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← Prodigal Bikes

2024-10-31-accounts

Trustees Report for Prodigal Bikes - 1[st ] November 2023 to 31[st ] October 2024

Legal Status:

Prodigal Bikes is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), registered on 20[th ] December 2016, registration number 1170845. It was recognised by HM Revenue and Customs as a charity for tax purposes on 23[rd ] October 2017, effective from 21[st ] December 2016. Prodigal Bikes is registered for VAT, effective from 1[st ] February 2020.

Board of Trustees (at 31st October 2024):

Tim Neville (Chairman) Stephen Crane Calum McFarlane Roger Allen

Charitable Objectives:

1) The prevention of crime and the rehabilitation of offenders to reduce reoffending by improving the employability of people on community payback programmes, offenders and other disengaged people in the Somerset, Devon and Dorset area.

2) The relief of poverty of people living in rural areas of Africa by supplying free of charge bikes, spares and tools to enhance their lives through the provision of transportation.

However, our remit has naturally widened and updating our Charitable Objectives with the Charity Commission is ongoing. This is to also recognise our work providing bikes in the UK and the work we do with disengaged people who do not have a background in offending. The intention is that our objectives become:

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Review of Activities and Achievements for 1[st ] November 2023 to 31[st ] October 2024:

1. Income and Expenditure overview.

Our income was £42081, which is a 25% increase on the previous 12 months. On funding the UK side, we missed out on many of the grants we applied for, notably the National Lottery Awards for All. We believe this is primarily a reflection on the UK’s shortage of funding for this sector, and hence increased competition for the funds available. These grants would have fully funded our Operations Manager and paid the workshop rent to enable our UK teaching work to take place. Our Operations Manager has been on reduced hours as a result. Grant applications for InfraRed heaters needed at the UK workshop were all unsuccessful, too.

It became clear to us that grant funding was not the best way to fund our UK work. So, towards the end of this reporting period, we have shifted to funding our UK teaching work by invoicing the referral organisations directly for the teaching work we do with their clients. This work is expanded upon later in this report, but it does give us a much more predictable core income. Moving into 2025, this side of the charity’s income is much more stable, and substantially covers the UK costs, as a result.

Despite all this, we did receive a number of grants for our UK work and core costs, and we are very grateful to Suez (through the Somerset Community Foundation), The Marsh Charitable Trust, The Woodward Charitable Trust and the Edgar E Lawley Charitable Trust. We are building a core of regular donors, and have seen a large increase in public donations, for which we are very grateful.

In contrast to the UK grant funding, we have found the Africa side of our work much easier to fund through grant funding. We were able to dispatch 368 bikes to Africa through this reporting period in two shipments; one to Tanzania and one to Malawi in a shared container. We are grateful to The Allan and Nesta Ferguson Trust, The Oliver Morland Charitable Trust, The Souter Charitable Trust and The Generations Trust for assisting us with the shipping and set up costs of these shipments. The Tanzanian shipment ended up attracting more import duty than we anticipated, when full exemption was applied for (This seriously weakened the charity finances again at the end of 2024, which we recovered through the first part of 2025). However, our Operations Manager was in Tanzania assisting with the container delivery. Options for cheaper shipments in the future are now in place, and the import and taxation process for Tanzania is better understood by PB too.

We received funding for our work supplying bikes to refugees in the Yeovil area from the Yeovil Christian Support Trust. We also supplied bikes to young adults leaving the Leaving Care Service in Somerset. This was funded directly by the care leavers from their Leaving Care budget.

In addition to this income outlined above, we sold and repaired around 30 bikes, and reclaimed VAT and Gift Aid.

We are very grateful to all the above organisations, and to the general public for their kind donations and support, helping us achieve so much over this last year.

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2. Supply of bikes to Africa, and ongoing support of delivered bikes.

