs
	2024	2023
	£	£
Wages and salaries	151,208	1474,335
The salary cost includes freelance payments to staff of £1,834
No employee received a renumeration in excess of £60,000.
Staff numbers were as follows:
	2024	2023
Number of employees	14	15
FTE equivalent (estimated)	4.9	4.3

In 2016/17 Myatts Fields Park Project joined NEST - a pension scheme set up by the Government . This is a defined contribution scheme and the matched contributions are in line with the Government’s regulations.

Note 8. Tangible fixed assets

COST		DEPRECIATION
Cost at 1 August 2023	33,177	At 1 August 2023	14,349
Additions	12,732	Charge for the year	6,752
Disposals	(2,173)	Depreciation of disposed assets	(2,173)
At 31 July 2024	43,198	At 31 July 204	18,928
NET BOOK VALUE
At 31 July 2023	18,828
At 31 July 2024	24,270

Note 9. Debtors

Note 9. Debtors
	2024	2023
	£	£
Trade Debtors	16,638	6,302
Other Debtors	15,555	5,286
Total	32,193	11,588
Note 10. Creditors
	2024	2023
	£	£
Trade Creditors	2,471	8,238
Deferred income	12,484	45,466
Other creditors	17,467	19,531
Total	32,422	73,235

26

Note 11. Movement in restricted funds

	Op Balance				Cl Balance
	as of 1 Aug 23	Income	Expenditure	Transfer of funds	as of 31 July 24
Restricted funds	£	£	£	£	£
Park management grant	-	9,000	9,000	-	-
Greenhouse Project	3,675	53,000	53,793	(439)	2,443
Community Connections Fund	2,003	42,400	33,951	-	10,452
Bandstand Programme	1,250	5,020	4,120	-	2,150
Friends of the Elderly	-	6,000	6,000	-	-
Impact on Urban Health	-	1,500	1,500	-	-
Total Restricted funds	6,928	116,920	108,364	(439)	15,045
Designated Funds
Designated Funds	60,000	-	-	-	60,000
Unrestricted: General funds
Unrestricted funds	100,150	164,066	129,799	439	134,856
Total Funds	167,078	280,986	238,163	-	209,901

Purpose of the designated funds

As per our reserves policy we hold as designated funds 3 months worh of expenditure

Note 12. Related party transactions

Omar Infante has been the licensee of the park café since April 2021. The café paid £6350 pa to MFPP,

which is a contribution towards the depreciation of the equipment in the café.

The Little Cat Cafe served 870 discounted drinks to volunteers. Also offered discounts to students, partners, seniors and free drinks to litter pickers or anyone unable to pay worth £5415.54.

The dog group donations balance 2022-23 was £1537,18. We spent £1,200 in the shelter in year 2023-24 and ring fenced the balance, £337.18 for year 2024-25

Trustees have been reimbursed expenses of £62,53

27

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PROJECT
mfpp PARK
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MYATT’S FIELDS PARK

Myatt’s Fields Park Project, The Old Depot, Myatt’s Fields Park, Cormont Road, London. SE5 9RA Email: [e-mail] Website: www.myattsfieldspark.info