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2022-12-31-accounts

Registered Charity Number: 1181333

Tinsley Community Allotment

ANNUAL REPORT AND UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

For the year ended 31 December 2022

Tinsley Community Allotment

Contents

Page
Legal and administrative information 1
Trustees' annual report 2 - 11
Accountants’ Report 12
Receipts and payments account 13
Statement of assets and liabilities 14
Notes to the accounts 15 - 16

Tinsley Community Allotment

Legal and administrative information for the year ended 31 December 2022

Trustees

Name Position Timothy Shortland Chair Rodney Heslop Treasurer Sheila Sutherland Secretary Michael Steadman Mary Sewell

Other key personnel

Jacqui Dace Community Allotment Worker Jess Banham Community Allotment Worker

Charity number 1181333

Principal address

C/o Tinsley Forum 120-126 Bawtry Road Sheffield S9 1UE

Accountants

Seven Hills Accountants Limited 57 Burton Street Sheffield S6 2HH

1

Tinsley Community Allotment

Trustees' annual report For the year ended 31 December 2022

The trustees submit their annual report and the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022.

Structure, governance and management

Tinsley Community Allotment is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation which registered with the Charity Commission on 21 December 2018. Tinsley Community Allotment is governed by the rules and regulations set down in its governing document as last updated on 21 December 2018.

The organisation started operating in February 2019, previously it was operated as part of the Tinsley Tree project, but has now transitioned to being an independent charitable organisation.

Method of Recruitment and Appointment of Trustees

Trustees are recruited through putting out requests within the allotment, gardening and horticultural network in Sheffield. Trustees are appointed by invitation to attend a meeting, with information regarding the roles and responsibilities having been shared prior to the meeting. Appointment includes signing a trustee declaration.

Charitable objectives and activities

The objects of the charity are:

  1. to further or benefit the residents of Tinsley, South Yorkshire without distinction of gender, sexual orientation, race or of political, religious or other opinions by providing allotment facilities in the interests of social welfare for recreational leisure time occupation with the objective of improving life for the residents.

  2. to advance the education of the public, in particular young people, by providing practical horticultural activities with links to the national curriculum.

The activities we do to meet our objectives are:

Tinsley Community Allotment is open on Friday mornings offering educational and experiential sessions to school children from the local primary school – Tinsley Meadows Primary Academy. One group attends each week during term time and we occasionally offer one-off sessions to whole year groups (split into smaller groups) linking with particular national curriculum themes in school. Activities offered to these children include: sowing and planting; riddling compost; leaf collecting and composting; weeding, watering and harvesting; themed scavenger hunts; art and craft.

The allotment is also open on Friday afternoons to the general public. These sessions are aimed more towards local adults during term time, but are generally open to all. Volunteers attend sessions and help with all tasks on the allotment: sowing, planting, tidying, composting and planning what to grow. They are offered harvested produce to take home with them at the end of the sessions. The allotment is also offered as a space for relaxing, socialising and learning about horticulture.

2

Tinsley Community Allotment

Trustees' annual report For the year ended 31 December 2022

The activities we do to meet our objectives (continued)

In 2021 we set up an allotment-based, weekly toddler group on Thursday mornings in term time. This is aimed at families from the local and nearby areas with pre-school aged children. The children can attend with carers and we offer them allotment themed activities, art and craft, toys, a music wall, a chance to relax with a book in the reading den, snack time, harvested produce and social opportunities for the parents and carers. This has proved to be very successful, bringing in families from the area. We have funding from British Land to continue this project for two more years.

Tinsley is part of the Darnall Ward and falls within the 10% most deprived nationally. Tinsley area is culturally diverse, with a large BAME population, including transient communities such as Slovak Roma. There are high levels of need including prevalence of poor mental health, social isolation in the elderly, chronic ill-health and co-morbidity as well as low levels of physical activity, uptake of services e.g. poor nutrition and obesity, low literacy levels (particularly where English is not a first language).