Gai, Kitui County, North East Kenya

The team in Gai have worked well, faithfully maintaining the bikes we supplied in 2022 and the two previous shipments. The solid tyres we fitted have proven very durable. We don’t know exactly how many bikes are still running, but estimate about 100. We have been able to supply several lots of spares, either by our partner charity the Akamba Aid Fund carrying them out from the UK on their bi-annual visits, or from our supplier in Nairobi, Njanja Cycle Services. Towards the end of this reporting period, we have struggled to afford to buy more Africa-sourced spares. Thus the project is now in desperate need of many more bikes and spares to reinvigorate it. Whilst we are confident that many children are still benefiting from having bikes, we also need better feedback from the schools as to exactly how the bikes are helping their students. The recovery plan is detailed in the final section of this report.

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Spares supplies with Mbiti (above), Elijah working on a bike (below) and one of our beneficiaries, (right). Note the coloured Solid tyres supplied by Greentyre in the UK which we have found work so well on the tracks littered with thorns.

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Chitheche / Bandawe, Malawi

A team from Hooke Court in Malawi our partner charity, and a volunteer bike mechanic from Prodigal Bikes Peter Bradish Ellames, travelled out to the Bandawe / Chintheche area of Malawi in July 2024 to monitor the project, take out spares and tools, and assist with the bike maintenance. The 130 bikes delivered so far were found to be well used, clocking up some very high mileage, but well cared for. Alongside the work enhancing the quality of teaching done by Hooke Court in Malawi, the schools in this area have risen from 16th out of 17 to 3rd out of 17 in the national education rankings. Mobilising the teachers, to help them reach the schools they teach at earlier, has had real benefits in the quality and quantity of teaching delivered to the thousands of pupils in this area.

The students at the deaf school in Bandawe continue to make good progress learning how to repair the bikes. The head, Pearson Chimono, sends pictures back every few months. Two of the deaf mechanics are now looking to run their own mobile bike repair business, which is no small achievement in a country with very high unemployment.

We have had some success supplying spares and tools to the project, both by mailing them out to Malawi from the UK, and purchasing basic spares from a local trader in Malawi.

However, it was clear a much larger delivery of spares and bikes was needed. The opportunity arose through one of our volunteers’ contacts to work with two UK charities; Changing Stars Malawi and The Zikomo Trust. They sent a container to Malawi at the end of October 2024 from Leeds, and we were able to get 58 bikes, a large amount of spares and some sewing machines and woodwork tools into this shipment. This all arrived in February 2025, with minimal import taxes. So the bike project has now been sustained into 2025 and beyond.

The programme is going very well, delivering very significant benefits to thousands of people at very reasonable costs.

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Bike repairs at Bandawe Deaf School 2024

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Loading the shared container with bikes and spares, Leeds, October 2024

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Eldoret, western Kenya

The Langas Gorofani Luo (LGL) group has given us some great feedback and detailed reports with a number of touching testimonies from the 30 children who received bikes in 2023. One such girl is Ivy, who really flourished at school upon receiving a bike to assist with her long commute. She is now at a top Secondary School (pictured below).

The sewing machines we sent in the same container have really boosted the LGL tailoring school in the slums of Eldoret, with the throughput of trainees increasing from 15 to 45. All 60 have progressed onto further training or employment.

The bricklaying tools have helped LGL train 17 people from the slums as bricklayers and progress into employment in the area’s rapidly growing construction industry.

The carpentry tools have allowed the carpentry group to work with 31 trainees. A third workshop has been opened, and the products they produce for sale have significantly improved LGL’s financial position.

The Integrated Community Resource Group continues to use the equipment and bikes that we sent well. We have had no further feedback from the Agbel group, who also received bikes in the 2023 shipment.

Left: Ivy with her bike which really helped her education, and at her Secondary School that she achieved the required grades to study at. Above: A graduate of the LGL Tailoring school, now with his own tailoring business in Eldoret

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Boko Mnemela, Kibaha, coastal Tanzania

Up until July 2024, the mechanics at Prodigal Bikes were hard at work preparing the bikes for the students of Boko Mnemela who walked long distances to school. We also sourced a large amount of carpentry, tailoring and car repair tools, kindly supplied free by Tool Aid Ringwood.

