## **Annual Report 2021-2022** 

**Cornwall Community Flood Forum Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)** 

Presented at the Cornwall Community Flood Forum’s Annual General Meeting 

Monday 28[th] November 2022 



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## **Table of Contents** 


|1.|Chair’s Introduction|3|
|---|---|---|
|2.|Weather and Flooding, A Year in Review 2021/22 (1/10/21-13/09/22)|5|
|3.|Staff and Resources|6|
||‘Day to Day’|6|
|4.|Annual Conference 2021|9|
|5.|Projects Overview|11|
||Environment Agency and CCFF Partnership Agreement|11|
||Communities Prepared|12|
||Making Space for Sand Project|12|
|6.|Bank Account and Finance|13|



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## **1. Chair’s Introduction** 


## _**Gitty Ankers, CCFF Chair**_ 

Before I review some of the highlights of the past year October 2021 to October 2022, I wish to very much thank all our Trustees, Members and the organisations that we work with, for their immeasurable help and great support in moving CCFF forward in achieving our objectives. Over the past year we have continued to hold our Quarterly Board Meetings either virtually or hybrid. This has enabled more of our partners as well as our members to join us and contribute towards the work of the Forum. We have continued to carry on with our community engagement and training, either in person or virtually, and the 

team have done brilliant work in supporting our communities and individuals. 

Globally there have been some very unusual weather events, such as the serious flooding in Pakistan, Australia and recently Nigeria and melting of ice caps in Greenland and the Arctic regions. With the weather challenges that our climate is throwing at us and the impact we are having on our climate we owe it to our young generation to help them to be kinder to nature than this generation and the one before. This year for the first time we will be inviting pupils from local primary and secondary schools to join our Annual Conference to learn about the importance of marine biodiversity to reduce the impact of CO2 and climate change, as well as learning more about how to be prepared and more resilient in case of future flooding. 

We are delighted to share the good news that the South West PFR Pathfinder Project, which CCFF were a delivery partner in, won an award at the Environment Agency Flood and Coast Excellence Awards ceremony in Telford on 8[th] June 2022. The SW PFR Pathfinder Project won the award for Climate Resilient Places. Congratulations to all those who were involved with the delivery of such a successful project! Well done everyone involved. The further three years of funding from the SWRFCC (South West Regional Flood and Coastal Committee) and the Environment Agency which we were fortunate enough to secure last year maintains the work of CCFF in meeting our commitment to communities in Cornwall. As always, this funding is much appreciated and will take us through to the Spring of 2024. We are hoping to receive further funding from South West Water in the near future, which would be most welcome. This year we have also successfully bid on a project called Making Space for Sand, to deliver the community engagement aspects of this project which is led by Cornwall Council and funded by Defra. My main priority for the next year and beyond is to ensure that we deliver the agreed objectives clearly set out by our funders for both parts of projects SWRFCC and MS4S. I also intend to continue to listen to the concerns of our communities being impacted by the challenges from climate change and act accordingly. 

During the last year we have had a change in Trustees as four Trustees, Janet Lockyer, Jenny Moore, Lindsay Southcombe and Luci Isaacson stepped down at the end of last year as they had given service for the maximum allowable six years, as stated in our constitution. We are 

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enormously grateful and indebted to all four of them for their huge contributions to CCFF and our communities. All of them continue to support CCFF in many valuable ways. Thank you very much Janet, Jenny, Luci and Lindsay. Consequently, we recruited four new Trustees, and I am delighted to welcome Mark Allott, Alan Bowers, Jude Brickhill and Devi Whittle who joined us early this year. Mark Allott is the Programme Manager for the St. Austell Bay Resilient Regeneration (StARR) Project. He has extensive experience in civil and environmental engineering and conservation project management. Alan Bowers is the CCFF representative for Perranporth Community and played a major role in developing their flood plan. Jude Brickhill is a journalist with great affinity for yachting and travelling, a member of Gweek Parish Council, and is committed to developing the flood plan for Gweek. Dr Devi Whittle is a consultant at the South West Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications, University of Exeter at Penryn. She is our education champion, building awareness amongst the next generation. Devi and her fellow scientists organised the afternoon workshops for the pupils of Lanlivery primary school and Fowey secondary school. Welcome Mark, Alan, Jude and Devi. 

