## **Chelveston Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund Trust**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report 2025-26**
This report is produced by the Trustees each year to meet the requirements of the _Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008_ , and to provide information on how the charity continues to meet the public benefit test in line with the _Charities Act 2011_ .
## **Background**
The Chelveston Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund Trust (aka “The Wind Farm Trust”) was created on 31[st] March 2014 and is a community benefit delivery vehicle for the four parishes (Chelvestoncum-Caldecott, Dean and Shelton, Hargrave, and Melchbourne and Yelden) adjacent to the Chelveston Renewable Energy (CRE) Wind Farm. It is funded annually by CRE under two legally binding S106 agreements (one for each Local Planning Authority) and its purpose is to distribute grants to organisations within the four parishes that meet the Trust’s criteria.
The four parishes each provide two Trustees who all serve a 4-year term, with half the Trustees standing down every two years.
## **Activities undertaken in 2025-26.**
At the 4-year term completion in 2025, three Trustees were returned by their respective parishes and one new Trustee joined as the previous Trustee did not seek re-election. The next 4-year term completion will see half the Trustees standing down in 2027. All Trustees are eligible for reappointment by their respective parishes.
A total of 7 enquires were received, resulting in 7 grant applications, all granted in full.
The Savings Account reached the £85,000 FSCS upper threshold, but on 1[st] December 2025 this was increased to £120,000. The interest received in-year was over £1,800.
The Trustees are required to consider the submitted applications against the charitable objectives of the trust, being -
_The object of the charity is the promotion of any charitable purposes for the benefit of the community in the civil parishes of Chelveston-cum-Caldecott in the county of Northamptonshire, Dean and Shelton in unitary district of Bedford Borough, Hargrave in the county of Northamptonshire, and Melchbourne and Yelden in the unitary district of Bedford Borough as the Trustees see fit_
The most commonly used charitable purposes used were –
_The provision of facilities for recreation and other leisure-time occupation in the interests of social welfare with the object of improving the conditions of life for the persons for whom they are intended, and public works and services and the provision of public amenities._
The Trustees have to ensure that each parish receives a nominal 25% share of the funds distributed, but this is over a five-year period, not in every year.
Applications received ranged from a new projector and replacing a boiler in two village halls, repairs to a church tower, purchase of heritage style planters, and preserving a village photographic collection.
The Trustees were mindful that any grant applications needed to be sound in respect of the benefits that would be gained through the award of the Trust’s funds. To this end a number of awards were made subject to conditions.
The amount awarded in year was £12,630. The largest single grant in-year was £4,500 towards a 12month CCTV trial to reduce HGV incursions, in Chelveston-cum-Caldecott parish. Additionally, £15,622 was added to the Hargrave Amenity Land Purchase Reserve.
The Trustees also invested in a new content managed website, hosted by Cuttlefish Media ltd, and a new Windows 11 compatible Dell laptop running Office 365 (on a charity discount license), as the old laptop could not support Windows 11 after Windows 10 went End of Life on 14[th] October 2025.
Charity Registration number 1180828
The grants were split amongst the four parishes as follows –
|||**Share of**|**Share of**|
|---|---|---|---|
|**Parish:**|**Grants awarded**|**grants in**|**grants all**|
||**in year:**|
**year**|
**years**|
|||||
|Chelveston-cum-Caldecott|£8,692.00|13.58%|21.95%|
|Dean & Shelton|£400.00|0.63%|20.74%|
|Hargrave|£378.00|0.59%|7.49%|
|Melchbourne & Yelden|£3,160.00|4.94%|34.87%|
The Trustees are mindful that grants can only be made in accordance with the Trust’s criteria and that any unspent allocations are carried over to the next year. This accounts for the percentages above not totalling 100%.
One parish continues to lag the others (share all years), but the Trustees are mindful that this parish has accumulated a significant reserve (over £77,000) for a future amenity land purchase.
## **Accounts for 2025-26.**
## **Summary:**
|**Summary:**|||
|---|---|---|
|**Income**||**Expenditure**|
|£112,866.53 B/F
£43,428.17 Capital
£1,862.27 Interest
**£158,176.97**||£12,630.00
Grants
£1,658.50
Admin
£48.00
Governance
£14,336.50
£143,840.47
Excess Receipts over
Payments
**£158,176.97**|
## **Income:**
The Expendable Capital (i.e. capital receipts that can be spent) consisted of the S106 payment from Oct 25, which enjoyed an RPI uplift in accordance with the S106 agreements.
The earned income was the £1,862.27 bank interest.
## **Expenditure:**
The bulk of the expenditure was the grants, as would be expected.
