**Trustees' Annual Report for the period**
Period start date Period end date Day Month Year Day Month Year **From** 1 May 2025 **To** 30 April 2026
## Section A Reference and administration details
**Charity name** RATTERY ENVIRONMENT GROUP
**Other names charity is known by** DARTINGTON AND RATTERY ENVIRONMENT GROUP
**Registered charity number (if any)** 1179093
**Charity's principal address** Rattery Village Hall Rattery South Brent **Postcode TQ10 9LF**
## **Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity**
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20|**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|**Dates acted if not for whole**
**year**|**Name of person (or body) entitled**
**to appoint trustee(if any)**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Kim Howard|Chair||Trustees|
||Richard Haigh|Treasurer||RatteryParish Council|
||Alison Samuel|||Trustees|
||Carlos Glover|||Trustees|
||David Howard|||Trustees|
||Will Webb|||Dartington Parish Council|
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## **Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)**
**Name Dates acted if not for whole year**
March **2012**
**TAR**
1
**Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) Type of adviser Name Address Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information) Section B Structure, governance and management Description of the charity’s trusts** CIO Constitution Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) CIO How the charity is constituted (eg. trust, association, company) Appointed by Board of Trustees, including 1 nomination from Dartington Trustee selection methods Parish Council and 1 from Rattery Parish Council (eg. appointed by, elected by)
## **Additional governance issues (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant, about:
- policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
- the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
- relationship with any related parties;
**Expansion of the REG charity:** As the Rattery Environment Group (REG) was already working so closely with Dartington, the terms of reference for the charity were expanded this year to include Dartington. The official, registered name of the charity continues to be Rattery Environment Group, but the working name is now Dartington and Rattery Environment Group.
The revised CIO now operates as an ‘umbrella’ over the activities of the REG, the Bidwell Brook Partnership (BBP) and the Dartington Environmental Education Partnership (DEEP). **Appointing bodies:** Dartington and Rattery Parish Councils may now each appoint a charity Trustee.
**Terms of appointments:** Trustees may now remain appointed until they trustees’ consideration of choose to stand down or are stood down (in accordance with the revised major risks and the system constitution). and procedures to manage them. **Insurance:** The REG charity now has its own insurance cover, covering the activities of its constituent projects. **Policies:** Various key policies were agreed/updated, including: GDPR; Safeguarding; Health and Safety; Equality/Diversity; Communications; Social Media; Conflict of Interest and Data Control/Privacy. Detailed risk assessments were also agreed for working on the Rattery Nature Reserve and in or near water. A formal Volunteer Activity Record was also introduced.
**Partnerships:** the Charity has continued to develop its collaborative approach, working with other key organisations such as the Bat Conservation Trust, the West Country Rivers Trust and several universities.
March **2012**
**TAR**
2
## **Section C Objectives and activities**
_**1. To promote for the benefit of the public the conservation protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment of the Parishes of Dartington and Rattery by promoting its biological diversity and in particular by providing access to woodlands and wetlands along the valley of the Bidwell Brook within the Parishes; and**_
**Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document**
_**2. To promote for the benefit of the inhabitants of Dartington and Rattery and Parishes and the surrounding area the provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time occupation of individuals who have need of such facilities by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disablement, financial hardship or social and economic circumstances or for the public at large in the interests of social welfare and with the object of improving the condition of life of the said inhabitants**_
March **2012**
**TAR**
3
Trustees have had due regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit in regard to the activities of the Charity. These activities have included:
Rattery Environment Group: continues to enhance the local environment, with the main focus of work this year being the opening a new Nature Reserve and permissive path in the heart of the village.
**Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)**
Bidwell Brook Partnership (BBP): continues to enhance the valley of the Bidwell Brook in the Dartington and Rattery parishes, including: engaging with and advising local landowners via partnerships with other key organisations, such as the Bat Conservation Trust; and enabling Citizen Science volunteers to take part in a Living Laboratory project, in collaboration with several universities.
## **Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)**
Huge thanks are due to all of the volunteers, who are key to the running of the charity. They contribute in a wide variety of ways, including: Trustees; BBP Steering Group members; planting and maintaining trees and hedges; and citizen scientists.
You **may choose** to include further statements, where relevant, about:
- policy on grantmaking;
- policy programme related investment;
- contribution made by volunteers.