Activities undertaken at Tinsley Community Allotment address a number of these differing priorities within the local area, including:

Improvement to health, wellbeing and self-esteem – the undertaking of organic food cultivation provides excellent opportunities to undertake gentle exercise and also can improve diet and reduce levels of obesity. Improvements to wellbeing and self-esteem are widely documented.

Building communities – our activity is open to all of the community and, most recently, has involved people between the ages of 1 and 70 years of different genders. Our volunteers are also ethnically diverse. As such, our project supports local community cohesion by bringing people together for a common goal.

Poverty and welfare – our activity assists local poverty and welfare by empowering local people to cultivate their own food. All organic fruit and vegetable crops are shared with volunteers on a regular basis. Eating and tasting is also undertaken.

Environment – the activity demonstrates excellent horticultural practice, introducing the principles of organic food cultivation and also recycles all of its green waste in order to produce compost and leaf mould.

3

Tinsley Community Allotment

Trustees ' annual report - continued For the year ended 31 December 2022

Public Benefit Statement

The trustees have had due regard to the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit reporting in deciding what activities the charity should undertake. This report illustrates the activities undertaken to support the public benefit requirement.

Achievements and performance Numbers:

We have had 297 different visitors this year, 138 of these being adults and 159 children.

This year we have had a far larger number of volunteers and visitors to the allotment than in any year previously. We attribute that in part to the lifting of Covid restrictions, but also to the fact that the allotment is now open two days a week and this additional time in the community is raising its profile within the Tinsley area. One of the most important benefits to the users this year has continued to be having the chance to socialise in a friendly and relaxed environment, helping to build community cohesion within the Tinsley area.

In March, we re-opened our toddler sessions in conjunction with Manor and Castle Development Trust. British Land are now funding the toddler sessions at the allotment. These sessions proved to be popular with families from the local area. We had a core group of families who attended regularly and other families who came occasionally. Overall, we had 20 toddlers and 20 adult carers on the site this year.

The sessions for pupils from Tinsley Meadows Primary were taken up by the same class of 10 children with special educational needs and disabilities that attended last year and who benefitted from attending weekly with a high adult to child ratio. The school chose to only send one group weekly but for a longer time, as the allotment sessions had benefitted this group greatly.

In collaboration with Darnall Well Being, Steamworks (a local arts and STEM activities provider) and Tinsley Meadows Primary Academy, we ran three Healthy Holiday events. Local children from low-income families (mostly from Tinsley Meadows Primary) attended. These Healthy Holiday activities brought 17 adults and 46 children to the allotment.

Our 2 long term committed volunteers, who have been involved with the allotment for many years, continued to come to the allotment throughout the year to water and tend plants when no one else was on site. Their help was invaluable in the summer months of heat and drought. This year we have seen some new regular volunteers including a local family who attend most weeks to water their planters and bring friends to tour the allotment and collect harvests. There is another local man who comes to the allotment for the social side with his granddaughter. A new regular volunteer was keen to practice her English while helping with gardening

jobs and she planted an area with her own garlic to overwinter for harvesting next season. As well as our regular volunteers we have had many occasional or one-off visitors looking for social contact or to join in with our open sessions.

We held our trustee AGM meeting on site in June, allowing our trustees to see what we had been working on during the year.

4

Tinsley Community Allotment

Trustees ' annual report - continued For the year ended 31 December 2022

Ages, Gender, Ethnicity

All details are approximate as we do not formally record this information.

Ages

Under 11 148 50% 11 – 18 14 5% 19 – 50 110 37% Over 50s 25 8% Total 297

Gender

Overall, the gender of visitors has been 57% female and 43% male.

Ethnicity

The local population is made up of roughly 40% from Pakistan, 40% from Slovakia and 20% White British. 96% of school children in Tinsley are from BME groups.

This year we had one class from Tinsley Meadows Primary School, which is for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. This group is a mixture of children from Slovakia, Asia, Eastern Europe, White or from Multiple Ethnic groups.

