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2023-12-31-accounts

Registered Charity Number: 1181333

Tinsley Community Allotment

ANNUAL REPORT AND UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

For the year ended 31 December 2023

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 2023

Trustees Name Timothy Shortland Rodney Heslop Sheila Sutherland Michael Steadman Mary Sewell

Position Chair Treasurer Secretary

Other key personnel

Jacqui Dace Jess Banham

Community Allotment Worker Community Allotment Worker

Charity number 1181333 Company number CEO16034

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 2023

The trustees submit their annual report and the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2023.

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.

In shaping our objectives for the year and planning our activities, the trustees have considered the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit. This report illustrates the activities undertaken to support the public benefit requirement.

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.

2

Tinsley Community Allotment

Trustees' annual report

For the year ended 31 December 2023

The activities we do to meet our objectives (continued)

Visitors 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.

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 crafts, 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 one more year.

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 members 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 2023

Achievements and performance Numbers:

We have had 288 different visitors this year, 144 of these being adults and 144 children.

This year we have continued to bring in a large number of volunteers and visitors to the allotment on the two days that we are open in the week. We attribute this in a large part to having continued to develop the relationships and collaborations that we have built with local people and other organisations in the area over recent years. 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. These sessions continued to be popular with families from the local area. We had a new core group of families who attended regularly and other families who came occasionally. Overall, we had 22 toddlers and 21 adult carers on the site this year.

The sessions for pupils from Tinsley Meadows Primary were taken up in the early part of the year by the same class of 10 children with special educational needs and disabilities that attended last year. In the autumn term a new group of 10 Year 4 children attended the sessions. We also hosted two half day sessions for the whole of FS2 as we have done in previous years, bringing 68 children and 21 adults to the site.

This year we held four holiday family events, which were well attended and we also gained funding for monthly winter sessions in order to maintain the relationships we have built up with our regular volunteers.

Our 2 long term committed volunteers, who have been involved with the allotment for many years, continued to come throughout the year to water and tend plants when no one else was on site. Their help was invaluable in the summer months. Our other regular volunteers include a local family who attend most weeks to water their planters and bring friends to tour the allotment and collect harvests. They have also joined in with our holiday sessions and the carers’ group that we run, bringing friends and neighbours with them. We have had other regular volunteers who, as well as wanting to develop their horticultural skills, attend for a variety of reasons, including practicing English, getting out of the house to meet people and finding volunteering opportunities as a new resident in the area. 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 2023

Ages, Gender, Ethnicity

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

Ages

Under 11 132 46% 11 – 18 12 4% 19 – 50 105 36% Over 50s 39 14% Total 288

Gender

Overall, the gender of visitors has been 60% female and 40% 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 groups from Tinsley Meadows Primary School. These groups had a range of children from Slovakian, Asian, Eastern European, White or Multiple Ethnicity groups.

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

Summary of ethnicity

Summary of ethnicity
White: 25%
Asian/Asian British: 54%
Black/African/Caribbean/Black British: 6%
Other ethnic group: 15%

5

Tinsley Community Allotment

Trustees ' annual report - continued For the year ended 31 December 2023

Activities:

Online presence

This year we continued to update our social media followers with regular posts on Twitter and Facebook, reaching 1545 in our most popular Facebook post. There was generally less emphasis on this activity although we find it a useful way of updating our funders and visitors. We continued to use ‘Messenger’ and ‘WhatsApp’ 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, squash and pumpkin Legumes – Climbing French beans, broad beans, peas and field beans Onions and Roots – Onions, spring onions, garlic, leeks, beetroot, carrots Salad crops – tomatoes, chillies, sweet peppers, cucumbers, lettuces, rocket, cress, radishes, spinach, chard

Brassicas – Kohl rabi, kale, purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflower

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, ajuga, cosmos, calendula, nicotiana, marigolds, wild flowers, flax, salvias, nigella, African Daisies

The fruit growing in the orchard area includes apples, pears and plums. In the main allotment we have blueberries, lingonberries, jostaberries, 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 2023

School activities

The sessions up until the summer this year were taken up by the same class of children with special educational needs and disabilities that attended last year and who benefitted from attending weekly with a high adult to child ratio. With this group, we introduced a new allotment diary with drawings and photographs that the children had taken. They enjoyed revisiting this on a regular basis and discussing some of the activities that they had previously done. This book was given to school near the end of the year. In the autumn term a new group of Year 4 children attended the sessions. These new pupils joined in with all the planned activities with great enthusiasm and it was a joy to welcome them on the allotment. The first time they came through the gates, there were exclamations of awe and excitement! Activities with the children this year included: sowing and planting, compost preparation including making ‘rot pots’, weeding, watering, harvesting, bird watching in our own home-made bird hide, making a weekly diary, taking photographs, playing allotment-themed games, arts and crafts, raking leaves, seed saving and weighing vegetables.