March **2012**
**TAR**
4
Section D Achievements and performance
**Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year**
||**1.Rattery Nature Reserve**||
|---|---|---|
||**a) Official opening to the public:**A good-sized crowd came to the
opening of the Nature Reserve on 12thJuly 2025 by Dan Thomes, Devon||
||County Councillor.||
||**b) Volunteer activity:**to date, volunteers have planted|2 hedgerows|
||(including 300 whips this year), 200 trees and a small orchard; mown,||
||cleared bracken and mulched around the trees; pulled Himalayan||
||Balsam; installed bird boxes; erected notice boards; placed guiding and||
||safety signs on the site and kept paths cleared (the latter assisted by a||
||contractor).||
||**2.** **Bidwell Brook Partnership (BBP)**||
||**a) Partnership with Bat Conservation Trust (BCT)**||
||The BBP has continued to work with the BCT on the development of a||
||catchment-wide nature recovery programme. Achievements this year||
||included:||
||i) Farmers workshop: the first meeting, in October, went well, with good||
||attendance and positive engagement.||
||ii) Other community engagement: a well-attended mini bioblitz was held||
||in Dartington in September.||
||**b) Living Laboratory:**||
||i) Bidwell Brook Living Laboratory Research Symposium - this was held||
||in January, bringing together around 35 people from various universities||
||and organisations (including the Environment Agency),
|to discuss|
||opportunities for collaboration and knowledge exchange. The Bidwell||
||Brook Living Lab is a concept of the catchment being an open-air||
||research and learning environment, where scientists, farmers,||
||landowners and community members work together to better understand||
||and restore the health of the river and its surrounding landscape.||
||ii) Ongoing research – the BBP is currently working with others in the||
||following areas: bacterial contamination; soil erosion; habitat restoration;||
||Rattery Waste Water Treatment Works; nature-based solutions to||
||eliminate pollution from the four Combined Sewer Outlets in Dartington;||
||nitrate testing; phosphate levels; and greywater pollution.||
||Much of these collaborations involves local volunteer Citizen Scientists.||
||Their investigations to date have enabled the West Country Rivers Trust||
||to produce a Bidwell Scorecard, providing a baseline assessment of the||
||health of the Bidwell Brook.||
||Young people in Rattery have undertaken river testing as part of their||
||DoE award schemes and one for his International Baccalaureate||
||dissertation.||
||**c) Wildlife corridor:**||
||Aside from an initial application for £250k to the SW Water Nature||
||Recovery Fund to enable the continuation of our work to create a wildlife||
||corridor along the Bidwell Brook, work on the wildlife corridor this year||
||has included:||
||i) Morphological survey-thanks to West Country Rivers Trust, a survey||
March **2012**
**TAR**
5
Section D Achievements and performance of part of the Bidwell has been carried out. We are now hoping to complete the rest, subject to funding. ii) Wild Fish (Smart Rivers): agreement was reached with this organisation for it to provide training in 2026 for invertebrate sampling for BBP citizen scientist volunteers. **3. Other activities a) Maintenance of existing sites** Maintenance work was carried out on the previously planted trees in the playing park; the Kettlewell Walk permissive path was also kept clear. **b) Rattery Annual Show:** a D® stall gave information about our activities. **c) Swift Project:** thanks to funding support from the REG and the Rattery Village Hall, swift nesting boxes were installed by the Devon Swift Project on St Mary’s Church and the village hall.
- **Section E Financial review Reserves policy:** the Charity will maintain a reserve of a minimum of
- **Brief statement of the** £100 at all times. **charity’s policy on reserves Details of any funds materially in deficit Further financial review details (Optional information) Grants**
- You **may choose** to include Trustees are very grateful to the following -
- additional information, where i) National Lottery, for their award of £17,080k for funding the
- relevant about: management plan for the Nature Reserve. This has enabled work on the
- the charity’s principal longer-term management of the Nature Reserve to progress, including
- sources of funds (including ongoing clearing of the paths and other areas of the site where
- any fundraising); necessary. The grant was paid directly to Rattery Parish Council, to
- how expenditure has manage on REG’s behalf. supported the key objectives ii) County Councillor Dan Thomas, for his donation of £750 for of the charity; noticeboards for the Rattery Nature Reserve. iii) Church House Inn, for donating £20, the proceeds of a quiz night.
- investment policy and iv) Devon Environment Foundation, for their donation of £7,397, enabling
- objectives including any the purchase of turbidity meters for the Living Laboratory sedimentation
- ethical investment policy project.
- adopted. v) Dart Valley Fund (Full Circle), for a donation of £5,000 for producing a detailed, evidence-based plan for habitat enhancement in a wildlife corridor along the Bidwell.
## **Section F Other optional information**
March **2012**
**TAR**
6
## **Section G Declaration**
**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.**
**Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees**
**Signature(s) Full name(s)** Kim Howard **Position (eg Secretary, Chair,** Chair **etc) Date** 10/08/2026
March **2012**
**TAR**
7
**Charity Name No (if any) Rattery Environment Group Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period** Period start date Period end date **To from** 01/05/2025 30/04/2026
## **Section A Receipts and payments**
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**225**
**5,918**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**6,143**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**6,143**
**23**
**17**
**19**
**91**
**25**
**2,610**
**402**
**1,950**
**-**
**5,137**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**5,137**
**1,006**
**-**
**-**
**1,006**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**225**
**5,918**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**6,143**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**6,143**
**23**
**17**
**19**
**91**
**25**
**2,610**
**402**
**1,950**
**-**
**5,137**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**5,137**
**1,006**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**225**
**5,918**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**6,143**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**6,143**
**23**
**17**
**19**
**91**
**25**
**2,610**
**402**
**1,950**
**-**
**5,137**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**5,137**
**1,006**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Quiz|**225**|||||**-**|
|Devon Environment Foundation|**5,918**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|**6,143**|||||**-**|
||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|||||||
||**-**||||||
||**-**|||||**-**|
|~~**_Sub total_**~~|**-**|||||**-**|
|**_Total receipts_ **
**A3 Payments**|||||||
|||||||**-**|
||||||||
|Signage|**23**|||||**-**|
|Stationery|**17**|||||**-**|
|Hospitality|**19**|||||**18**|
|Venue Hire|**91**||||||
|Publicity|**25**|||||**-**|
|Equipment|**2,610**|||||**-**|
|Insurance|**402**|||||**-**|
|Training|**1,950**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**5,137**|||||**18**|
||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|||||||
||**-**||||||
||**-**||||||
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**|||||**-**|
|**_Total payments_ **
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**|||||||
|||||||**18**|
||||||||
||**1,006**|**-**|**-**|**1,006**||**- 18**|
||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**||**-**|
||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**||**-**|
||**1,006**|**-**|**-**|**1,006**||**- 18**|
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
13/08/2026
1
|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**||
|---|---|---|---|
|**Categories**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B1 Cash funds**|**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
Bank account
**Details**
**Details**
Scientific equipment
**Details**
Signature|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**4,583**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**4,583**
**-**
Agreement Error
OK
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**2,000**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||Date of
approval|
|||||
|||||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
13/08/2026
2