Waterbeach Military Heritage Museum 12th. Financial Statement and Annual Report of the Charity’s Activities
For the Year Ended
31[st] . March 2024
Charity Number 1164795
Waterbeach Military Heritage Museum Trustees’ Annual Report
Contents
| Page | |
|---|---|
| Legal and Administrative Details | 1 |
| Trustees’ Annual Report | 2 - 3 |
| Trustees Terms of Office | 4 |
| Legal Status and Objects | 5-6 |
| Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities | 7 |
| Receipts and Payments Account | 8 |
| Statement of Assets and Liabilities | 9 |
| Notes to the Financial Statements | 9 |
Waterbeach Military Heritage Museum Legal and Administrative Details
Trustees
D M Adamson RE Retd. M Barry MM RE Retd. (Royal Engineers Association) M Collins Rev. Norman Setchell (Waterbeach and Landbeach Branch Royal British Legion) D B Higgins RE Retd. (Hon. Treasurer) C Hill (514 Sqn Reunion) L. Moss Secretary A K Shipp R Stripe A J Wright (Chairman)
Trust Address
Waterbeach Military Heritage Museum Building 3 Waterbeach Barracks Denny End Road, Waterbeach Cambridge CB25 9PA
Volunteers
Clare Polet Anne Lockheart Christopher Jones
Museum Advisors
Lisabeth Yates, Radiation Protection Officer (RPA), Cambridge University Safety Officer
Emma Bunbury Cambridgeshire Museums Development Officer and Museums Development South East (MD SE) offering a wide range advice and support to museums.
David Amann Webmaster for maintaining our web site when requested. www. Waterbeachmilitary museum.org.uk
.
Duxford Radio Trust
Legal Status
The Charity was formed as a Trust under a Constitution dated 25 October 2012 The Charity converted to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation on 10 December 2015, Charity Registration Number 1164795
Bankers
NatWest 36 Fitzroy Street Cambridge CB1 1EW
Independent Examiner
Anne Craig
Denny Cottage Ely Road Landbeach Cambridge CB25 9PQ
Page 1
Waterbeach Military Heritage Museum Trustees’ Annual Report ________
The Trustees present their Annual Report and the financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2024. This report has been prepared in accordance with the provisions under section 133 of the Charities Act 2011 which allows for the preparation of receipts and payments accounts by charities with income less than £250,000.
Annual Report of the Charity’s activities 1[st] April 2023 to 31[st] March 2024
The Trust has met on four occasions during the year. At this point in time 39 E’s have not been able to produce a replacement Trustee. Another vacancy is the Waterbeach Parish Council Trustee nomination which has not materialised. However, the Rev, Norman Setchell has replaced Peter Groves as the nominated member for the Landbeach and Waterbeach Royal British Legion. Volunteers stand at three and the trustees are grateful for the assistance given by them in the running and stewarding of the Museum, when they are able to do so.
The trustees living close enough to Waterbeach are active in the stewarding of the museum when open and particular thanks to the treasurer David Higgins who has stewarded each occasion the museum has been open to the public along with other trustees. The Trust is incredibly grateful to its Trustees and Volunteers for the active help and support given in the last twelve months. In 2023 the Trustees decided to open on the third Sunday of the month when there is a Community Market on the former Barracks. The normal opening of the museum on the first Wednesday and Sunday each month from March to October with the addition of the afternoon of remembrance Sunday has been maintained. The number of visitors for this accounting twelve months were 673 visitors.
514 Squadron Annual Reunion, church service at Waterbeach Parish Church of St Johns, annual lunch took place in June. The BBMF, to the delight of the 514 Squadron Association after lunch flew over the former airfield and also flew over the village.
The Museum Trust continues to receive donations of artefacts and much ephemera during the year for which we are ever grateful from both the RAF and RE periods. The Trust is particularly looking for 39 Engineer Regiment and associated units’ photos and artefacts of their time at Waterbeach and the operations or exercises they were involved in. The Royal Engineer section of the Museum was depleted when 39 Engineer Regiment were moved to Kinloss. Families of former service men and women have also given memorabilia and artefacts we have been pleased to receive items from them. However, it is apparent as former Waterbeach Service personnel have moved out of the Regiment there is not the same affinity with Waterbeach and so contact is depleting.
The Chairman together with Les Moss the Trusts Secretary, have been making more space for displays in the museum and recording the artefacts. Several changes have been made to the displays and this will continue for a while. The trustees have agreed to increase the Engineers section of the museum by the addition of four new lite display cabinets in the RAF display rooms enabling RAF artifacts to be moved out from RE section in to the RAF section Grants have been made by Waterbeach Community Association, Waterbeach Parish Council and Urban&Civic the Waterbeach New Town developers towards the purchase of the new display cases which are on order. We are greatly indebted to these three local bodies for their support. Many small but important changes have been made with in the museum of the last twelve months.