Our fantastic Honorary Treasurer, Cathryn Marcus is stepping down at the end of this year after many years of sterling performance in keeping our accounts in order. She will be a hard act to follow. We must not forget that Cathryn has a long association with the CCFF, working as the Project Manager for ‘Communities Prepared’ and was then Molly’s predecessor as our ‘Officer’. Thank you very much to Cathryn. I wish to welcome Dominic Fairman to the role of Honorary Secretary, and thank him for all the help he is giving us, as there is much work to do before each CCFF Quarterly Board meeting and the AGM. 

Molly Flynn, our permanent staff member went part- time in April to start her PhD at Swansea University and will be leaving us early in the New Year to devote herself to her studies. Molly has played a key role in CCFF in recent years for which we are most grateful and will be very much missed. We wish Molly every success with her new venture.  Thank you very much Molly. 

Molly and Trustees have actively been working throughout the year with a number of Town and Parish Councils on their Flood Plans, including Wadebridge, St Ives, Stoke Climsland, Truro, Gweek, Stithians, Falmouth and Penryn and of course organising our Annual Conference. Well done to Perranporth and Perranaworthal communities for completing their Flood Plans and thanks are due to Par and St Blazey, Lostwithiel, Portreath, and Port Isaac for sharing their experience with others of how to complete their Flood Plans. Successful outdoor exercises were held by Perranporth in February and Lostwithiel in May 2022. 

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**2. Weather and Flooding, A Year in Review 2021/22 (1/10/21-13/09/22)** 

The 2021-22 year saw one of the UK’s mildest winters on record[1] and one of its driest and hottest summers on record[2] .  Only October 2021 was wetter than average over the period. It was the driest January to June period since 1976. In August a drought was declared in Cornwall resulting in the county’s first hosepipe ban for 26 years[3] .  There were seven named storms during the year, including three in February. This is the first time this has happened since storm naming was introduced in 2015[4] . 

Between 1/10/21 and 13/09/22[5] , there were 120 reports of internal property flooding in Cornwall. An additional 427 properties were affected by flooding (access cut off, garden, land or garage flooded). Overall, 2 593 reports of flooding or blocked drains were received by Cornwall Council, with most of the flooding affecting highways. 

There were no significant property flooding events during the period. The year’s highest monthly total for the number of properties flooded internally was 54 in October 2021, which were scattered across multiple locations. After the heatwave broke and, on the 15th, and 16[th] of August 2022, the anniversary of the infamous Boscastle flood, there was a rainfall event which resulted in internal flooding of nine properties in multiple locations. Over the year there were widespread reports of mud and water flowing from farmland onto roads, blocking drainage systems and affecting properties, especially in October, February, March, and September. The named storms in February mainly caused wind damage, fallen trees and travel disruption in Cornwall. 

> 1 A mild winter blows out at the end! | Official blog of the Met Office news team 

> 2 Guest post: A Met Office review of the UK’s record-breaking summer in 2022 - Carbon Brief 

> 3Reducing Water Usage - Temporary Use Ban for Cornwall & Upper Tamar Region (southwestwater.co.uk) 4Storms Arwen (26-27/11/21), Barra (7-8/12), Malik (29/1/22), Corrie (31-31/1/22), Dudley (16-17/2/2), Eunice (18/2/22) and Franklin (20-21/2/2) MET Office. 

> 5 Records are available up to 13 September 2022. 