Our regular volunteers are White British, Asian, African and Irish. The occasional visitors were a mixture of Pakistani, Polish, Kurdish and White British.

Summary of ethnicity

White: 28% Mixed/Multiple Ethnic group: 11% Asian/Asian British: 53% Black/African/Caribbean/Black British: 4% Other ethnic group: 4%

5

Tinsley Community Allotment

Trustees ' annual report - continued For the year ended 31 December 2022

Activities:

Online presence

This year we continued to update our social media followers with regular posts on Twitter and Facebook, reaching 341 in our most popular Facebook post. There was generally less emphasis on this activity than during the lockdowns of Covid, as we were once again able to focus on our primary aim of welcoming regular visitors to the allotment. We continued to use ‘Messenger’ to keep in touch with some of our regular visitors.

Construction & maintenance

Growing

This year we grew a variety of vegetables, herbs, fruit and flowers: Squashes – courgettes, pattypan squash and pumpkin Legumes – Climbing French beans, broad beans Onions and Roots – Onions, garlic, beetroot, carrots Salad crops – tomatoes, chillies, sweet peppers, cucumbers, cucamelons, lettuces, rocket, mizuna, radishes, spinach, chard, pea shoots and micro greens Herbs – curry plant, rosemary, parsley, basil, coriander, lemon balm, mint, fennel, sage, cress, olivia, tarragon, feverfew Other vegetables – Sweetcorn, potatoes Flowers – sunflowers, primroses, poached egg plant, nasturtiums, daffodils, cornflowers, aubretia, ajuga, cosmos, calendula

The fruit growing in the orchard area includes apples, pears and plums. In the main allotment we have blueberries, lingonberries, cranberries, greengages, rhubarb, raspberries, plums, redcurrants, blackcurrants, gooseberries and cherries.

All harvested produce was given to volunteers, visitors, members of Tinsley Forum and Manor and Castle Development Trust.

6

Tinsley Community Allotment

Trustees ' annual report - continued For the year ended 31 December 2022

School activities

The sessions this year were taken up by the same class of children with special educational needs that attended last year and who benefitted from attending weekly with a high adult to child ratio. The school chose to only send one group weekly but for longer, as the allotment sessions had benefitted this group greatly. The regular weekly attendance had enabled them to build new relationships with the allotment staff, as well as giving them a strong sense of ownership to the allotment. Some examples of this are from the courgette growing and harvesting activities we carried out. One child wanted to name his courgette plant, providing it with a background and story. He took a great interest in how it was growing and how we were tending it between visits. All of the pupils checked on their courgette plants each week and were very excited when they could pick, weigh and take the courgettes back to school. Activities with the children this year included: sowing and planting, compost preparation, weeding, watering, harvesting, cooking and food tasting, sensory activities, playing allotment-themed games, arts and crafts, seed saving and weighing vegetables.

In addition to the regular sessions with school, we also hosted two sessions for the whole of FS2. They visited with staff and parent/carer volunteers and carried out bug hunts, an allotment-themed sensory box activity and making perfume from herbs and flowers.

Toddler activities

In conjunction with Manor and Castle Development trust, we ran weekly sessions in term time offered to families of toddlers in the local area. Sessions included outdoor activities aimed at toddlers such as a digging pit, music wall, art/craft activities, story time in our new reading den, fine and gross motor skill development, age specific gardening activities and social opportunities for both toddlers and their carers. This project enabled us to continue to develop our relationships with parents and carers as well as strengthening the connections already made with another community initiative.

These sessions proved to be popular with families from the local area. We had a core group of families who attended regularly and other families who came occasionally. The toddlers had free choice of activities to take part in with particular favourites being: digging pit, pond dipping, music wall, chalk board drawing, gardening, social opportunities, playing with toys and games and art/craft activities. Each week they gathered at the end for a snack and singing.