As reported in the 2023 Trust report discussions had been taking place with Duxford Radio Trust (DRT) to introduce a display of a Lancaster Bomber part fuselage with the Wireless Operators position and some other WW11 directional equipment. This materialised during the year and is a great asset to the interest the museum can off its visitors This is working equipment including a radio with medium, long and short-wave receiver was introduced in shortly after our opening in March 2023. Also, there is a working Morse Code key for use by the public with certificates for successful visitors tapping out their names. The DRT
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Waterbeach Military Heritage Museum Trustees’ Annual Report ________
are supporting the exhibit and attend the museum, when open, to talk to visitors and operate the equipment which is very much hands on for the visitors. This display is proving to be of great interest to our visitors. A number of uniformed groups have made special visits to the museum in the last twelve months and found this a great learning and educational attraction. WMHM are hoping for a continued association with DRT to help provide and explain some of the electrical equipment used by RAF and Engineers who were based at Waterbeach.
The Trustees thank U&C for their continued support and for allowing visitors under supervision to visit the Barracks Airfield/Training Area and the Memorial Garden, although this is more difficult now building the New Town works have commenced to build 6,500 dwellings. .
(RLWE), a development consortium, also are progressing with an application to the building (4.500 dwellings) on farm land on the outer fringes around U&C’s area.
Generous support has also been had through the Friends of the Museum administered by the Trust’s Hon. Treasurer David Higgins. He notes during the period we were supported financially by a total of 47 " Friends " of the Museum. Some of our " Friends " very generously paid-up front for up to 8 years of annual payments, and our total income from the campaign for this period was £ 504.00 another very successful year again indeed.
In September 2023 the Trustees organised a BBQ for Friends of the museum which proved to be a good way of keeping in touch with the museum supporters.
The Trustees would thank the professional help and support given by Lizabeth Yates, University of Cambridge Radiation’ Safety Office, and her staff, whose advice with radioactive artefacts, radon gas and other Museum matters has been invaluable. Similarly, and thanks to Emma Bunbury Museums Partnership Officer Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and of Museums Development South East( MD se)
Grateful thanks to Anne Craig our Independent Examiner. A thank you to David Amann Webmaster who has continued to update material as requested at www.WaterbeachMilitaryMuseum.org.uk
A special thanks go to our new partners the Duxford Radio Trust and the work they are doing in the museum. providing exhibits relating to the RAF and RE’s occupation and interacting with the public.
2024 will mark the 40[th] anniversary since the Museum was opened. The Trustees hope they are working in line with the original concept and reasons to open a Military and Heritage Museum at Waterbeach Barracks to preserve the history and memories of the people who lived and served at ‘The Beach’.
Insurance
The Museum and Trustees have the appropriate insurances in place.
Page 3
Waterbeach Military Heritage Trustees annual
cont’d.
report
Trustees’ terms of office
| David M Adamson |
2026 |
|---|---|
| Clive Hill (514 Sqn.) |
2026 |
| Mike Collins | 2025 |
| Robert Stripe | 2025 |
| Les Moss (Secretary) (from May 2022) | 2025 |
| Alan Ship | 2024 |
| Adrian Wright (Chairman) | 2024 |
| David B Higgins (Treasurer) |
2024 |
| Mike Barry MM (Royal Engineers Association) | 2024 |
| Rev, Norman Setchell (Royal British Legion) | 2026 |
| 39 Engineer Regiment Vacant | |
| Waterbeach Parish Council Vacant |
Signed Trustee…A J Wright ……………………………………………………… Adrian Wright (Chairman) Date: 24[th] October 2024
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Waterbeach Military Heritage Museum Trustees’ Annual Report (cont’d)
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Legal Status and Objects
The Charity was originally formed under a constitution dated 25 October 2012. On 10 December 2015 it converted to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation.
The objects of the Charity are to:
To advance the education and interest of the public in the history of RAF Waterbeach Station, airfield and former Waterbeach Barracks and surrounding area in particular by the continuation, re-establishment and support of a living Museum and interpretive centre.
In reviewing its activities, the Trustees have been mindful of the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.
The CIO has power to do anything which is calculated to further its object[s] or is conducive or incidental to doing so. In particular, the CIO has power to:
(1) borrow money and to charge the whole or any part of its property as security for the repayment of the money borrowed. The CIO must comply as appropriate with sections 124 and 125 of the Charities Act 2011, if it wishes to mortgage land;
(2) buy, take on lease or in exchange, hire or otherwise acquire any property and to maintain and equip it for use;
(3) sell, lease or otherwise dispose of all or any part of the property belonging to the CIO. In exercising this power, the CIO must comply as appropriate with sections 117 and 119-123 of the Charities Act 2011;
(4) employ and remunerate such staff as are necessary for carrying out the work of the CIO. The CIO may employ or remunerate a charity trustee only to the extent that it is permitted to do so by clause 6 (Benefits and payments to charity trustees and connected persons) and provided it complies with the conditions of that clause;
(5) deposit or invest funds, employ a professional fund-manager, and arrange for the investments or other property of the CIO to be held in the name of a nominee, in the same manner and subject to the same conditions as the trustees of a trust are permitted to do by the Trustee Act 2000.
