Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust CIO Reference and administration information ## **Charity number** Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust CIO: 1185309 **Also known as** FODST ## **Registered office and operational address** c/o Forestry England Bank House, Bank Street Coleford, Gloucestershire GL16 8BA ## **Trustees** Trustees who served during the year and up to the date of this report were as follows: Sarah Bowden (Chair) Grace Storey (Deputy Chair) Leo Goatley (Treasurer) Andrew Stonyer Jonathan Wood Mike Penny (Appointed 21/06/2024) Barnaby Page (Appointed 09/09/2025) Clare Burnett (Retired 16/10/2024) Khady Gueye (Retired 01/02/2025) ## **Nominated representatives** The following are nominated to the board to represent Forestry England: Judith Lack Emily Fergusson Hazel Stone (National Curator for Contemporary Art) ## **Personnel** Freelance Project Manager: Eira Szadurski ## **Bankers** Lloyds Bank plc FOREST OF DEAN SCULPTURE TRUST CIO Report for the year ended 31 March 2025 The trustees present their report and the unaudited financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025. Reference and administrative information set out on page 1 forms part of this report. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements, the memorandum and articles of association and the Statement of Recommended Practice - Accounting and Reporting by Charities: SORP applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with FRS 102. ## **Objectives and activities** The trustees confirm that they have referred to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the Trust’s aims and objectives and in planning future activities. In particular, the trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives of the Charity that have been set. The object of the Charity is to advance public appreciation of and education in the arts, in particular the art of sculpture. The way the Charity performs this function is defined by a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Charity and Forestry England, signed in June 2021. This MOU replaced the previous Concordat and defines the areas when the Charity will work with Forestry England to make a contribution to the Sculpture Trail. These are: - Provision of new and replacement artworks - Decommissioning of artworks - Providing information of relevance to managing the trail - Publicity and promotion - Fundraising The trustees review the aims, objectives and activities of the charity each year. This report looks at what the Charity has achieved and the outcomes of its work in the reporting period. The trustees report the success of each key activity and the benefits the charity has brought to those groups of people that it is set up to help. The review also helps the trustees ensure the Charity’s aims, objectives and activities remained focused on its stated purposes. ## **Achievements and performance** The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust’s main activities and who it tries to help are described below. All its charitable activities focus on maintaining and developing the Sculpture Trail for the benefit of the public and are undertaken to further its charitable purposes for the public benefit. The fundraising environment remains challenging for FODST due to spending constraints placed on Forestry England that mean they are unable to commit funds towards future programming. At a strategic meeting, three options for the charity were proposed – Option 2 was agreed by trustees to take forward at a subsequent board meeting. FE have arranged to provide income to meet charity overheads from the sale of the trail leaflet. ## **Option 1: ACTIVITY** FODST CIO and FE plan and work towards fundraising and installing artwork on the Cannop Lookout site over a longer term, as per the charity’s objectives. ## **Option 2: OVERSIGHT** FODST CIO ceases generating new initiatives. Charity board meetings oversee the accounts and trail reports, until such a time that policies change, fundraising prospects improve, new partnerships emerge, or the charity is closed. FOREST OF DEAN SCULPTURE TRUST CIO Report for the year ended 31 March 2025 ## **Option 3: CLOSURE** Active projects are completed. FODST CIO is wound up as a charity. Remaining funds could be spent on digitising the archive at the University of Gloucestershire. In terms of programming activity, funding was secured in 2023 from the Summerfield Charitable Trust towards Forest Conversations, a film project to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first conversations held between artists, the Arnolfini curators and the Forestry Commission at Beechenhurst. This funding was added to by contributions from Forestry England. An open call for proposals from artists was announced and Sam Williams was selected from over 70 applications by Sarah Bowden, Eira Szadurski and Grace Storey. Sam Williams completed his film in November 2024 and it was launched at Beechenhurst in December 2024. It has since been screened at Cinderford Picturehouse as part of the Forest Fringe events in March 2025. It will be screened by Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol over a weekend in June 2025 and a talk will take place between Sam Williams, Sarah Bowden, and Rupert Martin, one of the original curators of the trail. ## **Beneficiaries of our services** The main beneficiaries of the charity’s activities are members of the public who visit the sculpture trail. ## **Financial Review** During the year, total income from charitable activities was £2723 of this £2723 related to unrestricted and £0 related to restricted activities. The CIO spent £5719 during the year with £1719 spent on unrestricted activities and £4000 on restricted activities. At 31 March 2025, unrestricted free reserves were £4924 and restricted reserves were £0. ## **Reserves policy** The aim of the reserves policy is to ensure that the charity’s ongoing and future activities are reasonably protected from unexpected fluctuations in its income and expenditure. The reserves policy is set at a minimum level of unrestricted general funds, also known as free reserves, of £5,000. At its current level of activity, £5,000 will cover more than one year of the Charity’s liabilities and expenses if it needed to be wound up. The policy is reviewed annually. Although slightly below the target of £5,000 at year end, free reserves are set to build with the steady income received from FE from the sale of leaflets. The Charity aims to continue building reserves through fundraising activities including sales of merchandise and potentially installing donation points at Beechenhurst cafe. ## **Structure, governance and management** The charity was originally named The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust and was established as a Charitable Trust (CT) by a trust deed on 20 May 1996, registered charity number 1059078. Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust CIO was established by a Constitution on 4 September 2019, amended 29 November 2021, and is a registered charity, number 1185309. On 14 February 2022 a resolution was passed by the CT trustees to dissolve The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust Charitable Trust according to Clause 16 of the Deeds and to enable the transfer of assets to Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust CIO. The CT was closed on 12 April 2022 and the transfer of assets was accepted by the CIO on 9 June 2022. Sarah Bowden remained as Chair of the Board of Trustees throughout this period. Grace Storey continued as Deputy Chair and Leo Goatley as Treasurer. The Chair, Deputy Chair and Treasurer meet regularly to review finances and report to Board meetings. Mike Penny was appointed as a board member in June 2024. Clare Burnett retired as a board member in October 2024 and Khady Gueye was retired as a board member in February 2025 as her trustee term had come to an end and she had not made contact with FODST for some time. FOREST OF DEAN SCULPTURE TRUST CIO Report for the year ended 31 March 2025 ## **Recruitment and Appointment of Management Board** The CIO Constitution provides for a minimum of three trustees with no maximum. New trustees may be recruited and appointed by existing trustees. Forestry England may nominate representatives to attend and contribute to Board meetings. ## **Induction of new trustees** The Chair of trustees is responsible for the induction of new trustees. New trustees are given an introduction to the work of the CIO and provided with information they need to fulfil their role. This includes information about the role and responsibility of trustees, Charity law and the Charity Commission document ‘The Essential Trustee: What you need to do'. ## **Organisational Structure** The Board of Trustees manage the CIO. General Board meetings are usually held every two to three months. The administration of the CIO is carried out by the Chair and Deputy Chair. All trustees give of their time freely and no remuneration other than legitimate expenses was paid by the CIO in the year. ## **Risk Management** The Board has considered the major risks to which the CIO is exposed, with measures taken to mitigate those risks. All procedures are reviewed annually to ensure that they still meet the needs of the organisation. ## **Project Management** Freelance Project Managers and Producers manage the artistic programme and report to the Chair and Board of Trustees. Eira Szadurski was employed as Project Manager on a freelance basis to deliver the film project with Sam Williams. ## **Acknowledgments** Trustees are hugely grateful for Eira Szadurski’s excellent project management. Trustees also appreciate the ongoing commitment of Judith Lack, Emily Ferguson and colleagues at Forestry England to the care and maintenance of the Sculpture Trail. ## **Statement of responsibilities of the trustees** The trustees are responsible for preparing the trustees’ annual report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). Charity law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charity for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to: - Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently - Observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP - Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent - State whether applicable UK Accounting Standards and statements of recommended practice have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements FOREST OF DEAN SCULPTURE TRUST CIO Report for the year ended 31 March 2025 - Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011. The trustees’ annual report has been approved by the trustees on 21/10/2025 and signed on their behalf by Sarah Bowden, Chair of the Board of Trustees |**Charity Name**||**No (if any)**||| |---|---|---|---|---| |**Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust CIO**||**1185309**||| |**Receipts andpayments accounts**||||**CC16a**| |Period start date
**For the period**
**from**
01/04/2024|**To**|Period end date
31/03/2025||| |**Section A Receipts and payments**|**Section A Receipts and payments**|**Section A Receipts and payments**|||||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**||**Restricted funds**
**to the nearest £**||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**||**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**||**Last year**
**to the nearest £**| |
ForestryEngland donation|**2,539**||**-**||**-**||**2,539**||**2,089**| |Other donations|**96**||**-**||**-**||**96**||**129**| |Refunds|**88**||**-**||**-**||**88**||**-**| |Sales|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**202**| |Summerfield Trust|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**3,000**| ||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**| |**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_|**2,723**||**-**||**-**||**2,723**||**5,420**| ||||||||||| |**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|||||||||| ||**-**||||||||| ||**-**||||||||**-**| |**_Sub total_**|**-**||||||||**-**| |**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**|||||||||| ||||||||||**5,420**| ||||||||||| |
Project Managers|**-**||**1,000**||**-**||**1,000**||**2,000**| |Artwork|**311**||**3,000**||**-**||**3,311**||**26,624**| |Marketing|**159**||**-**||**-**||**159**||**1,099**| |Accountancy|**720**||**-**||**-**||**720**||**1,018**| |Board expenses|**394**||**-**||**-**||**394**||**826**| |Other expenses|**135**||**-**||**-**||**135**||**173**| |Professional fees|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**175**| |Merchandise|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**143**| ||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**| |**_Sub total_ **|**1,719**||**4,000**||**-**||**5,719**||**32,058**| ||||||||||| |**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|||||||||| ||**-**||||||||| ||**-**||||||||| |**_Sub total_ **|**-**||||||||**-**| |**_Total payments_**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**|||||||||| ||||||||||**32,058**| ||||||||||| ||**1,004**||||||||**- 26,638**| ||**-**||||||||**-**| ||**3,920**||||||||**34,558**| ||**4,924**||||||||**7,920**| ## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period** |CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**|1
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))
Bank cuurent account|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**4,924**
**-**
**-**
**4,924**
OK|19/10/2025
**Restricted funds**
**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
OK
OK|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**| |---|---|---|---|---| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| CCXX R1 accounts (SS) |Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**|**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
Signature|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which asset**
**belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which asset**
**belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
Sarah Bowden|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**| |---|---|---|---| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**When due**
**(optional)**| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||Date of approval| |||Sarah Bowden|19/10/2025| ||||| CCXX R2 accounts (SS) 19/10/2025 2