_Buckinghamshire Conservation Trust_ _**Looking after Buckinghamshire’s Natural and Historic Environment**_ ## **’ Chairman s Report 2023 - 2024** In the wettest February for a long time, indeed in the wettest 18 months period since the 1830’s, volunteers from the Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society, ably aided by Sandy Kidd (Board Member) supervised the digging of 187 post holes and sifting through any finds all with permission from Historic England, to relocate the characteristic iron fence moved from St Peters and stored until it was possible to re-install to afford protection for the wider historic site. Despite some waterlogging the project was completed successfully, and the only find of note turned out to be an animal bone. The fence now creates a significant presence and sense of place, particularly as the interpretation boards are now well placed to explain both the church and the landscape. The new website https://www.buckinghamshireconservationtrust.co.uk/ is still under development, although a QR code has been created so that once in place on the boards people with smartphones looking at the interpretation boards on the site can immediately augment the information. Trustees proposed a wealth of material to add to the website and various permissions for the use of images are currently being sought in order to complete the site. The success of the cycleway in opening up the site has continued, but has brought headaches of it’s own, as anticipated. However, there have been no dramatic incidents involving the police, as in the past, but the nagging nuisance of litter and graffiti, a feature of life everywhere which just has to be dealt with. I appreciate the brunt of this is borne by Mike Woods, our CEO, but without our ranger and the volunteers this would be all the harder. I believe it’s because of them and the wider public use of the site that we remain fortunate. The main issue with the cycleway has been verge maintenance as anticipated. The newly disturbed soil along the route generated a wealth of plant life over a metre high which was eventually cut back by us and the invoice passed to Buckinghamshire Council (BC) despite no formal agreement having been reached. We were reimbursed for this and we are now working with BC, our major partner, to put an agreement in place for the future. In addition a line of dead elm trees in a hedgerow bordering the verge needed to be removed as they risked falling across the cycleway. Since Dutch Elm Disease, elm trees in hedgerows reach a certain height and then die back and eventually fall. Our annual Countryside Stewardship grant was slightly bigger than anticipated, (+£1800) although full transfer to the replacement ELMS scheme is still awaited. This, with a retrospective payment of £895 from Eastern Electricity for the overhead pylon network across part of the site reduced the deficit budget originally set for this year. In October 2023 the Trust exhibited at the Buckinghamshire Local History Network conference alongside Buckinghamshire Young Archaeologists. Kim Biddulph (Board Member) has produced a leaflet featuring the history of Quarrendon Leas specifically for young people interested in archaeology. We held a volunteer day in March and the annual site visit for Trustees in September and Roger King (Board Member) has led several guided walks with local groups on the site. Moving forward the CEO Mike has been successful in May 2024 in obtaining a Countryside Stewardship Grant of £9,500 for hedge laying and planting in the coming year. We are grateful to Mike for maintaining an excellent relationship with our partners on the site particularly the grazier for the sheep without which the site could not be preserved and maintained, BC for the issues around the establishment of the cycleway/acting as our major partners, our maintenance contractors, and our ranger and volunteers. The relocation of a now redundant footbridges (subsequent to the cycleway) and the sheep crush is still pending although a site for the sheep crush has been identified. ## **Signed; Chairman Buckinghamshire Conservation Trust** _Avril Davies_ …………………………………………………………………… ## **Dated; 6 June 2024** ## **Buckinghamshire Conservation Trust** ## **Income and Expenditure Account for the year ended 31st March 2024** |**2023**
**£**
**£**
**INCOME**
-
Grants
12,981
RPA Farm payments
16,340
Countryside stewardship
2,740
Fundraising donations
1,073
Farm rent (Lear)
-
Eastern Power
180
Other income
33,314
**EXPENDITURE**
13,249
Chief Officer fees
954
Site management - Rangers
243
Site security
2,567
Materials, fencing gates etc
6,102
Conservation / restoration
1,122
IT related expenses
-
Marketing & interpretation
-
Equipment & tools
2,913
Project expenditure
14
Bank charges
542
Insurance
13
Companies House
-
General Admin
-
Travel exps CEO
-
Travel exps Rangers
1,405
Miscellaneous eps
29,124|**£**
-
10,547
17,845
600
1,073
895
192| |---|---| ||12,600
750
471
2,493
13,008
1,219
2,657
110
982
-
921
13
1,450
754
257
353| ||| ## **4,190 Suplus / (deficit) for the year** **Signed; Chairman BCT** **Dated; 6 June 2024** **2024 £** 31,152 38,038 **- 6,886** ## **Buckinghamshire Conservation Trust** ## **Income and Expenditure Account for the year ended 31st March 2024** |**2023**
**£**
**£**
**INCOME**
-
Grants
12,981
RPA Farm payments
16,340
Countryside stewardship
2,740
Fundraising donations
1,073
Farm rent (Lear)
-
Eastern Power
180
Other income
33,314
**EXPENDITURE**
13,249
Chief Officer fees
954
Site management - Rangers
243
Site security
2,567
Materials, fencing gates etc
6,102
Conservation / restoration
1,122
IT related expenses
-
Marketing & interpretation
-
Equipment & tools
2,913
Project expenditure
14
Bank charges
542
Insurance
13
Companies House
-
General Admin
-
Travel exps CEO
-
Travel exps Rangers
1,405
Miscellaneous eps
29,124|**£**
-
10,547
17,845
600
1,073
895
192| |---|---| ||12,600
750
471
2,493
13,008
1,219
2,657
110
982
-
921
13
1,450
754
257
353| ||| ## **4,190 Suplus / (deficit) for the year** **No financial issues** **Dated; 6 June 2024** **2024 £** 31,152 38,038 **- 6,886**