In addition to the regular sessions with school, we also hosted two sessions for the whole of FS2 as we have done in previous years. They visited with staff and parent/carer volunteers and carried out bug hunts, and made and decorated willow hoops to take home. One of the children who joined us for these sessions came with members of the visual impairment team and this was her first trip off school premises. She enjoyed her sensory experience of exploring the natural world.

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 continue to be popular with families from the local area. As we offer sessions to pre-school children, the core group had significant changes from last year’s cohort as they had launched into their school careers! We had a new core group of families who attended regularly and other families who came occasionally. The carers enjoyed a chance to meet with other adults and the toddlers benefitted from opportunities for social interaction – which was greatly beneficial to this group due to Covid restrictions in their early lives having had a large impact on their social skills. One toddler’s mum was concerned that her daughter was not speaking. Over the course of the sessions, we watched as she began to talk and marveled at the joy she expressed in her new-found communication abilities. Parents and carers were regularly offered seasonal harvested produce to take home. The toddlers were given a 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.

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Tinsley Community Allotment

Trustees ' annual report - continued For the year ended 31 December 2023

Tinsley Caring Hands and Heart

Once again, we ran four weekly sessions for this local carers’ group. We had new members attending and the sessions were successful. The women took part in craft activities, decorating flags to hang near the entrance, learning macrame, making a banner for their group and making cards. We were encouraged to see their confidence in their own creativity growing weekly. They also carried out gardening activities including sowing salad to take home, potting up plants for the macrame hangers they had made and planting onions and garlic. Each week the women harvested crops to take home. The social interaction was particularly important for this group as their caring roles can lead to social isolation. They had a chance to share some of their worries and concerns in a safe and supportive environment as well as enjoying a bit of laughter together.

Summer Family Events

This new set of themed events for families was run in the summer holidays. All three days were well attended and enjoyed by all. Themes offered were: ‘Sow a salad’ where people could take home the seeds they had sown; ‘Treasure hunt’ with a variety of hunting to do and prizes to win; ‘Allotment Soup’ where we offered homemade vegetable soup and bread as well as the normal refreshments on offer. Each week people could take home harvested produce and crafts that they had made as well as join in with digging, music wall, games and time out in the reading den.

Autumn and Winter sessions

We were funded to open to the public on a monthly basis over autumn and winter. Our first session in October was an Apple Day where we made juice from apples donated by Abundance Sheffield as well as offering craft activities, games, treasure hunts, den building and refreshments. This event was well attended and some of the children didn’t want to leave!

We then held a monthly session for our regular volunteers where we offered activities such as tool maintenance, fruit pruning, seed sowing and general site tidying.

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.

8

Tinsley Community Allotment

Trustees ' annual report - continued For the year ended 31 December 2023

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

9

Tinsley Community Allotment

Trustees ' annual report - continued For the year ended 31 December 2023

Evaluation

Tinsley Community Allotment has had another successful year for visitors on the allotment to date. 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 early in the year built a strong sense of ownership to the allotment and we hope to develop a similar engagement with our new group.

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 a chance to keep in touch over the winter months.

We held four successful open day events at the allotment this year in the school holidays, bringing many new families to the site. We hope that they will continue to visit when we run more sessions next year.

This year we have built on the collaborations we have with other local organisations. We worked with Tinsley Caring Hands and Heart offering a third series of gardening and art and craft activities. The women that attended these sessions benefitted from social interaction and improving their confidence through trying new activities. We have continued to develop our relationship with Manor and Castle Development Trust, working together on the toddler group. This has brought more new families to the site and encouraged us to continue developing 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.

