**Shropshire Hills AONB Trust** Registered Charity Number 1168432
Unit 9 Drovers House, The Auction Yard, CRAVEN ARMS SY7 9BZ
## **Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1[st] April 2020 to 31[st] March 2021**
_We will inspire people, organizations and businesses to be active In supporting the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and in helping to secure its beauty for the future._
## **Objectives and achievements:**
The Shropshire Hills AONB Trust is a charity dedicated to promoting the conservation of the natural beauty of the landscape. It supports activities which protect the wildlife and heritage of the Shropshire Hills area and which spread knowledge and understanding of the importance of the natural environment. An important aim is to encourage local people and organizations to become actively involved in caring for the countryside around them.
## _Conservation Fund_
Like many other organizations, the restrictions imposed by the covid-19 pandemic have limited the activities of the Trust in the past year. Not only have the trustees been unable to meet face to face but the community projects we support have been unable to do as much as they would have wished. Our aim of getting groups of people together to conserve the beauty of the natural environment ran directly counter to rules which required people to stay at home or, as restrictions were eased, to associate in groups of no more than six in the open air. Nevertheless it was possible to allocate a total of £11,000 to eight projects in March 2021 that had a good chance of achieving their objectives despite the problems. Most the 12 projects awarded money in the previous year were able to complete their objectives but others opted to carry them forward and with aim of completing in the summer of 2021. Details of all the activities supported are presented on the Trust’s website www.shropshirehillsaonb.co.uk/help-to-look-after/shropshire-hills-aonbtrust/conservation-fund-projects.
The Trust is most grateful to those who donated money to support the conservation fund. In particular we thank the Millichope Foundation, Garfield Weston, H D Wills, P B Dumbell Charity Trust, individual donors and, of course, the many Friends of the Shropshire Hills.
## _Friends of the Shropshire Hills_
The Trust welcomes contributions from many sources but especially values the continuing support it receives from people who subscribe to the Friends of the Shropshire Hills scheme. In order to advertise the achievements of the AONB and to encourage others to join the
Friends, Trustees, Partnership team members and volunteers normally man publicity stalls at local shows. Sadly none of those events were held in 2020-21 but we hope for more opportunities in the next year.
## **Governance:**
The charity is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation governed by a constitution based on the ‘Foundation’ model and dated 21[st] July 2016. It held two formal board meetings and an annual general meeting (all on line) during the year but communication between trustees on an in informal basis was maintained, largely by means of email.
The trustees were sorry that Joe Manifold resigned as an appointed director because of the pressure of other business but were pleased to appoint Sarah Griffiths and Neil Wilcox. There is now a full complement of appointed trustees but one vacancy for a trustee nominated by the Shropshire Hills AONB Partnership. The following persons held positions as trustees and attended one or more meetings during the year in question.
Anthony Morgan (chairman) George Chancellor (treasurer) Veronica Cossons Phil Holden Alastair Warrington Sarah Griffiths Neil Wilcox
**Accounts 2020-2021**
## **Shropshire Hills AONB Trust**
## **INCOME**
## **EXPENDITURE**
|**Friends Membership**|**£**|**4,666.57**
||Game & Wildlife Co (CF/1819/8)|£|3,000.00
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||S Shrops Youth Forum (CF/1920/7)|£|1,500.00
|
|||||Shropshire Caving (CF/1920/6)|£|444.22
|
|**General Donations**|**£**|**47.47**
||National Trust (CF/1920/11)|£|2,500.00
|
|||||Abdon Wildlife (CF/1920/15)|£|291.54
|
|||||Wrekin Cottage (CF/1920/12)|£|1,272.43
|
|**Shuttle Supporters Scheme**|**£**|**-**
||Caring for God's Acre (CF/1920/2)|£|1,500.00
|
|||||Little Stretton Village Society (CF/2021/5)|£|224.10
|
|||||Marches Meadow Group (CF/2021/6)|£|2,000.00
|
|**Caering for Caradoc Appeal**|**£**|**619.04**
||Lightfoot (CF/2021/4)|£|1,014.50
|
||||||||
|**Gift Aid Reclaim**|**£**|**1,150.92**
||**Grants**|**£**|**13,746.79**
|
|Millichope Foundation||£7,000.00|||||
|Garfield Weston||£5,000.00||Shropshire Council - repayment of amount paid in error|£|38.27
|
|Martin Wills Wildlife Maintenance Trust||£1,000.00||Independent Examiner|£|80.00
|
|**2018-19 Grants Received**||**£13,000.00**||**Operating Costs**|**£**|**118.27**
|
||||||||
|**Total Income**|**£**|**19,484.00**
||**Total Expenditure**|**£**|**13,865.06**
|
||||||||
|**Surplus of Income over Expenditure**|**£**|**5,618.94**
|||||
|**Additional Income**||||**Additional Expenditure**|||
|_Pertaining to financial year but received post-April 1, 2021_||||_Pertaining to financial year but paid post-April 1, 2021_|||
|**Gift Aid Reclaim**||||**Grants**|||
|Membership|£|193.07
|||||
|Membership|£|620.26
|||||
|Shuttles|||||||
|Caradoc|£|138.75
|||||
|Caradoc|||||||
||**-**
**£**|
|---|---|
||_Pertaining to previous years but paid in the financial year_
**Grants**
**10,508.19**
**£**
**Operating Costs**
**38.27**
**£**|
||**Adjusted Total Expenditure**
**3,318.60**
**£**|
|||
|**Funds at Bank(1/4/20)**
**25,157.70**
**£**
**Funds at Bank(31/3/21)**
**30,776.64**
**£**
**Restricted Funds**
**11,649.85**
**£**
**Shuttles Supporters Scheme**
Carried over from 2019/20
0.31
-£
Income 2020/201
-
£
Expenditure 2020/21
-
£
**Total**
**0.31**
**-£**
**Caering for Caradoc**
Carried over from 2019/20
2,771.47
£
Income 2020/21
757.79
£
**Total**
**3,529.26**
**£**
**2020/21 Grants Carried Over**
8,120.90
£
**Available Unrestricted Funds**
**19,126.79**
**£**|**Notes**|
|**Available Unrestricted Funds**
**19,126.79**
**£**||