In July, we loaded a 40ft shipping container with 315 bikes, all the tools and a large amount of spare bike parts and bike tools. The shipment arrived in November 2024. We had some problems with high import duties on arrival in Tanzania, which we paid, and the shipment was delivered in December 2024 with the Operations Manager in the country. 275 of the bikes were distributed to the school children and the bike workshop set up. Overall, this has been a great success but not without it’s problems; in particular, the original partner charity in Tanzania, the Community Support Mission (CSM) stole about 40 of the remaining bikes and some tools supplied by Tool Aid Ringwood, after the Operations Manager returned to the UK. CSM’s involvement with the program was immediately terminated. A very successful bike program is now in place, run by three other local mechanics recruited by the Operations Manager, and our new partner organisation, the Community Life Empowerment Foundation. All the bikes are running and the children are really benefiting.

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Our UK team at Tanzania Container loading day, July 2024

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3. Work with disengaged local people in Somerset.

In April 2024, due to lack of funding and increasing number of volunteers, the decision was taken to rearrange the groups coming to the workshop.

The workshop now opens as follows: On Tuesday mornings, a second Special Needs group joined us, from Yeovil College. On Tuesday afternoons, a group of teenagers from the Horizons (Somerset kids in Care) come over for their bike mechanic training.

On Wednesday mornings, a group of Special Needs students from the Hub came to the workshop for their bike mechanic training.

On Thursdays, a group of experienced bike mechanics work on the bikes independently. On Fridays we work with two young people with learning difficulties.

As well as working with some 23 people through the reporting period, the output of bikes has increased significantly to around 400 per year. We have seen significant improvements in the wellbeing of our students as well as their technical skills. One person has moved on to further education, which is a huge step for him. Numerous others have been inspired to work towards hands-on Engineering jobs. We are also realizing how much the friendship, fun and wellbeing at Prodigal Bikes mean for our beneficiaries.

Throughout all this time, the Operations Manager has been assisted by volunteers Steve Carden, David Hopkins, Ben Ellis, Gavin Davey, Richard McGrath and Tim Osborne, who have provided much support, collecting bikes, helping fundraise and assisting in the workshop. We are very grateful for their assistance.

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Above: People from our Special Needs groups, working on bikes for refugees and the Tanzanian shipment.

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4. Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Through this reporting period we have supplied around 100 bikes to refugees and asylum seekers around the Taunton, Bridgwater and Yeovil areas. The recipients are coming less from Ukraine now, and increasingly from the Middle East; mostly Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, through UN resettlement programmes. The bikes we supply are donated freely to Prodigal Bikes, but are not suitable for Africa, being too complex and expensive to be maintained there by basic maintenance techniques. So we donate them free of charge to the beneficiaries in Somerset, where better maintenance support is available. We also supply accessories alongside the bikes; helmets, mudguards, locks, lights, cycle path maps, chain oil, basic tools, to enable the riders to be able to ride safely and maintain their bikes themselves. We charge a price just above Trade prices for the accessories. We receive requests for the bikes through the Somerset Leaving Care services, Somerset Welcome Hubs and Resettlement services. We have been able to fund this work fully through grants or by invoicing the local government departments requesting the bikes.

We have seen the recipients get a number of benefits from their bikes. As well as being able to reach school, shops, appointments, friends etc, we have come to realise how important cycling is to their wellbeing, especially in helping them recover from the trauma of escaping from their country of origin.

However, we have heard of about 8 instances of our bikes being stolen, always when the bikes were left unlocked. We now tell the recipients clearly they must lock their bikes with the locks we provide, or they will be stolen. They often do not wear their helmets either, despite us telling them how important it is to do so.

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Above, some of our beneficiaries around Somerset with their bikes from us this year.

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5. Future plans

Africa:

Our priority now is resupplying the two bikes projects in Gai and Eldoret, Kenya. At the time of writing (April 2025), we have about 80 bikes ready to go, although we still need to fit these bikes with solid tyres.