Appointment of Trustees
Apart from the first charity trustees, every trustee must be appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees.
- (a) In selecting individuals for appointment as charity trustees, the charity trustees must have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the CIO.
Nominated Trustees
- (a) Waterbeach Parish Council, Royal Engineers Association RAF Association
Royal British Legion – Waterbeach and Landbeach Branch
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(b) Any appointment must be made at a meeting held according to the ordinary practice of the appointing body.
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(c) Each appointment must be for a term of three years.
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Waterbeach Military Heritage Museum Trustees’ Annual Report (cont’d)
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(d) The appointment will be effective from:
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(i) the date of the vacancy; and
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(ii) the date on which the charity trustees or their secretary or clerk are informed of the appointment.
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(e) The person appointed need not be a member of the appointing body.
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(f) A trustee appointed by the appointing body has the same duty under clause 9(1) as the other charity trustees to act in the way he or she decides in good faith would be most likely to further the purposes of the CIO.
Review of Activities and Financial Performance
Under an agreement with the Ministry of Defence (MOD), the contents of the Museum at Waterbeach Barracks were formally handed over to Waterbeach Military Heritage Museum on its formation in October 2012 and the contents had to be taken off the Barracks site and stored. In 2012/13 the Barracks finally closed and everything shut down. The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) took over the site and with their partner developer for the Barracks and airfield training area, Urban&Civic (U&C), in 2014/5 offered part of the former museum back to the Trustees with an ‘At Will Lease’ for the time being and in in 2023 a full ten year lease was signed.
During the difficult year under review due to COVID-19 the charity’s’ income has decreased. The charities main income has been by donations from the Museum visitors, the sale of ‘At The Beach’ and ‘Sappers At The Beach’; new and second-hand books and cards. Various pin badges of 39 Engineer Regiment and its Squadrons and 514 Squadron RAF. A new stream of income has come from the Formation of a ‘Friends of the Museum’, which is proving very beneficial to the Museum. The Friends of WMHM was originally set up in 2018 with 6 paid up members, today in March 2024 we are 47 fully paidup members.
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Whilst the Museum is normally open from March to October on the first Wednesday and Sunday of those months, and in addition every month except August also open on the third Sunday of the month ,as there is now a monthly Community Market on the former barracks. individuals from around the UK and the world are welcomed at other times. Several groups have managed visited the Museum. The Museum is looking towards Accreditation through the Arts council which would help attract funding and expertise. This could take up to three years to achieve.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the legislative requirements of the Charities Act 2011 as applicable to smaller charities in England and Wales.
The Trustees have taken the option available to them to prepare the accounts on a receipts and payments basis because the gross income of the charity is less than £250,000.
Reserves Policy
The Trustees are satisfied that the level of cash funds is currently adequate to meet the objects of the Charity.
Page 6 Waterbeach Military Heritage Museum Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities
The Trustees are responsible for preparing the annual report and financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice);
Law applicable to Charities in England and Wales requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources of the Charity for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees should follow best practice and:
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Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently.
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Observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
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Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent.
The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy the financial position of the Charity and which enable them to ascertain the financial position of the charity and which enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, supporting regulations and the Trust Deed. They 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.
Signed Trustee ………………………………………………. Adrian Wright (Chairman) Date 24[th] October 2024
Page 7
Signed Trustee ………………………………………………. Adrian Wright (Chairman)
Date 24[th] October 2024
Page 8
Waterbeach Military Heritage Museum Statement of Assets and Liabilities Year Ended 31 March 2023
1. Assets
The Museum collection, furniture equipment and fittings not belonging to U&C.
Computer equipment, display screens and cabinets, camera and photo booth with lights, dehumidifier.3 Flag Poles, notice boards. Mannequins and stands COVID-19 Screens and PPE equipment
Sale items of books, cards, pin badges and miscellaneous other items.
Liabilities
There are no liabilities.
Notes to the Financial Statements
1 Accounting Policies
The financial statements have been prepared under Section 42(3) of the Charities Act 2011 and the Statement of Recommended Practice on “Accounting and Reporting by Charities” issued March 2005.
Particular accounting policies adopted by the Trustees are described below.
Income and Expenditure
Income and expenditure are accounted for on a receipts and payments basis.
2 Trustees’ Remuneration
None of the Trustees received remuneration or expenses during the current or previous period, only reimbursement for Museum purchases.
3 Restricted funds
There are no restricted funds at this time.
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