Charity registration number: 1184830
Wild About Clifford Annual report and financial statements for year ended 31[st] December 2021
Wild About Clifford
Contents
Reference and administrative details 3
Trustees report 4 Statement of financial activities
9
Wild About Clifford
Reference and administrative details
Trustees Dr Trevor Acreman Mrs Linda Pollock Mrs Heather Taylor Principal Office Maytrees 44 Clifford Chambers Warwickshire CV37 8HX Charity number 1184830
Bank Santander 21 Wood St Stratford-upon-Avon CV37 6JU
Wild About Clifford
Trustees report
The trustees present the annual report and financial statements for Wild About Clifford for the year ending 31[st] December 2021.
Trustees
Dr Trevor Acreman
Mrs Linda Pollock
Mrs Heather Taylor
Introduction
Wild About Clifford (WAC) became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (Association model) on 8[th] August 2019. Having started as a community group in April 2017, members voted to become a charity at the AGM in early 2019. The primary reasons for this were to be able to legally own land and to open up a potential for larger grant income. 2020 was planned to be the first full year of activities, education and fund raising but Covid 19 intervened and its impact continued into 2021. As of the end of December 2021, c75 members and their families had signed up to the purposes of WAC.
Objectives
The trustees shall first defray out of the income of the Charity all of the proper costs, charges and expenses of administration and management of the Charity.
The trustees shall apply the income of the Charity to promote for the benefit of the public the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment by promoting biological diversity primarily in the village of Clifford Chambers and in exceptional cases also in the broader Parish of Clifford Chambers and Milcote and the local authority area of Stratford Upon Avon District Council.
The trustees shall also apply the income of the Charity to advance the education of the public in the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment primarily in the village of Clifford Chambers and in exceptional cases also in the broader Parish of Clifford Chambers and Milcote and the local authority area of Stratford Upon Avon District Council.
Wild About Clifford
Trustees report
Activities
The 5 year plan, completed in January 2020, outlined on-going conservation and education efforts along with two major long term projects – establishment of a community orchard and a village wildlife pond. In total, a target of c£57,000 was set to fund these activities. This plan continued to set the agenda for 2021.
During 2021 discussions continued with respect to buying or leasing land as did fundraising to pay for it – a continuing chicken and egg situation.
The annual AGM was held on March 28[th] via Zoom with 10 members present and a trustee meeting was held on 10[th] December.
Activities, events and fundraising were hit even more in 2021 than 2020 by the Covid 19 pandemic (with a full year of restrictions rather than 9 months). The 5 year plan has definitely been set back by at least 12 months but nonetheless we had a number of achievements to celebrate.
1) Conservation
The main conservation activity continued to be supporting our hedgehog population. With the population thriving we had 6 autumn juveniles handed over for care. Of these two died within days, two were found places at local hog rescue centres (of which one also died) and two were successfully fostered and released. Another hog was taken in from a rescue centre and fostered back to health for release in Spring 2022. As a thank you for their support a donations were made to the Warwickshire Hedgehog Rescue and Hedgehog Friendly Town.
In February we got approval to install swift boxes in the church belfry and hope to do this for the 2022 season.
Approximately 10 bird boxes and two bee boxes were made and sold for installation in the village/parish.
Amongst many new species recorded over the year, notable ones included otter (see below), hare and a brown long-eared bat. Anecdotally, it was a good year for grass snakes but less good for butterflies. A moth trap was operated for the first time throughout a calendar year with 62 nights trapping detecting many new species including a humming bird hawk moth, privet hawk moth, pine hawk moth, box tree moth, canary shouldered thorn, flame carpet, lilac beauty, lychnis, oak beauty, poplar kitten, red underwing, scalloped oak, straw underwing, swallowtail, toadflax pug and a tree lichen beauty.
The village allotments continue to be an important wildlife haven and WAC requested the Parish Council to consider to apply to make them an Asset of Community Value. If the Parish Council decide against this WAC will look into doing this.
Wild About Clifford
Trustees report
1) Conservation (cont)
WAC objected on wildlife and conservation grounds to a planning application which would have affected a valuable green space in the village. This application was rejected with loss of biodiversity cited as one of the concerns.
Not a WAC initiative, but at the edge of the village, a local landowner has re-instated a large pond ‘The Splash’, adjacent to the Stour. Already this has attracted many ducks, geese and swans and it will hopefully become a valuable wildlife resource.
2) Education
The conservation efforts themselves each had an element of education but in addition several specific educational events were planned.
The main event of the year was a ‘bat detecting and small mammal day’ held in September, with Nick Martin as the expert speaker and guide. Over a 24 hour period, a total of 20 mammals were seen on camera or captured in Longworth traps. The highlight was undoubtably picking up an otter on the infrared night time camera near the River Stour. This was the first time an otter has been confirmed in the village after many rumours and sighting of otter spraint.
A ‘dawn’ walk in June, especially to appreciate local birdlife took place but attracted only four members – not surprising given the continuous heavy rain!
