Bury Water Meadows Group CIO Charity Number: 1185321
Trustees' Annual Report & Financial Statements for the Period 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023
Bury Water Meadows Group CIO
Trustees’ Annual Report
for the Period from 01-01-2023 to 31-12-2023
Section A: Reference & Administration Details
| Charity Name | Bury Water Meadows Group CIO |
|---|---|
| RegisteredNumber | 1185321 |
| Principal Address | 27 Victoria Street, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 3BB |
Names of the charity trustees who manage the Charity
| Name | Office | Date Appointed (if during year) |
Resigned (if during year) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elizabeth Ranzetta | Chair | ||
| Ian Campbell | Treasurer | ||
| Julian Case | Secretary | ||
| Jillian Macready | Secretary | ||
| Iain Carruthers-Jones | |||
| Richard Counihan | |||
| Christopher Cross | |||
| Gillian Evans | 20/11/2023 | ||
| Susan Feuerhelm | 20/11/2023 |
Elizabeth Ranzetta is also a trustee of Bury St Edmunds Rickshaw with charity registration number 1189132.
Names of trustees holding title to property belonging to the charity
NONE
Funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others
NONE
Section B: Structure, Governance & Management
Description of the charity's trusts
| Type of Governing | Association model constitution with voting members other | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Document | than its charity trustees | ||
| How the Charity is | Charitable Incorporated Organisation | ||
| Constituted | |||
| Trustee Selection Methods | There must be at least three trustees under the Constitution. | ||
| including details of any | We aim to maintain a minimum of six members on the CIO | ||
| constitutional provisions | management committee and periodically ask the members via | ||
| newsletter if anyone is interested in adding their expertise. | |||
| The member would then attend and participate in the | |||
| management committee for a three-month trial period and | |||
| subject to this being successful they are invited to become a | |||
| trustee. No body external to the charity has any entitlement to | |||
| appoint trustees. | |||
| Additional information (optional) | |||
| Policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees |
In accordance with the Constitution a copy including any amendments made to it along with a copy of the latest trustees’ annual report and statement of accounts will be made available to each new trustee. Having already served on the management |
||
| committee the new trustee will be familiar with all discussions | |||
| regarding the running of the CIO. | |||
| Other Governance | The CIO management committee normally meets once per | ||
| month and the secretary maintains minutes of each meeting’s | |||
| actions and decisions. | |||
| Policies & procedure in respect of the following areas are in | |||
| place: | |||
| ➢internal charity financial controls | |||
| ➢safeguarding | |||
| ➢financial reserves | |||
| ➢complaints | |||
| ➢serious incident reporting | |||
| ➢internal risk management | |||
| ➢trustee expenses | |||
| ➢trustee conflicts of interest | |||
| ➢equality & diversity | |||
| ➢volunteer management |
Section C: Objectives & Activities
The purposes of the charity as set out in its governing document are
To conserve, preserve and improve the rivers Lark and Linnet in Bury St Edmunds and adjacent areas for the benefit of the public in particular but not exclusively by:
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Improving access and encouraging the appropriate use of the rivers and their environs by members of the public
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Educating the public about the rivers and their environs
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Facilitating community involvement in the conservation of the rivers Lark and Linnet, Bury St Edmunds’ water meadows and critical other local green spaces
-
Improving the biodiversity of the Lark and the Linnet
-
Working in partnership with like-minded organisations
Summary of the main activities in relation to these purposes for the public benefit by Bury Water Meadows Group CIO (BWMG):
➢ Access to the rivers and their environs:
Chalk streams are one of England’s most important natural habitats and are globally rare. The Lark and the Linnet are chalk streams which flow through the town’s floodplains and green spaces but are suffering from a lack of water and from poor water quality. The water that is in the rivers does not derive from the aquifer as it should but is often run-off and polluted both upstream and downstream of the town essentially due to over-abstraction for public water supply along with pollution from agriculture, roads, and water treatment works.
With there being limited scope to impact on the rivers themselves BWMG’s main focus here remains to maintain and improve the existing accessible green spaces adjoining the rivers through activities including pro-active plant & vegetation management, ditch clearance, footpath maintenance, redundant fence removal, invasive species removal, and litter picking.