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## **3. Staff and Resources** 

As of 1st April 2022, Molly Flynn returned to the original 80 hour/month hours due to starting her PhD. However, with increased support from CCFF Trustees and Members, we have continued to provide support to all those Cornwall Communities we have previously engaged with. We also maintained our commitment to supporting the development of Community Flood Plans, training Community Volunteer Flood Wardens, and communicating key messages. Molly Flynn has informed the Board that she will be stepping down in her role as Community Flood Resilience Coordinator as of January 2023. Molly has played a key role in CCFF in recent years for which we are most grateful and will be very much missed. We wish Molly every success with her new venture.  Thank you very much Molly. The Officer, Chair and Trustees will try to ensure that the transition to the new incoming Officer will be as smooth as possible, with a detailed handover. We wish her the very best in her studies and thank her for all her hard work and commitment to the Forum over the years. We will be recruiting 1 full time or 2 part-time Officer/s in the New Year to continue to work towards our goals set out in the EA-RFCC and Making Space for Sand agreements. 

During the last year we have had a change in Trustees as four Trustees, Janet Lockyer, Jenny Moore, Lindsay Southcombe and Luci Isaacson stepped down at the end of last year as they had given service for the maximum allowable six years, as stated in our constitution. We are enormously grateful and indebted to all four of them for their huge contributions to CCFF and our communities. All of them continue to support CCFF in many valuable ways. Consequently, we recruited four new Trustees: Mark Allott, Alan Bowers, Jude Brickhill and Devi Whittle who joined us early this year. Dominic Fairman has also taken over the role of Honorary Secretary and has been supporting the Chair with day-to-day activities. Our treasurer, Cathryn Marcus, will be stepping down from her role at the end of 2022. 

## ‘Day to Day’ 

_Day-to-day, the Forum continues to support the work of the Environment Agency and Cornwall Council in developing community resilience and is a partner of the Cornwall Community Resilience Network. It’s often the independent support of the Forum that has enabled a community to gain the local support to initiate community level emergency planning initiatives where statutory organisations have previously struggled to gain traction._ 

By the end of 2021 we had successfully changed hosting organisations from Cornwall Rural Community Charity to Volunteer Cornwall. We’re delighted to share that Perranporth’s Community Flood Plan has now been published, and the Flood Group have received their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). We delivered a live outdoor exercise with the Flood Group in February 2022 which was extremely successful. We’re supporting Lostwithiel Flood Group with their Community Flood Plan review, following its activation in December 2020. We ran a live outdoor exercise with newly recruited volunteers in May 2022. 

We have been working with Truro City Council’s Emergency Committee to develop a Community Emergency Plan. As well as attending multiple meetings with the sub-committee, 

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we have supported community events to recruit volunteers and hosted the ‘Home & Dry’ game. We have also supported numerous other communities, including Perranarworthal, Stithians, Stoke Climsland, Falmouth, Penryn, and Wadebridge in preparing Community Flood or Emergency Plans and supporting local community events. 

The 2021 annual conference on the 5[th] of November received our highest attendance to date with 96 delegates and excellent feedback all round from our first hybrid event. We continued to adapt our working practices during the COVID-19 restrictions, but as these are slowly lifted, we have gradually returned to maximum community engagement. 

In February 2022, we hosted our first ever virtual ‘taster training’ session with our Cornwall Community Resilience Network (CCRN) partners, which was extremely well received and led to approaches from several communities to explore developing flood and emergency plans. 

We received the outstanding news that the South West Property Flood Resilience (PFR) Pathfinder Project, which CCFF helped to deliver, won the award for Climate Resilient Places at Flood and Coast 2022. CCFF played a key role in writing and delivering the well-attended virtual ‘Introduction to PFR’ workshops held in the summer of 2021, in addition to supporting the wider work packages which made up the project. 