The charities night time cameras and bat detectors were continually out on loan to villagers as they were keen to learn what was out and about in their gardens. The charities moth trap has been made available to members, to broaden members knowledge and to allow an audit of village moths. 210 macro and 34 micro moth species have now been identified in the village, an increase of over 60 species since 2020. Hopefully a moth trapping event will be possible in 2022/3.
The first newsletter of the year coincided with the RSPB birdwatch event at the end of January and from April through to November, a weekly email newsletter was compiled and distributed to members to highlight seasonal wildlife in the village and surrounding area as well as provide informative text. During National Moth week in July, a daily moth focussed email newsletter was issued focussing on moths seen in the village. The newsletter was well received, particularly with the Covid 19 restrictions and extra focus on nature for many people.
Wild About Clifford
Trustees report
2) Education (cont)
The local catchment school is setting up a Climate Council and we await to hear more to see if we can be of help with this initiative.
Public Benefit
The trustees confirm that they have complied with the requirements of section 4 of the Charities Act 2006 to have due regard to the public benefit guidance published by the Charity Commission for England and Wales.
Funding
Over 90% of the Charities funding is expected to come from grants – with the remainder from proceeds from events and also donations.
Following a successful 2020 (5 grants worth £17,400 awarded) 2021 was disappointing. With our purposes applicable to fewer grant giving bodies and also monies seemingly being focussed more on Covid relief and charities in distress we won just one grant of £1,000 from seven applications totalling c£15,000 in 2021. We are very grateful to the Thomas Jackson Foundation for their support.
A further small sum of £144.37 was received from thegivingmachine.co.uk activity and sales.
As such, we have not progressed beyond the one third of the funds needed for the 5 year plan. We plan to return to greater fundraising activity in 2022.
Wild About Clifford
Trustees report
Financial Review
It is the policy of the Charity to maintain free reserves of at least 12 months of operating expenditure (costs of generating funds, administration and governance costs). This was set at £2000 for 2021. A further c£17,000 is reserved towards the target for our 5 year plan leaving a further c£37,000 to be raised.
Other Activities
Recruitment of Trustees
The constitution states the body of trustees shall consist of a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 8 competent, elected trustees. Four trustees were appointed at the formation of the Charity with one resigning on 11th February 2020. Further trustees will be sought in future. Trustees are appointed by members or trustees until their retirement or removal – they do not serve a fixed term.
Major Risks and Management of Risk
The principal risk is failure to attract sufficient grant funding to fulfil our purposes. As we have no salary costs, nor other significant non-project related costs, there is great flexibility in the level of project work each year and the trustees do not consider there to be any significant risks associated with the operation of the charity.
Thanks
Thanks must be extended to our trustees, members and other volunteers for their efforts and involvement over the year.
The annual report was approved by the trustees of the charity on 26th January 2022 and signed on its behalf by
…………………………………………
Dr T M Acreman
Trustee
Wild About Clifford
Statement of Financial Activities for Year Ended 31 December 2021
Income for the year was £1,161.40 with expenditure of £723.98. The charity had a balance of £21,974.40 on 31 December 2021. Details of our bank current account, bank deposit account and petty cash transactions and balances are given in full below.
tknls tD tFon¥ard Wootstain and teor £u Rort s. £4 sh to petty(3Sh sale of £is(b) sale OfS e ¥Mtynbthine £772 £41 £Xk41 £rx Wi&esbuild tT544 £65887 01.21 le af )Es E32 £32 £87 7.&21 )uth Essexinsufdr £1> £47>79 Nickmarbn )u) 2>79 11.10.21 le of )Es 2&LO.21 hed h tood É36S 3114 hed h food £7.4) £22174 3611.21 hedhfDod Vitrpxmulti FrSe pITrt e Tool tT 261121 t6YJ É&tyJ 27.Ll.25 .11.21 aiff0 Charr0antse5 £[1 £LIg1 WaW(tsh1 Fdh09 PE5C HedhogRestUE Mathir* £ll 2.1221 £LI)X 17.U.21
OL £3>01 £L16>01 I37 237 £217. eroutyt Foal From bar*aaDUrt £)97 222.21 £279.97 2&621 sale of hutth £( £E497 IIL2L ned erou•fForward Interest £3k524.37 24 1.21 EO.17 £M524.54 25.02.21 Inte5t £0.17 £LQ524.7I £524? 25.03.21 Inte5t £0.16 25.N.21 Inte5t £0.17 2405.21 Inte5t EO.17 £3121 25ffi.2l Inte5[ £0.17 250721 Inte5[ £0.17 Inre5[ £0.17 £3k53T Inreresr £017 £3k5J 251021 Inreresr £017 Inreresr £017 £Ix23 2&12.2L InLerest £0.17
The financial statements above were approved by the trustees and authorised for issue on 26[th] January 2022 and signed on their behalf by
………………………………………
Dr T M Acreman Trustee