7

Tinsley Community Allotment

Trustees ' annual report - continued For the year ended 31 December 2022

Links with the community

As part of the delivery of our activities, we aimed to make connections with local community initiatives and groups in order to develop opportunities for partnership working and to further promote our activities.

A particular focus was to further develop relationships with parents and carers of the young people attending.

8

Trustees ' annual report - continued For the year ended 31 December 2022

Tinsley Community Allotment

Tinsley Caring Hands and Heart

We also ran a weekly project for four weeks, aimed at local carers, in which they did gardening and arts activities and enjoyed socialising in the outdoor environment. During the sessions, they took part in craft activities: Creating painted stones, wind chimes, sun paper cards and a recipe book. These activities gave them a chance to relax in a supportive group of friends whilst challenging them with new skills and encouraging their creativity. Each week they also carried out gardening activities: potting up house plants to take home, planting seeds to grow microgreens, harvesting crops from the allotment to take home and sampling the microgreens that they had grown. These gardening activities gave them a chance to learn about potting up plants, sowing seeds, try new vegetables and take home fresh organic produce to cook at home. None of the group had heard of microgreens before and they learned about the health benefits of eating newly sprouted small vegetables.

The project overall was very successful. The users had time to chat and relax. This social interaction can benefit mental health and also decrease social isolation, which is a real issue amongst carers. The women had a chance to share some of their worries and concerns with each other and the allotment workers, as well as having a laugh together. Being outdoors in nature has also been proven to be beneficial to mental health as well as the gentle exercise of gardening improving general physical health.

Another important part of each session was the break for refreshments. The women were offered drinks and healthy snacks as well as homemade cakes (using fruit and vegetables from the allotment). Many of them had never tried vegetable cakes before and they were excited to take the recipes home at the end of the sessions in the recipe books they had made. These breaks encouraged conversation around healthy eating and a sharing of ideas for how to improve diet.

Evaluation

Tinsley Community Allotment has had its most successful year for visitors on the allotment to date, far exceeding our previous record. This is due to being open for two days a week, the lifting of all Covid restrictions and our raised profile in the local area. We have continued to offer locally produced organic crops to all visitors, build on our collaborations with other organisations and improve the allotment for everyone who visits.

We once again welcomed children from Tinsley Meadows Primary Academy to the site, offering the pupils with special educational needs a regular term time visit to learn about horticulture, take harvests back to school and do fun and engaging activities. The pupils that attended have built a strong sense of ownership to the allotment as this is now their second year of attending. Their regularity has proven beneficial in seeing the allotment through the seasons and following crop cycles from sowing to harvest.

The Friday afternoon sessions have continued to bring in new volunteers, as well as our regulars. Our regular volunteers have benefitted from gaining new skills, as well as having increased social interaction and growing their own crops on the allotment through the winter months. We have further developed our relationships with some of the local families with whom we are investigating the possibility of setting up a new carers’ allotment group.

9

Tinsley Community Allotment

Trustees ' annual report - continued For the year ended 31 December 2022

Evaluation (continued)

This year we have built on the collaborations we have with other local organisations. We worked alongside Darnall Well Being, Tinsley Forum and Tinsley Meadows Academy to offer Healthy Holiday activities during the school holidays to children of families in the local area in receipt of benefits. These proved to be popular and brought many new families on to the site. We also worked with Tinsley Caring Hands and Hearts offering a second series of gardening and art and craft activities. The women that attended these sessions benefitted from social interaction and improving their self-esteem through trying new (and sometimes challenging) activities. We have continued to develop our relationship with Manor and Castle Development Trust, working together on the toddler group. This brought some more new families to the site and encouraged us to further develop the space, making it even more family friendly.

We believe one of the most important benefits that our visitors (adults and children alike) have had this year is a chance to socialise. This has been particularly evident among the numbers of carers who attend the allotment. We aim to offer a friendly and welcoming environment for all to relax and build their selfesteem and confidence.

