## **The Friends of Friar Gate Bridge Trustees’ Annual Report For the period 01/09/20 to 31/08/21** ## **Reference and administration details** Charity Name: The Friends of Friar Gate Bridge Registered Charity Number: 1163174 Charity Principal Address: 32 Friar Gate, Derby, DE1 1BX Names of Charity Trustees who manage the charity: Mandy Coons David Cross (resigned 31/08/2020) Dr. Catherine Feely Malcolm Holden Howard Thomas Chair Names and addresses of advisers: Solicitors Smith Partnership, Celtic House, Derby. DE1 1LS Website Human Interface Publications, 14 MacKenzie Street, Derby. DE22 3DD Treasurer Vacant position **Structure, governance and management** Type of governing document: Constitution How the charity is constituted: Charitable incorporated organization Trustee selection methods: Elected by general meeting ## **Objective and activities** Summary of objects of the charity - 1.1 The objects of the CIO are: - 1.1.1 to promote for the benefit of the public the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical, natural and man-made environment by promoting the historical and architectural heritage of Friar Gate Bridge (“the Bridge”) in Derby. - 1.1.2 to advance the education of the public, in particular in relation to the history and architecture of the heritage of the Bridge by developing public interest in the architecture, history and heritage of the Bridge by means of publications, public lectures and exhibitions and co-operation with schools and other educational establishments and other bodies and societies. ## **Restoration - Progress under wraps** Following our major successes in the first two months of 2020, i.e., in having a senior City Councillor tell our Annual General Meeting that he considered the Bridge to be important to the City and then getting all the major stakeholders around the same table, the following two years have been very frustrating. Because of Covid, the quarterly meetings, which the stakeholders had agreed to hold after February’s round-table meeting, never took place. We knew after a few months that Clowes Developments/CWC Holdings were progressing, as they had told us they would, with putting together a masterplan for Friar Gate Goods Yard also including the Bridge. However, the City Council asked Clowes not to discuss the matter with the outside world, including us at Friends of Friar Gate Bridge, until they said so. There were Covid-related lockdowns until March 2021 which continued to hamper many activities: Clowes’ progress was slower than they would have wished, but there were signs of activity on the site which we pointed out on social media. Meanwhile, each of the other main stakeholders had its own battles to fight with the effects of the pandemic. The City Council had several, most of which were well documented. Another stakeholder, The Cathedral School (at the furthest end of the Goods Yard from the Bridge) was preoccupied with preparing to move in, and the University had to grapple with keeping students educated and happy. While we could have decided to plough our own furrow and work up a bid for funding our own project for the Bridge in isolation, we decided against this. First, as mentioned in Lathams’ viability report which we commissioned, we would have a much better chance of initial success and of achieving a long-term sustainable solution if we worked in conjunction with one or more of these other parties. Secondly, the main source of funding, Heritage Lottery Fund, was concentrating on keeping afloat those heritage assets dependent on income and affected by the pandemic and, consequently, was avoiding new schemes. Finally, the City Council was giving us no guidance at all on what activity they might welcome or allow on the Bridge so any time, and Friends’ money, invested on working up a bid was highly likely to be wasted. The twelve months from August 2020 to August 2021 was, therefore, incredibly frustrating from the restoration point of view but progress was being made away from the public eye. ## **Education – severely restricted** We have an educational remit which in the past we have exercised through a schools’ STEM project programme, delivered for us by RollsRoyce personnel, and through talks to general interest groups and societies given by ourselves at their meetings. Covid restrictions in schools and major upheaval at Rolls-Royce made it impossible for their people to deliver our STEM programme while teachers had their work cut out delivering their standard education programme to their pupils. Meetings for interest groups were cancelled throughout the year and, although we delivered the odd presentation by Zoom, weak internet connections spoiled the results, so these were discontinued. We continued to post news and information on social media, our website and the Derby Telegraph. We are grateful to Jayne Courts-Robinson of Human Interface Productions for her work on these matters on our behalf. ## **Other activities** We prepared a case for Historic England for raising the status of the Bridge from Grade II to II* but held back from making the application since a successful application may have restricted the site’s uses and made the planned restoration project unviable. Our fourth AGM took place through Zoom on 8[th] March 2021. Beyond essential business, there was only brief discussion among the small number attending, Fundraising was, of course, severely restricted. Your Chair had even purchased, at his own expense, some collection boxes for local shops only for Covid to make using cash a rarity. A further casualty of the Covid-driven Rolls-Royce upheaval was your board of trustees who lost David Cross. David was a very valuable member of our board who left Rolls-Royce and for domestic reasons had to change his priorities. We thank him for his services and wish him and his family success and happiness. ## **Financial review** The figures for this period remain straightforward and modest as demonstrated by the accounts. Given our limited ability to meet people it is understandable that our that our membership numbers are not increasing. We are grateful for members’ continuing financial support and hope to report soon that the accumulated funds, which we have been careful not to waste, will have been invested in a worthwhile exercise to further the Friend’s objectives. ## **The Future** Despite the continuing restrictions and difficulties of the past two years your trustees are more confident than ever that there will be serious activity around and beneficially involving Friar Gate Bridge. Whatever activities are finally decided by CWC or the City Council, the Friends of Friar Gate Bridge will have a key role to play in ensuring the Bridge’s longterm interests are properly served. We believe we are entering a different phase of activity and would very much welcome new trustees and volunteers to help us in our endeavours. ## **Declaration** The report has been prepared by the Chair on behalf of the trustees. Signature: Full name: Francis Howard Miles Thomas Position: Chair Date: 27[th] January 2022 **The Friends of Friar Gate Bridge** ## **Financial accounts** **for the Year Ended 31st August 2021** ## **The Friends of Friar Gate Bridge** ## **Contents** ## **for the Year Ended 31st August 2021** **1 Balance sheet 2 Income and expenditure account** ## **The Friends of Friar Gate Bridge** ## **Balance Sheet** ## **For the Year Ended 31 August 2021** |||Comparative| |---|---|---| ||31.08.21|31.08.20| |**Current assets**||| |Bank account|4,608|4,186| |PayPal account|141|170| ||4,749|4,356| |**Current liabilities**||| |Creditors|146|-| |Net current assets|4,603|4,356| |**Represented by**||| |Accumulated funds|-|-| |Opening reserves|4,356|3,379| |Surplus / (Defcit) for the period|247|977| ||4,603|4,356| ## **The Friends of Friar Gate Bridge** ## **Income and expenditure account For the Year Ended 31 August 2021** ||For the year|For the year|For the year||| |---|---|---|---|---|---| ||ended|31.08.21|ended||31.08.20| |**Income**||**£**|**£**||| |Grant received||-||-|| |Membership|340||400||| |Donations|-||140||| |Fundraising activities||70|447||| ||410||987||| |**Expenses**|||||| |Consultancy|-||-||| |Printing, advertising and ofce||47|-||| |PayPal fees|17||10||| |Insurance|99||-||| |Website|-||-||| ||163||10||| |Surplus / (Defcit) for the period||247|||977|