In Gai, our project lead Mbiti has compiled lists of children at nine schools, plus a number of orphans and people receiving treatment for HIV, who need 270 bikes between them. Also, John Kauvi, who received our medi-bikes three years ago, has requested a further 40 bikes for school children and medical workers in his community of Thitha, about 30km south of Gai.

We are also aiming to supply about 50 bikes to Eldoret in this container, with our partner charity Langas Gorofani Luo collecting them from Gai. These bikes are for school children to reach schools and adults to reach employment. Alongside the bikes, another large amount of tools and spares will be supplied to keep all these bikes running for many years to come. The target is to dispatch this container of 360 bikes to Kenya in November 2025.

We will keep the Tanzanian and Malawian projects going by supplying bike spares sourced in-county, delivered by visitors from the UK and posted from the UK. Further shipments to these projects are planned after the above Kenya shipment.

Currently these four programmes are enough for Prodigal Bikes to support at its present capacity and bike production levels.

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Training work in the UK:

The teaching work is now done in groups funded by the referral organisations. From May 2025 we will be working with four groups (The Hub, Horizons, Yeovil College and Wadham School). Further groups are also looking at working with us. This will allow us to teach a lot more people, approximately 100 people per year. It will also allow the workshop to be open more, provide the funding required and further increase our bike production rate.

The Thursday group will continue for the foreseeable future, and is working well, giving a massive boost to our production rate.

Refugees:

We expect the influx of refugees,and hence the demand for bikes around Somerset to continue. We aim to continue to supply around 100 bikes per year to individuals who need freeof-charge transportation.

Fundraising:

With further paid teaching work, our UK costs will be better covered without such reliance on unpredictable grant funding. Our refugee work is all funded and likely to remain so. Whilst Kenya is an expensive place to ship to, we are aiming to match the “worst case scenario” amount needed for fundraising before the container is dispatched. Then ship to cheaper countries with better regulated port authorities.

Our ongoing bike sales and repairs, Gift Aid and VAT reclaims, grants and public donations will continue to provide a highly appreciated income. Kenya is now only receiving 1 in 3 of our containers, which reduces our exposure to further problems with increased import duty. With all this in place, we are confident of our financial sustainability in 2025 and beyond.

Workshop:

With a higher number of bikes being processed, and more groups attending, we now need more space at the workshop. At the time of writing, we are hopeful of receiving a donated 40ft shipping container to put in the yard where our UK workshop is, to allow storage of bikes destined for Africa, instead of them taking up space in the bike workshop itself.

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Charity Accounts.

The charity’s accounts attached to this report have been prepared in line with current statutory requirements.

On behalf of the trustees Tietuill

……………………………………………..

