2024-03-31-accounts - Northwick Park Community Garden

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Trustees’ Annual Report for the period

From 1 April 2023 Period start date To 31 March 2024 Period end date

Charity name: Northwick Park Community Garden (NPCG)

Charity registration number: 1180141

Objectives and Activities

	SORP reference
Summary of the purposes of the charity as set out in its governing document	Para 1.17	To provide facilities for recreation or other leisure time occupation by providing an area for use as a community garden and other activities for individuals in Brent, London and the surrounding area, 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. (2) To advance education for the public benefit, by providing opportunities for learning about horticulture in and around the community garden. (3) To promote for the benefit of the public the conservation, protection, and improvement of the physical and natural environment of the garden by restoring derelict areas and promoting biological diversity
Summary of the main activities in relation to those purposes for the public benefit, in particular, the activities, projects or services identified in the accounts.	Para 1.17 and 1.19	In planning our activities, we consider the Charity Commissioner’s guidance on public benefit at trustee meetings. a) The charity's objectives are as follows: i. Building a community and connecting people in the area. We do this by making a garden space for members of the community. ii. We aim to change the perception of the park with the community garden and provide an attractive, natural environment in keeping with the surrounding park, attracting people who wouldn't

		normally choose to visit the park for leisure. iii. We provide opportunities for everyone to learn how food is grown, harvested, and eaten. We do this through regular workshops on topics such as taking cuttings, mushroom logs and fruit trees. iv. Increasing biodiversity and protecting the environment. We use organic permaculture principles. The garden is already attracting bees, pollinators, and other beneficial creatures to pollinate the trees and plants. b) The garden is planted based on permaculture principles and patterns that mimic the natural environment. The existing plants in the garden area were incorporated into the design to enhance the natural environment and support the ecosystem. c) Through Brent CIL funding, the charity has offered a fully funded Permaculture Design training course for 30 participants to learn how to design and create Permaculture spaces for the community and educate others in permaculture principles and sustainable approaches to living.
Statement confirming whether the trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit	Para 1.18	In planning our activities at trustee meetings, we consider the Charity Commissioner’s guidance on public benefit.

Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:

	SORP reference
Policy on grant making	Para 1.38
Policy on social investment including program related investment	Para 1.38
Contribution made by volunteers	Para 1.38	Our volunteers are essential to the running and maintenance of the garden. A core group of volunteers meet weekly throughout the year to weed and maintain the garden and ensure that the new plants become established by

watering throughout the drier months and during the extreme heat of the summer of 2022. These regular volunteers have built up expertise in growing and planting; they attend our smaller planting sessions and support our new volunteers. They also take initiative and bring new ideas to the garden. London in Bloom - It’s Your Neighbourhood, awarded outstanding in 2022-23 due to the volunteers' work. Other

Achievements and Performance

	SORP reference
Summary of the main achievements of the charity, identifying the difference the charity’s work has made to the circumstances of its beneficiaries and any wider benefits to society as a whole.	Para 1.20	We have completed two significant deliverables of our 2021/22 Brent CIL funding, which include the Permaculture Design Course and children's workshops. We still have funding from the 21/22 and 2019/20 Brent CIL to spend on the garden and associated project deliverables. We will work with Brent to realign these funds as the global pandemic affected most aspects of the initial project idea, including the timeframe, methods, and delivery modes. Regarding the outstanding key deliverables, we have signage remaining from the 2019/20 CIL budget and a willow structure workshop from the 2021/22 CIL budget. We have completed a fully funded education project for adults of all levels of experience, which led to a Permaculture Design Certificate qualification. The Permaculture Design Course finished on 3rd June 2023, running for 10 days with an additional 14 evening sessions spread over 9 months from October 2022 to June 2023. Out of the 30 attendees, 22 graduated with a Permaculture Design Certificate. Three garden designs, including a garden, an allotment, and a station platform, are currently underway, and several graduates are working towards additional professional qualifications in horticulture. The course covered permaculture ethics, ecological principles and design tools, methods, and skills. Participants can now lead, teach, and engage in these areas with community members. From April to December 2023, we ran activity- based children and family workshops called "See the Garden through the Year: A Series of Sessions for Children and Families." These