10

Tinsley Community Allotment

Trustees ' annual report - continued For the year ended 31 December 2022

Plans for the future

We plan to continue running toddler, school and open sessions from March to September in 2023. The plan is also to continue to develop our collaborations with other community groups and organisations in the area. We are hoping to change how we run our holiday sessions, introducing themed days in the summer holidays, with the aim of bringing more new people to the allotment.

Financially we will continue to pay our staff for two days a week from the start of March until the end of September (including paying for half a day admin time weekly) and then pay them for one day a week until the end of 2023. In 2024 we propose to employ the staff for 20 weeks at one day a week and 30 weeks at two days a week. All of these will be at the previously agreed pay scale.

British Land will continue to provide the funding for school sessions and toddler sessions for another two years, 2023 and 2024. As part of this agreement, we will continue to work with staff from Meadowhall, by offering volunteer work days to them. Eon Community Fund will also continue to provide funding for the open sessions for another two years, 2023 and 2024.

While the government-funded HAF Healthy Holidays activities are still offered, we hope to continue working with other organisations to offer engaging activities and healthy food to local children from families on low incomes. We once again plan to work with Tinsley Caring Hands and Hearts to run more sessions for carers. Our proposal for the Under 5’s funding is currently being considered. We will also continue to investigate any other funding streams that are relevant to the project. The plan is to continue with our online presence with regular social media posts.

Reserves policy

We have reviewed our Reserves Policy and, after assessing the risk profile of our income streams and fixed and variable costs, have introduced a new reserves policy target at a range between £740 and £5540 a year, if all funding streams are successful for 2023. This will enable the allotment to continue with current grant levels for approximately a range of between 42.6 and 2.6 years working on the current reserves in the bank.

The free reserves at 31 December 2022 were £31,546. Based on the current forecast for the number of days employed into 2023 and income levels remaining the same, our spend of £5,540 will use the reserves within 5.69 years. These figures have increased due to an inflationary uplift from British Land and a potential new funding stream.

11

Accountant’s report to the Trustees of Tinsley Community Allotment on the Preparation of the Unaudited Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2022

In order to assist you to fulfil your duties under the Charities Act 2011, we have prepared for your approval the accounts of the Tinsley Community Allotment for the year ended 31 December 2022 from the charity's accounting records and from information and explanations you have given us.

As a practising member firm of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), we are subject to its ethical and other professional requirements which are detailed at http://www.icaew.com/en/membership/regulations-standards-and-guidance.

This report is made solely to the Board of Trustees of the Tinsley Community Allotment, as a body, in accordance with the terms of our engagement letter dated 02/02/2023 . Our work has been undertaken solely to prepare for your approval the accounts of the Tinsley Community Allotment and state those matters that we have agreed to state to the Board of Trustees of the Tinsley Community Allotment, as a body. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Tinsley Community Allotment and its Board of Trustees as a body for our work or for this report.

It is your duty to ensure that the Tinsley Community Allotment has kept adequate accounting records and to prepare statutory accounts that give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and surplus of the Tinsley Community Allotment. You consider that the Tinsley Community Allotment is exempt from the statutory audit requirement for the year.

We have not been instructed to carry out an audit or a review of the accounts of the Tinsley Community Allotment. For this reason, we have not verified the accuracy or completeness of the accounting records or information and explanations you have given to us and we do not, therefore, express any opinion on the statutory accounts.

