FRIENDS OF ABBEY GARDENS (Charitable Incorporated Organisation)
TRUSTEES' REPORT AND ACCOUNTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31.12.2021
CIO number: 1158147
Friends of Abbey Gardens Financial year ending 31 December 2021
Trustees' report - CIO number 1158147
Charity Objectives:
To promote for the benefit of the inhabitants of Newham, London and the surrounding area the provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time occupation of individuals who have need of such facilities by reason of their youth, age, infirmity, or disablement, financial hardship or social and economic circumstances or for the public at large in the interest of social welfare and with the object of improving the condition of life of said inhabitants.
Summary of main activities:
Gardening
Gardening over winter generally scales down. A strong group of plot holders and volunteers were attending the garden on a weekly basis to join with community garden sessions on Wednesdays. Once it was summer and rules were relaxed we found ourselves with a newly engaged community that wanted to get involved with the upkeep of the garden. We had regular visits from Goodgym Newham and a visit from Corporate volunteers. Towards the end of the year, we found that volunteers still seem to be engaged with the gardening and we even introduced some DIY building community garden sessions.
Events
We were able to hold a few events this year as restrictions eased. The Big lunch, Family halloween event, Christmas community meeting and bake sale, Wreath making workshop and a flower workshop. Attendence was good and we begun to use eventbrite for booking. Plot holders
This has been hugely sucessful as the community feels like they have a part of the garden of their own, in exchange they look after the rest of the garden. This has maintained a buzz in the community, with people building friendships through visiting the gardens and looking after their beds. We had a meeting at the end of the year to help plot holders further understand tehir agreement to maintain the rest of the space as they have been given plots.
Engagement Strategy With hiring new project managers for the space, we noticed that having them at the space regularly meant that community members and passers by were far more engaged with the space. The instagram account has around 400 new followers than this time last year and we are getting regular dm's on facebook. The notice board has been in use more to publicise volunteer sessions, events and workshops, we have noticed that older members of the community seem to engage with this too. We have reingaged our plot holders to find out how they see the space being used in 2022 so we can plan for funding. Pilot: Garden café Unfortunately due to COVID-19 we were unable to get the Garden Café started. Sumary of main achievements:
1)The charity established new long term relationship with several local organisations to aid in C19 recovery: Forrest Gate Community Garden Love E15 Cody Dock Newham Poetry Group Newham community garden network (whatsapp) Manor School Newer connections in departments within School21 Compost Mentis Surge Coop Canal Club Community Garden
2)The charity made stronger links with Newham Council and engaged in their new initiatives as local community builders. Once Alice the new Project manager started in November, she made a conscious effort to go and meet with Jyoti the community lead in the Newham area and discuss initiatives and ideas to take through into the new year. Her key take away was to lay groundwork to apply to the community assembly fund for 2022 and engage with other local groups interested in Abbey Gardens as a resource and safe space. 3) Following the pandemic the search for someone to occupy the cafe and the type of person/s we need for this is much clearer. Outreach has restarted thorough social media and local networks/service users. Some interest but as oif yet, we havent quite found the right person who fits the balance between community focussed, self starting and interested in using the garden as a resource.
4)The charity successfully raised unrestricted funds through
- A Christmas cake sale (£88.00 cash tin). This cake sale was followed by an open community meeting so that we could re engage with the local community after such a long period of being apart. Community members donated cakes which we then sold to raise money for the garden. - Corporate volunteering sessions (Salesforce £200.00 per session Coop). This was something that we thankfully had as a resource to not only have more people at the space to garden but also to make some money. Salesforce donated money for each session that they came. We had groups of around 20-30 volunteers each time. - Space hire (Em Films £200.00 Coop). Understanding how to use the space as a resource in times when projects and fundraising has been difficult was a learning curve. This is definitely something the charity aims to do more of in 2022 because it gives us access to unrestricted funds to employ staff to maintain the space and plan for developments. 5) We employed a project manager to maintain the space and organize events and workshops at the garden with the help of the community. She started in July and by November we employed another person and they took on a job share. This has been key in laying groundwork for covid 19 recovery. 6) Family halloween event run by Anna, a newly appointed trustee. This event was free and involved pumpkin carving, making apple bird feeders and harvesting somepumkins from the garden. Our project manager was on site to assist in some educational garden activities with the children too. 7) Application was submitted to the National Lottery for the Together for our Planet fund to enable us to build a bee enclosure and rebuild our composting systems. This project also involves a series of workshops and activities around these two structures. This is the only funding application that was applied for this year due to the Covid19 Pandemic and the garden being stripped back to just maintain itself as a space for the community.