➢ River path access:
Public footpaths run alongside the river Linnet from Westley Bottom through Holywater Meadows to the Green King site with further footpaths through the water meadows along both sides of Cullum Road. There are also footpaths alongside the river Lark from Rougham Road past the Abbey Gardens and through Ram Meadow to Compiegne Way. There is then no access before the 13-mile Lark path which starts from Mildenhall Road in the town and continues downstream to Mildenhall. BWMG has continued to lobby West Suffolk Council (WSC) to complete the necessary consultations and actions so that a new river path from the A14 at Fornham Road to Barton Hill can be opened which would open up green space through extensive wood and meadow areas alongside British Sugar’s land. However, the process remains bogged down with no timetable to progress.
➢ Education and communication:
Our website contains features on work taking place in the various water meadow habitat locations, members newsletters, and the monthly column written for the local press. Our active Facebook page educates and informs readers on the regular activities of the group.
➢ BioBlitz:
In conjunction with West Suffolk Hive CIC we ran the second BWMG BioBlitz event over the weekend of Friday 19[th] & Saturday 20th May under the Abbey Alive! banner. From a tented hub-zone in the Abbey Gardens this was a free, fun and informative event for the public who were invited to come and explore past life and wildlife with a series of interactive walks, talks, trails and entertainment with local environmental and historical organisations, experts and enthusiasts. Three schools took part on the Friday and on the Saturday we welcomed the general public.
The BioBlitz event has become the focus of BWMG's efforts to increase community involvement in our work on habitat conservation and the maintenance of biodiversity in the water meadow locations in the town. By engaging the public and the town’s schools in biodiversity we have now developed and begun an associated schools’ education programme.
➢ Habitat conservation management and maintenance:
The main activity of the charity is to facilitate community involvement in conservation in Bury St Edmunds’ water meadow locations through our volunteer work parties. Written management plans that have been agreed with WSC are in place for the Crankles, No Mans Meadows and Ram Meadow. These provide the framework under which BWMG develops its programme of maintenance and management for these green public areas through the year.
• The Crankles and No Mans Meadows
The five core management objectives for this area are:
-
➢ to enhance its nature conservation value;
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➢ to improve its ecological function as an adjunct to the rivers Lark and Linnet;
-
➢ to optimise its hydrological conditions for aquatic, wetland and riparian habitat;
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➢ to respect and conserve historical heritage value by protecting any archaeological remains; and
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➢ to optimise the function of the site as a recreational facility which contributes to the wellbeing of the local population.
The Crankles site is bounded by the two rivers and divided by a designated cycle path. BWMG maintains the meadow areas suppressing nettles by scything. The objective for the south section is habitat management with a transition from rough ground and nettle dominance to a wildflower meadow with a variety of trees for pollinators. In the north section the objective is now habitat maintenance through scything pathways through the nettles.
The larger No Mans Meadows site is also bounded by the two rivers to the east and west, by the Crankles to the north and by the rugby club fields to the south. It comprises four open livestock grazing meadows dating from medieval times crossed by drainage ditches. We have continued with a programme of clearing fallen deadwood and debris from the ditches and with selective suppression control of some willow, poplar and nettles.
There were two major new activities in 2023 in No Mans Meadow. The first, in partnership with Suffolk Wildlife Trust (SWT), was the creation of a new permanent backwater connected to the river Lark for water vole habitat. The second was the creation of an enhanced wetland habitat connected to the existing ditch network in Linnet Meadow. These projects which involved the use of a contractor represented a significant step-change for BWMG.
• The Great Churchyard
A new activity for 2023 was the start of a collaboration with the new landscape team at WSC to trial scything & raking an area in the Great Churchyard. The objective was to substitute the somewhat indiscriminate mowing/strimming regime with a more sympathetic scything cut to help maintain the flora and fauna being surveyed there.
• Abbey Gardens bankside west & River Lark path bankside east
BWMG is also active in maintaining the wildflower area between the path and the riverbank in the Abbey Gardens. Along the river Lark path we also scythe to suppress nettles and we cut down hemlock.