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Tin51ey Community Allotment Trustee5 ' annual report- continued For the year ended 31 December 2023 Plans for the future We plan to continue running toddler, school and open sessions from March to September in 2024. The plan is also to continue to develop our collaborations with other community groups and organisations in the area. We will continue to offer holiday sessions, with themed days in the summer, Easter and Ortober school holidays. Financially we will continue to pay our staff for two days a week from the start of March until the end of September lincluding paying *or half a day admin time weekly) and then pay them for one day a week until the end of 2024. In 2024 we propose to employ the staff for 20 weeks at one day a week and 30 weeks at two day5 a week. All of these will be at the new pay scale agreed by the trustees in Autumn 2023. British Land will continue to provide the funding for school sessions and toddler sessions for another year. A5 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 se55ions for another year. We also have under 5's funding to offer two holiday sessions and have recently been offered a Hubbub grant to develop the publicly accessible orchard next to the allotment site. As part of the latter, we will also be funded to run three summer events. We plan to work again with Tinsley Caring Hands and Heart Idepending on funding) to run more sessions for carers. 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. ReseThe5 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 £3460 and £5320 a year, if all funding streams are successful for 2024. This will enable the allotment to continue with current grant levels for approximately a range of between 7.5 and 4.3 years working on the current reserves in the bank. At the end of the atcounting year, we still had £272 restricted fund to spend on the Autumn sessions Wlth funding from South Yorkshire Community Fund. this projert was completed in February 2024. The free reserves at 31 December 2023 were £25,715 Based on the current forecast for the number of days employed into 2024 and income levels remaining the same, our spend of £5,320 will Use the reserves within 4.9 years. These figures have increased slightly from last year due to the continuing inflationary uplift from British Land and some new funding from Hubbub. Approved by the trustees on and signed on their behalf by: Print name- Position.. li

Accountant’s report to the Trustees of Tinsley Community Allotment on the Preparation of the Unaudited Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2023

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 2023 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 57 Burton Street Sheffield S6 2HH

Date: 05/08/2024

12

Tinsley Community Allotment

Receipts & payments account

For the period ended 31 December 2023

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
£
-
690
121
811
12
183
14
166
307
2,020
3,940
-
-
6,642
(5,831)
-
(5,831)
31,546
25,715
Restricted
fund
£
9,469
-
-
9,469
763
351
65
-
53
7,860
-
80
25
9,197
272
-
272
-
272
Total
2023
£
9,469
690
121
10,280
775
534
79
166
360
9,880
3,940
80
25
15,839
(5,559)
-
(5,559)
31,546
25,987
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

13

Tinsley Community Allotment Statement of assets and liabilities As at 31 December 2023 2023 2022 Cash assets Balances at bank: Current account 25,987 31,546 Total 25,987 31,546 2023 2022 Debtor5 Grants due 224 224 2023 2022 Lfabilltles Creditors Accountancy 640 360 360 360 1,000 These Financial Statements are accepted by the trustees on 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 2023

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
South Yorkshire Community Fund
British Land Grant
Eon Community Fund
Tinsley Forum Under 5's
Income from Charitable activities
Contracts and projects
Sheffield Healthy Holidays Programme
Activity session income
Restricted funds
Sheffield City Council Ward Pot
South Yorkshire Community Fund
Eon Community Fund Grant
British Land Grant
Tinsley Forum Under 5's
Opening
balance
1-Jan-22
£
-
-
-
-
-
-
Unrestricted
funds
£
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Unrestricted
funds
£
-
690
690
Receipts
£
719
973
3,000
3,653
1,124
9,469
Restricted
funds
£
-
719
973
3,653
3,000
1,124
9,469
Restricted
funds
£
-
-
-
Payments
£
(719)
(701)
(3,000)
(3,653)
(1,124)
(9,197)
2023
Total
£
-
719
973
3,653
3,000
1,124
9,469
2023
Total
£
-
690
690
Transfers
£
-
-
-
-
-
-
2022
Total
£
366
-
-
3,300
6,000
-
9,666
2022
Total
£
310
690
1,000
Closing
balance
31-Dec-23
£
-
272
-
-
-
272

3 Income from Charitable activities

4 Restricted funds

Sheffield City Council Ward Pot

Two separate ward pot grants were received. The first was to contribute towards the puchase of materials to securethe site following vandelism and the second was to purchase play equipment and a fruit press.

South Yorkshire Community Fund

Funding to run sessions over autumn and winter in order to provide continuity for regular visitors.

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.

Tinsley Forum Under 5's

Funding to run three summer holiday 'Family Days'.

15

Tinsley Community Allotment

Notes to the accounts

For the period ended 31 December 2023

4 Restricted funds (continued)

Prior year
Darnall Well Being Small Grants
Eon Community Fund Grant
British Land Grant
Opening
balance
1-Jan-22
£
70
-
-
70
Receipts
£
-
6,000
1,500
7,500
Payments
£
(70)
(3,000)
(1,500)
(4,570)
Transfers
£
(3,000)
-
(3,000)
Closing
balance
31-Dec-22
£
-
-
-
-

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.

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