workshops aimed to improve the knowledge of the next generation on how we can live in ways that benefit both ourselves and the natural world and observe the garden through the seasons. The workshops were for children between 5 and 13 and were led by Susannah Hall, participants from the Permaculture Design Course and volunteers from the community garden. One workshop was cancelled due to the extreme temperature. 23rd April: Learning about Spring - growing some seeds. 14th May: Learning about bees, hoverflies, etc - planting some seedlings. 11th June: Learning about flowers - how do seeds form. Sunday 16th July: Harvesting and eating berries and Hapa Zome on silk scarves. Sunday 8th October: Learning about autumn - preparing for winter: What happens to the insects over winter? Sunday 12th November: Learning about what happens to plants in winter – planting bulbs for Spring. Sunday 3rd December - Natural dye session. Postponed to January 13[th] . At the AGM in March 2023, we agreed to take over Northwick Park Station Platform Garden, and the handover took place in September. A refresh and replant based on a Permaculture Certificate design is currently underway. We also took over the two raised wooden planters at the entrance to the car park, which provide us with opportunities to promote the community garden at key points of entrance to the park and increase the accessibility options for our spaces. Volunteers worked hard throughout the year to maintain the beds and spent autumn mulching the beds and creating edges for the beds with branches. Trustees were invited by the RHS to contribute to research on volunteer engagement at the Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival and to consider the allotment category at next year's Hampton Court Place Garden Festival. Trustees took part in the London permaculture festival on July 7th with a silk scarf stall where people could dye a scarf using natural dyes,

and one trustee gave a talk on "Fitting out a narrowboat: a permaculture approach to living well in tiny spaces." We continued to fundraise to cover the maintenance of the community garden, occasional venue charges, and yearly administrative costs such as public insurance and website maintenance. We held a seed swap at the March AGM with seed donations from Franci seeds and, on May 28th, held a pop-up plant and cake sale of plants and cakes donated by our community. Rishil Parekh has resigned as a trustee, and the three remaining trustees have decided to continue without another trustee. The trustees will review this decision on a regular basis. Regarding our social media presence, we have 358 sign-ups to our newsletter mailing list. One-fourth often and another one-fourth sometimes open the newsletter. We hope that a monthly newsletter will increase engagement. We write monthly newsletter items for SCRA, and since September, we have published this to the mailing list ahead of the SCRA article at the beginning of each month. We have 787 Facebook followers (a 5% increase in 2023) and 913 Instagram followers (a 16% increase in 2022). We also have 17 subscribers to the YouTube channel created in response to COVID-19.

Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:

Achievements against objectives set	Para 1.41
Performance of fundraising activities against objectives set	Para 1.41
Investment performance against objectives	Para 1.41
Other		Unrestricted funds: Fundraising£470

Financial Review

Financial Review
Review of the charity’s financial position at the end of the period	Para 1.21	31 March 2024 Cash at bank £3,134 Expenditure £6,571
Statement explaining the policy for holding reserves stating why they are held	Para 1.22
Amount of reserves held	Para 1.22
Reasons for holding zero reserves	Para 1.22
Details of fund materially in deficit	Para 1.24
Explanation of any uncertainties about the charity continuing as a going concern	Para 1.23

Details of fund materially in deficit Para 1.24 Explanation of any uncertainties about the charity continuing as a going concern Para 1.23	Details of fund materially in deficit Para 1.24 Explanation of any uncertainties about the charity continuing as a going concern Para 1.23	Details of fund materially in deficit Para 1.24 Explanation of any uncertainties about the charity continuing as a going concern Para 1.23
Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
The charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising)	Para 1.47	NPCG’s principal source of funds is Brent Council CIL Funding 2019/20 (Ongoing due to Covid restrictions). Brent Council CIL Funding 2021 awarded (£27,840) Initial funding instalment of £9280.00 received 11 Feb 21
Investment policy and objectives including any social investment policy adopted	Para 1.46
A description of the principal risks facing the charity	Para 1.46	Annual fundraising is needed to cover expenditures, including insurance and Website costs. This year, we couldn’t cover the additional fundraising needed and need to consider increasing our fundraising activities and reducing overheads. Fundraising b/wd 2023 18 Fundraising 425 Workshop 45 IT -412.54 Insurance -157 30 -51.54
Other

Structure, Governance and Management

Description of charity’s trusts:
Type of governing document (trust deed,royal charter)	Para 1.25	Constitution – date of constitution (last amended)28thSeptember 2018
How is the charity constituted? (e.g unincorporated association, CIO)	Para 1.25	Association
Trustee selection methods including details of any constitutional provisions e.g. election to post or name of any person or body entitled to appoint one or more trustees	Para 1.25	Appointed by Trustees

including details of any constitutional provisions e.g. election to post or name of any person or body entitled to appoint one or more trustees	including details of any constitutional provisions e.g. election to post or name of any person or body entitled to appoint one or more trustees
Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements		where relevant about:
Policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees	Para 1.51	Child protection policy in place. Health and safety policy in place. Equal opportunities policy in place. Risk assessments are carried out by NPCG and provided to Brent Council
The charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works	Para 1.51	NPCG is a member of the London Permaculture Network. The permaculture garden expert and designer of NPCG is associated with the Network. NPCG is a member of the Capital Growth Network and the Big Dig. Joined March 2019. NPCG is a member of the Conservation Volunteers Network (TVC). Joined February 2022
Relationship with any related parties	Para 1.51	All trustees give their time voluntarily and have received no renumeration or other benefits
Other

