P Peace eace O Oak ak A Association ssociation
( (Charity Charity No No 1 117221) 17221)
Registered Office: 74 Acre End Street, Eynsham, OX29 4PD
Annual 2024 Report
Contents
The Management Committee and Trustees 1 Report from the Chair of the Board of Trustees 2 Accounts 4
The Management Committee and Trustees
The Trustees set the strategic direction of the Charity and are elected for three year terms. They are assisted in the day to day management of the Peace Oak by other members of the Association in the Management Committee.
Trustees in 2024
| Secretary | Adrienne Beavis | From Jan 23 to Nov 23 |
|---|---|---|
| David Knight | ||
| Treasurer | Hywel Edwards | |
| Secretary | Kate Shaw | To Jan 23 |
| Phil Snelling | ||
| Chair | Sue Raikes |
Other members of the Management Committee
| Ian Middleton | |
|---|---|
| Les Swarbrick | From April 24 |
| Sarah Couch |
Report from the Chair of the Board of Trustees
Looking after the land seems to expand each year - and members have been busy with monthly working parties, tending apple trees, tackling weeds, cutting back overexuberant growth and providing delicious refreshments. We have some regular and dedicated attendees but as ever we could do with more. You can just roll up and you will be welcomed and supported in any tasks, finishing with cake!
Many of you have commented on the wonderful wildflowers this year. We have been luck to have the continuing support of Long Mead, supplying fantastic locally raised plants, specialist tools and expertise. Thanks to some key enthusiasts, the mowing regime, planting, sowing and collection of seeds we have seen a notable increase in wildflowers and biodiversity in a widening area.
The vines had a tough year, but the young grafted apples have done very well - and we sold all the family trees grafted with three different varieties that were ready to go this autumn. A great achievement and good for our income. Huge thanks to Jonathan Ferrier. The communal Fruitful Hedge did well, but needs more regular attention to achieve its full potential.
The popular Craft Club ran sessions for enthusiastic crafters in the summer - willow, wood, leather, pottery, nettles and more - all carefully transformed into beautiful and useful objects.
The Apple Day in October was again a great success with some 200 people attending including lots of families with young children discovering the Peace Oak for the first time. They were enlightened and entertained by talks, games, games, wonderful displays by the Eynsham Nature Recovery Network, Green TEA’s plant-based food and competition, Julie Macken’s bees, Trevor Taw giving and update on the design of our new and better shed, a display of our growing crop of Eynsham apples, apple identification, juicing and of course hands on activities by the Craft Club.
A task for the coming year is to improve the area of the original individual plots with an emphasis on smaller plots and integrating the land and the people more in the work of the Peace Oak as a whole.
We have continued to welcome groups such as the Guides to enjoy the field and we hope to be able to support them better with improved facilities in due course. Volunteers from the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme, together with some parents, have been busy throughout the year and swelled attendance at our Field Days.
During the year, with the help of local architects Taw Fitzwilliam and generous support from Jonathan Ferrier, we have been developing our ideas for a replacement for our trusty shed so that we will have a building more suited to our various activities and needs. We are very grateful to members who have shared their ideas and attended our co-design workshop. We have an outline plan which is shortly to be shared with WODC for their pre application advice. More on this at the AGM.
The Committee
The Trustees and committee have met quarterly for formal meetings but a lot of work also goes on between meetings and we would welcome additional members. Thanks should go to Adrienne Beavis who did sterling work as our Secretary until illness intervened. We were delighted that Les Swarbrick has taken on this role.
Finances
The substantial increase in our income over that of previous years is due primarily to the donation towards Project Shed and the gift aid it attracted. We are also grateful for the grant from CAG Oxfordshire in addition to their normal contribution towards our insurance costs. The unspent element of this income is held in reserves to cover pre-planning costs and we will expand our efforts in fundraising in 2025. The sale of the family trees generated a welcome £810 and the Craft Club £245 net income. Membership continued to grow, we now have 82 households and 38 singles, 120 in total compared with 115 in 2023. Of our expenditure of £4,047 included £3,331 spent on Project Shed meaning that our other expenses were down to £716. This is because we had no major tree work unlike 2023 and the weather conspired to reduce our mowing activities. Our general reserves stand at £4,594, our Project Shed reserves £3,399 and our Contingency fund at £1,750.
Sue Raikes, December 2024
| Accounts for the period 01/01/24 to 31/12/24 From To Income Donations Donation for Project Shed Sales/Events Net receipts Craft Club Subscriptions (ending 2023) Subscriptions (ending 2024) Subscriptions (ending 2025) Allotments CAG Grant Gift Aid Total Expenditure Equipment Plants/Tree work Material Mowing Room hire/Meeting expenses Events Miscellaneous Project Shed Insurance Total Surplus Surplus brought forward Surplus carried forward Balance sheet Cash Bank Total reserves General reserves Project Shed reserves (see below) Contingency reserves Total Shed reserves Donation Grant from CAG Gift Aid Expenditure Total |
01/01/2024 31/12/2024 203 5,000 810 245 - 1,543 110 78 580 1,662 10,231 - - - 268 - 142 - 3,331 306 4,047 6,184 3,559 9,743 257 9,486 9,743 4,594 3,399 1,750 9,743 5,000 480 1,250 (3,331) 3,399 |
01/01/2023 31/12/2023 224 - 30 196 1,525 70 - 84 100 372 2,602 65 1,259 16 313 56 50 54 - 242 2,055 547 3,012 3,559 61 3,498 3,559 2,059 - 1,500 3,559 |
|---|---|---|