Signed: Seven Hills Accountants Limited

Seven Hills Accountants Limited 57 Burton Street Sheffield S6 2HH

Date: 30/06/2023

12

Tinsley Community Allotment

Receipts & payments account

For the period ended 31 December 2022

Notes
Receipts
Grants & donations
2
Charitable activities
3
Other income
Total receipts
Payments
Equipment
Resources
Seeds & plants
Insurance
Accountancy
Sessional Support wages
Admin
Other
Publicity
Total payments
Net receipts/ (payments) for the year
Transfers between funds
Net movement in funds after transfers
Total funds brought forward
Total funds carried forward
Unrestricted
fund
£
366
1,000
229
1,595
205
180
58
144
270
2,880
3,750
30
-
7,517
(5,922)
3,000
(2,922)
34,468
31,546
Restricted
fund
£
9,300
-
-
9,300
201
135
34
-
-
6,000
-
-
-
6,370
2,930
(3,000)
(70)
70
-
Total
2022
£
9,666
1,000
229
10,895
406
315
92
144
270
8,880
3,750
30
-
13,887
(2,992)
-
(2,992)
34,538
31,546
Total
2021
£
4,314
760
-
5,074
652
313
82
139
840
9,350
3,290
864
27
15,557
(10,483)
-
(10,483)
45,021
34,538

13

Tinsley Community Allotment

Statement of assets and liabilities

As at 31 December 2022

Cash assets
Balances at bank:
Current account
Total
Debtors
Grants due
Liabilities
Creditors
Accountancy and independent examination
2022
£
31,546
31,546
2022
£
224
224
2022
£
640
360
1,000
2021
£
34,538
34,538
2021
£
3,000
3,000
2021
£
252
270
522

These Financial Statements are accepted by the trustees on 06/06/2023

Signed on behalf of the Board of Trustees by:

Print name: Trustee

14

Tinsley Community Allotment

Notes to the accounts

For the period ended 31 December 2022

1 Receipts & payments account

Receipts and payments accounts are statements that summarise the movement of cash into and out of the organisation during the financial year. In this context "cash" includes cash equivalents, for example, bank accounts where cash can be readily withdrawn to pay for debts as they become due.

Unrestricted funds comprise of general funds and designated funds. General funds are expendable at the discretion of the trustees in the furtherance of the objectives of the charity.

Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the accounts

2 Grants & donations

Donations
Sheffield City Council Ward Pot
Darnall Well Being Small Grants
British Land Grant
Eon Community Fund
Cultivation Steet - Community Garden Award
3 Income from Charitable activities
Contracts and projects
Sheffield Healthy Holidays Programme
Activity session income
4 Restricted funds
Darnall Well Being Small Grants
Eon Community Fund Grant
British Land Grant
Opening
balance
1-Jan-22
£
70
-
-
70
Unrestricted
funds
£
366
-
-
-
-
-
366
Unrestricted
funds
£
310
690
1,000
Receipts
£
-
6,000
3,300
9,300
Restricted
funds
£
-
-
-
3,300
6,000
-
9,300
Restricted
funds
£
-
-
-
Payments
£
(70)
(3,000)
(3,300)
(6,370)
2022
Total
£
366
-
-
3,300
6,000
-
9,666
2022
Total
£
310
690
1,000
Transfers
£
-
(3,000)
-
(3,000)
2021
Total
£
-
375
439
1,500
2,000
4,314
2021
Total
£
370
390
760
Closing
balance
31-Dec-22
£
-
-
-
-

Darnall Well Being Small Grants

Funding to contribute towards the improvement of the family area of the allotment.

Eon Community Fund Grant

Funding for a programme of organic fruit and vegetable cultivation sessions for the benefit of the local community.

British Land Grant

Funding for two projects. The first project is running a programme of organic fruit and vegetable cultivation sessions for local school children. The second is running weekly sessions in term time offered to families of toddlers in the local area.

Prior year
Sheffield City Council Ward Pot
Darnall Well Being Small Grants
British Land Grant
Opening
balance
1-Jan-21
£
-
-
-
-
Receipts
£
375
439
1,500
2,314
Payments
£
(375)
(369)
(1,500)
(2,244)
Closing
balance
31-Dec-21
£
-
70
-
70

15

Tinsley Community Allotment

Notes to the accounts For the period ended 31 December 2022

5 Trustees' remuneration

Trustees received no expenses, remuneration or benefits in this period.

6 Transactions with related parties

No other transactions have taken place with related parties during the year, other than those included in note 5.

16