Tim Neville – Chair of Trustees, Prodigal Bikes. 9 June 2025

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Prodigal Bikes 1170845 1170845 1170845
Receipts and payments accounts
For the period
from		 1/11/2023 To 31/10/2024
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted
funds		 Restricted
funds		 Endowment
funds		 Total funds Last year
to the nearest
£		 to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
-
pO		 - - - -
8,993
Public Donations
a		 - - 8,993 1,964
-
Donations from JTX
pO		 - - - 1,600
-
Donation from Perrott Hill School
a		 - - - 324
-
Donation from Crewkerne Rotary Club
po		 - - - 500
-
Donation from Mendip Inner Wheel
a		 - - - 350
-
Donation from Wrington Vale Inner Whee
pT		 - - - 345
-
Donation from Part 21
ee		 - - - 500
-
Donation from Crewkerne Inner Wheel
pT		 - - - 250
-
Donation from Witcombes
ee		 - - - 400
-
Grant from Coop
pO		 - - - 1,108
-
Grant from National Lottery Awards 4 All
ee		 - - 10,000
-
Grant from Souter Charitable Trust
a		 - - - 5,000
-
Grant from Gilchrist Educational Trust
a		 - - - 1,171
2,000
1,250
440
Grant from Edgar Lawley Foundation
Donation from Yeovil Inner Wheel
Grnt from Woodward Charitable Trust
a
P
ee		 -
-
-		 2,000
1,250
440
Grant from Yeovil Churches Support
po		 3,750 - 3,750 2,000
700
Grant from Marsh Charitable Trust
ee		 - - 700
Grants from Generations Trust
pO		 7,000 - 7,000
4,000
Grant from Somerset Community Fdn
a		 - - 4,000
Grant from Oliver Morland Trust
pO		 2,000 - 2,000
Grant from Allan & Nesta Ferguson
ee		 5,000 5,000
3,520
Bike / parts sales and repairs
pT		 - - 3,520 4,808
Sponsorship from Sponsored ride
ee		 - - - 1,230
1,485
Bike Repair Teaching work
pO		 - - 1,485 1,640
836
Gift Aid Reclaim
ee		 - - 836
1,108
-
-
-
-
24,332
17,750
-
VAT Reclaim
Sub total
(Gross income for
PB)
a
 1,108
-
42,082
A2 Asset and investment
sales, (see table).
- - - -
- - - - -
-
Sub total		 - - - -
24,332
17,750
-
Total receipts
~~9~~0»		 0» 42,082
0»		 33,461

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

07/06/2025

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A3 Payments
Bike parts & tools - UK sourced 1,379 7,500 - 8,879 4,116
Africa Support and Spares 2,606 - - 2,606 2,838
Container Shipping - - - - 11,857
Payments to Operations Manager
12,598 - - 12,598 12,050
IT - Website, Laptop, Printing
517 - 517 -
Mezzannine Floor build
- - - - 1,543
Rent / repairs of workshop 2,023 1,750 - 3,773 3,600
Public Liability Insurance 181 - - 181 490
VAT Payment - - - - 355
Publicity 390 - - 390 1,072
Travel expenses 4,145 2,500 6,645 797
Repayment of loan 220 - - 220 1,000
Miscellaneous 110 - 110 -
- - - -
Sub total 24,169 11,750 - 35,919 39,718
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total - - - -
Total payments 24,169 11,750 - 35,919 39,718
Net of receipts/(payments) 163 6,000 - 6,163 - 6,257
A5 Transfers between funds - - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 59 - - 59 6,316
Cash funds this year end 221 6,000 - 6,221 59

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Categories Details funds funds funds
to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B1 Cash funds Lloyds Bank 221 6,000 -
- - -
- - -
Total cash funds 221 6,000 -
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s)) OK OK OK
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
funds funds funds
Details to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B2 Other monetary assets - - -

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

07/06/2025

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Details Fund to which
asset belongs		 Cost (optional) Current value
(optional)
B3 Investment assets -
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===
Details Fund to which
asset belongs		 Cost (optional) Current value
(optional)
B4 Assets retained for the - -
charity’s own use STOCK OF DONATED BICYCLES UNRESTRICTED - -
WORKSHOP TOOLS UNRESTRICTED - -
LAPTOP UNRESTRICTED - -
- -
- -
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- -
- -
Fund to which Amount due When due
Details liability relates (optional) (optional)
B5 Liabilities -
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===
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees		 Signature Print Name Print Name Date of
approval
Timothy Neville Timothy Neville 9 June 2025
Calum McFarlane 10 June 2025

Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees

CCXX R3 accounts (SS)

07/06/2025

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Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees

PRODIGAL BIKES

On accounts for the year 31[ST] October 2024 Charity no 1170845 ended (if any) Set out on pages

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31[st] October 2024.

Responsibilities and basis As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the of report accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent examiner's statement I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

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.

Date: .6.2025 Signed: ~~a~~ Name: Neil Lukins Relevant professional FCCA qualification(s) or body (if any):

1

Oct 2018

IER

Address: 27 GREEN STREET HINTON ST GEORGE SOMERSET

Section B Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).

Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

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2

Oct 2018

IER