Administration consisted of the new laptop (£772.96) the new website and set-up costs (£660), the Zoom subscription (£77.94) – final year, bank charges (£73), the ICO fee (£47.00), and the Office 365 charity business licence (£27.60).
Governance was a meeting hire (£20) and the auditor’s gift (£28) in lieu of fees for 2024-25.
|**Excess Receipts represented by**|**Excess Receipts represented by**|**Excess Receipts represented by**|**Excess Receipts represented by**||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|£10,000.00||Carryover to H1 next FY|||
|£77,065.00||Hargrave PC restricted reserve|||
|£9,525.49||Environmentalproject restricted reserve|||
|£47,249.98||Unused|||
||||||
|**£143,840.47**|||||
Charity Registration number 1180828
The excess income includes an annual carry over amount, currently set at £10,000, to fund the Trust for the first 6 months of the next FY, i.e. until the next Expendable Capital S106 payment from CRE Ltd is received in October, and two restricted reserves totalling £86,590.49.
Any unused income is carried over to the next year.
## **Audit:**
The accounts were independently examined by Ken Owst FCMA, CGMA, of Milton Ernest, Beds, on 6[th] May 2026, who is independent of the Trust.
The audited accounts and the Trustees Annual Report (this document) were adopted by the Trustees at the Annual Meeting, which was held on 27[th] May 2026.
Mark Hunter Clerk to the Trustees
21[st] May 2026
Charity Registration number 1180828
||**Chelveston Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund Trust**
|**Chelveston Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund Trust**
|**Chelveston Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund Trust**
|**1180828**|**CC16a**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**For the period**
**from**|Period start date
4/1/2025|**To**|Period end date
3/31/2026||
|||||||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**||||||
|**A1 Receipts**
Bank Interest
Annual S106payment(Endowment)
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total receipts_ -**
**A3 Payments**
Grants
**12,630**
Admin costs
**1,659**
Governance costs
**48**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ 14,337**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total payments_ 14,337**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_ - 14,337**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**43,428**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**29,654**
**_Cash funds this year end_ 58,745**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**
**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_
**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**
**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**||**to the nearest £**
**1,862**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**1,862**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**1,862**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**1,862**
**-**
**83,233**
**85,095**
**Restricted**
**funds**|**to the nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**1,862**
**43,428**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**45,290**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**45,290**
**12,630**
**1,659**
**48**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**14,337**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**14,337**
**30,954**
**-**
**112,887**
**143,840**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
||||**-**|**1,862**|**1,745**|
||||**43,428**|**43,428**|**41,532**|
||||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||||**43,428**|**45,290**|**43,277**|
|||||||
||||**-**|**-**||
||||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|**-**|
|||||||
||||**43,428**|**45,290**|**43,277**|
|||||||
||||**-**|**12,630**|**19,713**|
||||**-**|**1,659**|**177**|
||||**-**|**48**|**29**|
||||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**14,337**|**19,920**|
|||||||
||||**-**|**-**||
||||**-**|**-**||
||||**-**|**-**|**-**|
|||||||
||||**-**|**14,337**|**19,920**|
|||||||
|||**1,862**|**43,428**|**30,954**|**23,357**|
|||**-**|**- 43,428**|**-**|**-**|
|||**83,233**|**-**|**112,887**|**89,529**|
|||**85,095**|**-**|**143,840**|**112,887**|
|**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**|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**|**Details**
UTB current a/c
UTB savings a/c
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))|**to nearest £**
**58,745**
**-**
**-**
**58,745**
OK
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**|**to nearest £**
**-**
**85,095**
**-**
**85,095**
OK
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**|**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||OK|
|||||**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**||
||||**-**||
||||**-**||
||||**-**||
||||**-**||
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
Signature
Date of Print Name approval 5/27/2026
## **Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of The Chelveston Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund Trust, Chelveston, Northamptonshire.**
This report, on the accounts of The Chelveston Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund Trust, for the year ended 31 March 2026, which is set out below, is in respect of an examination carried out under s.145 of the Charities Act 2011 (the Charities Act).
## **Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner**
The trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Charities Act and that an independent examination is needed.
It is my responsibility to:
- examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act,
- to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act, and
- to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
## **Basis of independent examiners report**
My examination was carried out in accordance with general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the trust and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair’ view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.
## **Independent examiners statement**
In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:
1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in, any material respect, the requirements:
- to keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; and
- to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the Charities Act
- have not been met;
2. to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
**A. K. Owst** (BA (Hons), FCMA, CGMA), Mill House, Bedford Road, Milton Ernest, MK44 1RJ.
## **Date: 6 May 2026**