Financial review
Reserves policy:
At any one time the Charity should have £3,000 of free reserves
Funds in deficit: The Charity had £3,170.13 of unrestricted funds as at 31.12.2021
Principal sources of funding:
Individual donations and funds rolled over from 2020
Restricted funding:
A4A - £3,182.63 SSH - £4,240.00 Tate & Lyle - £1,065.00 Pocket parks - £2,573.98 GTPS - £80.00 CBT - £668.00
All restricted funds here were rolled over from 2020 no new funding was recieved.
Unrestricted funding:
Individual donations form community members
Going concern:
The organisation is in a good position to impliment some developmental plans next year with funds planned to be raised to deliver more projects. With the onboarding of PM's the garden now has capacity to deliver projects for the community and to enrich the space while also generating more income for the garden. The trustees are aware that more funds need to be generated in 2022 to deliver on promises
This report was approved by the Board of Trustees and signed on its behalf by:
Stewart Haywood
Friends of Abbey Gardens Financial year ending 31 December 2021
Reference and administrative details
Charity number: 1158147
Trustees: Lucia Jane Barbara Nowak Stewart Haywood Martha Norman Karen Waneska Marie Helson
Principal address: Abbey Gardens, 20 Bakers Row, London, E15 3NF
Bankers: Co-Operative Bank, 1 Baloon Street, Manchester, M60 4EP Governing document: Constitution of the CIO Friends of Abbey Gardens (2014) Type of organisation: Charitable Incorporated Organisation
Appointment of Trustees New trustees are elected to post at the annual general meeting
As per the Constitution the CIO is required to have at least three trustees at any time The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Annual report and Annual Accounts in accordance with Charity Law of the United Kingdom / Charity Incorporated Organisations (General) Regulations 2012
The Trustees are responsible for keeping accurate accounting records.
Friends of Abbey Gardens Financial year ending 31 December 2021
Profit & Loss by activity
| INCOME Grant income Unrestricted income TOTAL INCOME EXPENDITURE Labour Project Management Gardener Contractors Materials Insurance Utilities Publicity Event costs General expenses TOTAL EXPENDITURE |
1,008.00 £ 722.05 £ 1,730.05 £ 2,550.00 £ 388.83 £ 225.00 £ 180.00 £ 3,343.83 £ 1,613.78 -£ |
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Friends of Abbey Gardens Financial year ending 31 December 2021
Profit & Loss by source of funding
| B/F 1.1.2021 Income Total fund available Expenditure Labour Project Management Gardener Contractors Materials Insurance Utilities Publicity Event costs General expenses Total Expenditure Funds carried forward |
Unrestricted A4A TAG SSH Tate & Lyle Pocket Parks GTPS CBT Total 2,853 £ 3,183 £ 1,283 £ 4240 1,065 £ 2,574 £ 80 £ 668 £ 15,946 £ 722 £ - £ - £ 0 - £ 1,008 £ - £ - £ 1,730 £ 3,575 £ 3,183 £ 1,283 £ 4,240 £ 1,065 £ 3,582 £ 80 £ 668 £ 17,676 £ - £ - £ - £ 0 - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ 2,550 £ - £ 0 - £ - £ - £ - £ 2,550 £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ 389 £ - £ - £ 389 £ 225 £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ 225 £ 180 £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ 180 £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ 405 £ 2,550 £ - £ - £ - £ 389 £ - £ - £ 3,344 £ 3,170 £ 633 £ 1,283 £ 4,240 £ 1,065 £ 3,193 £ 80 £ 668 £ 14,332 £ |
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Friends of Abbey Gardens Financial year ending 31 December 2021
Notes to the Annual Accounts
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1 The annual accounts are prepared on a receipts & payments basis according to the Charity Incorporated Organisations (General) Regulations 2012.
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2 The CIO is exempt from external audit as the income in FY 2021 income falls below 250K threshold
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3 The CIO is exempt from independent examination as the income in FY 2021 income falls below 25K threshold
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4 In the FY 2021 the CIO did not enter into any guarantees
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5 As at 31.12.2021 the CIO did not owe any amounts to external parties
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4 The Profit & Loss (page 5) presents the summary of all amounts received and paid out in financial year 2019
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6 The Profit and Loss (page 6) of the accounts lists income (including B/F income from 2018) and expenditure by the source of the income/ funding
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7 The Statement of Assets and Liabilities (page 8) presents the cash as the only asset the CIO held as at 31.12.2021
Friends Of Abbey Gardens Financial year ending 31 December 2021
Statement of Assets and Liabilities
| Assets: Cash Restricted funds: Unrestricted funds Total: Being held in: Co-Operative bank Paypal Cash tin Total |
11,162 3,170 14,332 13,847 338 147 14,332 |
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No liabilities were recorded as at 31.12.2021
Stewart Haywood (Trustee)