Reference and Administrative details

Charity name	Northwick Park Community Garden
Other name the charity uses	NPCG
Registered charitynumber	1180141
Charity’s principal address	23 Rydal Gardens Wembley Middlesex HA9 8SA

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

Trustee name	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole year
Iris Fenn	Secretary
Joanna Harris	Social Media
Rishil Parekh	Chair	Resigned Feb. 6th2024
Eleri Kyffin	Treasurer

– Corporate trustees names of the directors at the date the report was approved

Director name

Name of trustees holding title to property belonging to the charity

Trustee name Dates acted if not for whole year

Funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others

Description of the assets held in this capacity

Name and objects of the charity on whose behalf the assets are held and how this falls within the custodian charity’s objects Details of arrangements for safe custody and segregation of such assets from the charity’s own assets

Additional information (optional)

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Type of	Name	Address
adviser

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Exemptions from disclosure

Reason for non-disclosure of key personnel details

Other optional information

Declarations

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s) Full name(s) Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) Date	Eleri Kyffin

	Treasurer and Chair
	29-11-24
	29-11-24

Northwick Park Community Garden

No (if any)

Receipts and payments accounts

Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period Period start date Period end date To from 1/4/2023 31/3/2024

Section A Receipts and payments

A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 45 425 - - - - - 470	Restricted funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - -	Endowment funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - -	Total funds to the nearest £ - 45 425 - - - - - 470	Last year to the nearest £
Council Grants
Workshop	45
Fundraising	425				193
Donations	-				1,020
	-				-
	-				-
	-				-
	-				-
*Sub total*(Gross income for AR)	470				1,213

A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).		- -	- -	- -
	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
*Sub total*	-	-	-	-	-
*Total receipts*
	470				1,213

A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
*Sub total*	-	-	-	-	-

*Total receipts*	470	-	-	470	1,213

A3 Payments

		-	-	-	-
Subsistence	475	-	-	475	777
Cleaning	-	-	-	-	-
Insurance	157			157	157
Plants, Gardens, Worshops	1,026			1,026	1,610
Garden Consultants				-	-

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

29/11/2024

Health & Safety	-			-	-
Printing/Stationery	-			-	67
Events	-			-	-
Intallaion Benches	-			-	-
Prizes	-			-	-
Marketing/IT	413			413	383
Professional Fees	4,500	-	-	4,500	6,500
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
**Sub total **	6,571	-	-	6,571	9,495

**Sub total **	- - - - 6,571	- - - - -	- - - - -		- - - - 6,571	- - - - 9,495
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
	-	-		-	-
	-	-		-	-
**Sub total **	-	-		-	-	-

*Total payments*	6,571	-		-	6,571	9,495
*Net of receipts/(payments)*	(6,101)	0		0	(6,101)	(8,281)
A5 Transfers between funds	-	-	-		-	-
A6 Cash funds last year end	9,235	-	-		9,235	17,516
*Cash funds this year end*	3,134	-		-	3,134	9,235

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

Unrestricted funds to nearest £ 3,134 - 3,134	Restricted funds Endowment funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - -	Restricted funds Endowment funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - -
	-	-
3,134	-	-
-	-	-
3,134	-	-

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

29/11/2024

B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B2 Other monetary assets B3 Investment assets	Details Details Details (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))	OK Unrestricted funds to nearest £ - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which asset belongs	OK Restricted funds to nearest £ - - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - - - -	OK
				Endowment funds to nearest £
				-
				-
				-
				-
				-
				-
				Current value (optional)
				-
				-
				-
				-
				-
				Current value (optional)
			-	-
			-	-
			-	-
			-	-
			-	-
			-	-
			-	-
			-	-

CCXX R3 accounts (SS)

29/11/2024

B5 Liabilities

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

			-	-
	Fund to which		Amount due	When due
Details	liability relates		(optional)	(optional)
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
Signature	Print	Name		Date of approval
Eleri kyffin	Eleri Kyffin			##############

CCXX R4 accounts (SS)

29/11/2024