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**----- Start of picture text -----**<br>
Perranporth Live Outdoor Exercise: Debrief<br>Perranporth Live Outdoor Exercise<br>Penryn Fair Day<br>Perranarworthal Community Event<br>**----- End of picture text -----**<br>



**----- Start of picture text -----**<br>
Truro Community Event: Recruiting<br>Volunteers<br>**----- End of picture text -----**<br>


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|**Board**|**CCFF board**<br>**member/trustee**|**Reserve**|**Meeting times**|**Contact**|**Contact**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Communities<br>Prepared|Gitty Ankers,<br>Molly Flynn|Loveday<br>Jenkin|Quarterly|Hannah Baker<br>hannah.baker@groundwork.org.uk||
|Cornwall<br>Community<br>Resilience<br>Network|Gitty Ankers, Molly<br>Flynn, Elizabeth<br>Taylor|John Paton|Quarterly|Arthur Roberts<br>Arthur.Roberts@cornwall.gov.uk<br>Elizabeth Taylor<br>elizabeth.taylor@environment-<br>agency.gov.uk||
|||||||
|South West<br>Regional Flood<br>and Coastal<br>Community<br>SWRFCC)|Martyn Alvey,<br>Gitty Ankers<br>Dominic Fairman|Mike<br>Moore|Quarterly||Kate Morton<br>Kate.morton@environment-<br>agency.gov.uk|
|Strategic<br>Resilience Board|Gitty Ankers|Devi<br>Whittle<br>James<br>Biscoe|Quarterly||Paul Minshull<br>Paul.Minshull@cornwall.gov.uk|
|Cornwall<br>Catchment<br>Partnership|Mark Allott and<br>Chris Jones|Alan<br>Bower and<br>Jude<br>Brickhill|Quarterly|Jade Neville<br>jade.neville@cornwallwildlifetrust.or<br>g.uk||



## **4. Annual Conference 2021** 

Our greatest achievement in 2021 was the successful delivery of our annual conference, held on Friday 5[th] November as a hybrid event based at Heartlands Visitor attraction. We achieved our highest attendance of any conference to date, with 96 delegates joining us for our annual event. Speakers represented several agencies and communities, including Cornwall Council, Jurassic Coast Trust, Plymouth Coastal Observatory, What3words, Perranporth Community Flood Group, the Met Office and Tevi. 

For those who attended in person at Heartlands, we offered the opportunity to attend two workshops out of the 3 following topics: Community Resilience (hosted by Communities Prepared), Property Flood Resilience (hosted by Louisa Inch) and Climate Change (hosted by Cornwall Climate Care). The venue also offered delegated with the fantastic opportunity to explore the recently opened South West Climate Change Centre developed as part of the South West Property Flood Resilience (PFR) Pathfinder Project which CCFF have been a project delivery partner in. 

For those attending online, we offered a virtual conference webpage which including activities and materials to download relating to the afternoon workshop topics. 

More details of the conference and the speaker’s presentations can be found here, - https://www.cornwallcommunityfloodforum.org.uk/previous conferences/ 

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Photos of the CCFF Annual Conference 2021, held at Heartlands centre 




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## **5. Projects Overview** 

In order to operate at our current level CCFF needs to generate income.  At present, to fund one part-time officer and meet our other commitments, the CCFF costs approximately £20,000 a year to remain viable. 

## Environment Agency and CCFF Partnership Agreement 

This year has been the first in the recently renewed funding agreement with the EA-RFCC. Our funding will run to April 2024. Thanks to funds from the South West Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (SWRFCC) and a partnership agreement between the EA and CCFF, we can now continue working towards our aims by building capacities and resilience for communities at flood risk. Due to COVID-19, our ability to carry out engagement activities has been heavily restricted throughout 2021. However, CCFF have actively coordinated with partners from the Environment Agency and Cornwall Council to plan and deliver virtual events. In February 2021, we delivered our first virtual volunteer flood warden taster training event. This was a highly successful event with over 40 attendees. This approach has allowed us to create materials which will have a lasting legacy. 

There is a clear need for this project as many communities in Cornwall are either not aware of the risk or do not have sufficient knowledge on how to reduce impacts of floods to their homes and surrounding landscapes. Hence it is vital to strengthen efforts in risk awareness-raising as well as capacity building for all phases of the disaster risk management cycle in order to increase the resilience of communities at risk. 

The partnership agreement enables our activities to expand and has the following objectives: 

1. Raise awareness about current and future flood risk to communities, businesses and schools; 

2. Prepare communities for the impact of flooding, reducing the impact of flooding and aiding recovery; 

3. Lead Flood Warden training for communities at risk 

Priority communities for CCFF targeted support are identified in collaboration with Cornwall Council and the Environment Agency, under the banner of Cornwall Community Resilience Network.  But we also continue to welcome approaches from all communities that, whilst not perhaps in the highest risk categories, still wish to better understand their flood risk and prepare to mitigate it. 

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## Communities Prepared 

The Communities Prepared project phase one was a collaboration between CCFF, Groundwork South, Cornwall College and the Environment Agency, with support from a number of local authorities and other emergency services stakeholders. Phase one ran for two years until February 2018 and focussed on 34 communities across the South West, including several in Devon and Cornwall.  The Project reached the top 14 in the Big Lottery’s national project award for 2017-18 from many hundreds of entrants. 

After a highly successful Phase II running until May 2022, the Communities Prepared team have successfully applied for a final two years of funding from The National Lottery Reaching Communities England fund, to enable them to continue to deliver and develop Communities Prepared until May 2024 (‘CP Phase III’). Cornwall Community Flood Forum (CCFF) have been invited once again as a project partner to input to the direction of the programme, providing expertise and advice relating to the development of the Communities Prepared training and support offer and content. In Cornwall, CCFF will also continue to deliver CP content to communities, looking to align this with updated CP resources where possible (with input from the core CP team), and will continue to identify opportunities for CP to be promoted locally (e.g., through the CCFF annual conference and other regional connections / programmes). 

The Communities Prepared website can be accessed via this link: https://www.communitiesprepared.org.uk/ 

## Making Space for Sand Project 

In September the Cabinet of Cornwall Council formally accepted £6.4M of funding from the Environment Agency Flood & Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme to support the delivery of the Making Space for Sand project. This is exciting news for CCFF who will be partners in delivering the community engagement phase of the 6-year project. The aim of the ‘Making Space for Sand’ project is to enable the creation of sustainable and resilient coastal communities that can capitalise on their natural resource to increase economic and resilience opportunities. The project objectives are to; 

- Encourage the sustainable use and development of the coastline in ways that consider the longer term social, economic and environmental implications of coastal change; 

- Have a better understanding of coastal change in response to rising sea levels and storm events; 

- Maintain and restore healthy, biodiverse coastal dune systems, that are less vulnerable to sea level rise and coastal change; 

- Stimulate more informed, empowered, prepared and resilient coastal communities in relation to the impacts of sea level rise and coastal flooding. 

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## **6. Bank Account and Finance** 

- Income September 2020 August 

2021 EA/RFCC   £20,000 Other        £5 

Expenditure EA/RFCC/SWW £13,612 CC/Defra            £  2,514 CCFF Reserve     £  1,500 

End of Year Balances EA/RFCC/SWW  £36,230 Other                    £  2,500 CCFF Reserve £22,720 

**Reconciled at bank //2022    £61,450** 

Yours sincerely, 

Gitty Ankers Cornwall Council Appointed Trustee and Chairperson 


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## **Independent Examiner's Report to the trustee of Cornwall Community Flood Forum** 

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of Cornwall Community Flood Forum for the year ended 1 September 2022 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Summary Income and Expenditure Account, the Balance Sheet and the related notes. 

## Responsibilities and basis of report 

As the trustee (and also a director for the purposes of company law) you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 ('the 2006 Act. 

Having satisfied myself that the accounts of the charity are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of your charity's accounts as carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 ('the 2011 Act'). In carrying out my examination I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act. 

Independent examiner's statement 

I have completed my examination. I can confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that: 

- accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 386 of the 2006 Act ; or 

- the accounts do not accord with those records; or 

- the accounts do not comply with the accounting requirements under section 396 of the 2006 Act other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'true and fair' view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or 

- the accounts have not been prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102). 

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. 


Debbie Risborough 

Association of Chartered Certified Accountants Cornwall Community Accountancy Service The Elms, 61 Green Lane Redruth Cornwall TR15 1LS 30 November 2022 

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## **DETAILED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES** 

## **for the year ended 1 September 2022** 

|**Income and endowments from:**<br>Donations and legacies<br>Charitable activities<br>Grants:<br>Environment Agency<br>Groundworks UK (Tesco)<br>DEFRA<br>South West Water<br>**Total income and endowments**<br>**Expenditure on:**<br>Support costs<br>Wages<br>Insurance<br>Repairs & renewals<br>Printing, postage and stationary<br>sundry expenses<br>Marketing and promotion<br>Legal and professional fees|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**2022**<br>**£**<br>5<br> <br>5 <br>-<br> <br>- <br>- <br>- <br>- <br>5 <br>-<br> <br>261 <br>529<br>-<br>-<br>460<br>100|**Restricted**<br>**funds**<br> <br>**2022**<br>**£**<br>-<br> <br>- <br>20,000<br> <br>- <br>- <br>- <br>20,000 <br>20,000 <br>15,824<br> <br>- <br>-<br>312<br>-<br>-<br>-|**Total funds**<br> <br>**2022**<br>**£**<br>5<br> <br>5 <br>20,000<br> <br>- <br>- <br>- <br>20,000 <br>20,005 <br>15,824<br> <br>261 <br>529<br>312<br>-<br>460<br>100|**Total funds**<br>**2021**<br>**£**<br>5|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||5|
|||||25,000<br>2,500<br>20,000<br>5,000|
|||||52,500|
|||||52,505<br>31,393<br>-<br>-<br>325<br>332<br>-<br>-|



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|Sub total support costs<br>**Governance costs**<br>Independent examination of the<br>charity's accounts<br>**Total of expenditure on charitable**<br>**activities**<br>**Total expenditure**<br>Net gains on investments<br>**Net income**<br>Cash funds brought forward<br>  <br>**Cash funds carried forward**|1,350<br>150<br>150 <br>1,500<br> <br>1,500<br>-<br>(1,495) <br>24,215 <br>22,720|16,136<br>-<br>- <br>16,136<br> <br>16,136<br>-<br>3,864 <br>34,866 <br>38,730|17,486<br>150<br>150 <br>17,636<br> <br>17,636<br>-<br>2,369 <br>59,081 <br>61,450|32,050|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||150|
|||||150|
|||||32,200<br>32,200<br>-|
|||||20,305|
|||||38,776<br>59,081|



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## **Balance Sheet as at 1 September 2022** 

|**Company No. CE006412**<br>**Current assets**<br>Cash at bank and in hand<br>**Creditors:**Amount falling due within one year<br>**Net current assets**<br>**Total assets less current liabilities**<br>**Net assets excluding pension asset or liability**<br>**Total net assets**<br>**The funds of the charity**<br>**Restricted funds**<br>Restricted income funds<br>**Unrestricted funds**<br>General funds<br>Non cash fund movements<br>**Total funds**|**2022**<br>**£** <br>61,450<br>61,450<br>(3,295)<br>58,155<br>58,155<br>58,155<br>58,155<br>38,730<br>38,730<br>22,720<br>(3,295)<br>58,155|**2021**<br>**£**<br>59,081<br>59,081<br>(150)<br>58,931<br>58,931<br>58,931<br>58,931<br>34,866<br>34,866<br>24,215<br>(150)<br>58,931|
|---|---|---|



These accounts have been prepared in accordance with the special provisions of Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies. 

For the year ended 1 September 2022 the company was entitled to exemption under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies. 

The members have not required the company to obtain an audit in accordance with section 476 of the Companies Act 2006. 

The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 with respect to accounting records and the preparation of accounts. 

Approved by the board on 28 November 2022 

And signed on its behalf by: 


Gitty Ankers Chair of Trustees 

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