• Ram Meadow
The objectives for Ram Meadow are to enhance nature conservation, in particular perpetuating “a biodiverse mosaic of habitats including a sensitive chalk stream (the river Lark) and other wetland habitats and their inhabiting wildlife, along with the restoration of a series of formerly neglected flood meadows and associated ditch network to optimise their value for threatened and protected species”.
Bounded to the east and north by the river Lark and Compiegne Way, and to the south by the football ground this site is part of the river Lark’s floodplain consisting of low-lying meadow with
a network of drainage ditches but the ditch neglect and the choking of the scrape through willow and bur-reed have combined to threaten the site’s habitats.
We continued with the fourth year of a multi-year rotation management plan to selectively increase the scrape’s open water, by scything and raking nettles to promote public access along the river paths and ditches, and by selective tree cutting to limit the spread of white poplar.
➢ Invasive species:
Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) has become one of the UK’s most invasive weed species, colonising riverbanks. It successfully competes with native plant species for space, light, nutrients and pollinators, and excludes other plant species, thereby reducing native biodiversity. As an annual plant Himalayan balsam dies back in the winter and, where it grows in river systems, it can leave riverbanks bare of vegetation and liable to erosion.
BWMG’s volunteers led by trained in-channel leaders continued with our annual summer activity of surveying and pulling these plants from the riverbanks in partnership with River Lark Catchment Partnership (RLCP) volunteers who work downstream.
Muntjac grazing can have a serious impact in woodlands where the deer can browse all ground vegetation, destroying cover and food for small mammals and birds and preventing tree regeneration which affects plant diversity and all wildlife. With WSC’s support BWMG worked with a local expert to establish trial muntjac exclusion zones to measure their effectiveness over a multi-year period.
➢ Biodiversity surveying:
With a core group of 12 team members, BWMG’s survey activity has been able to build on the expansion begun in the 2[nd] half of 2022. The surveys continue throughout the year, yielding useful data about the change in species through the seasons. The original geographic coverage of Ram Meadow, North and South Crankles and No Mans Meadow has been extended to include Ram Meadow East, the Abbey Gardens, the Great Churchyard, Saxon Gate Nature reserve, the Butts and Harp Meadow. In addition, the expertise and enthusiasm of the volunteer group has increased the original focus on birds, butterflies, moths, mammals and plants to also now include insects, invertebrates and fungi.
➢ Partnerships:
At policy level the charity’s role is primarily to work in partnership with other organisations who are set-up and structured to tackle river and environmental policy. BWMG is a founding member of the Chalk Aquifer Alliance that formed in 2019 to unite independent chalk stream groups to raise awareness of and to campaign on the plight of chalk streams. BWMG is an associate member of the RLCP, a group of organisations and individuals that have come together to promote a cohesive approach to the environmental challenges facing the Lark.
We work with WSC to help manage and maintain council owned and leased green spaces and with other conservation groups and local organisations both to contribute to and also to add our perspective on what they are planning. We have formal links with the Bury Society, the Friends of the Abbey Gardens, Bury in Bloom, and are a member of the Abbey of St Edmund Heritage Partnership.
We worked with West Suffolk Hive CIC to put on the 2023 BioBlitz event and have built strong links with Suffolk Wildlife Trust (SWT), both on the water vole habitat project and in working with their planning officer. We also partner with Bury St Edmunds Rugby club who allowed us to install our equipment storage container on their site and in return we maintain the ditches and the river Lark that border their lower playing fields.
➢ Planning Policy:
We look to review planning applications that we consider will impact on the rivers Lark and Linnet and adjacent areas from an environmental perspective. Currently this sees us working closely with SWT’s planning officer in relation to the ongoing matter of satisfaction of the River Lark corridor planning condition affecting the Abbots Vale site, and the proposed residential development of the St James School site which overlooks both the River Lark and the landscape setting of the Abbey Ruins Scheduled Monument.
We will also be reviewing and submitting comments upon the policies contained within the draft Local Plan issued by West Suffolk Council, insofar as these bear on the charitable purposes of BWMG during the course of the forthcoming third round of consultation upon this document.
Statutory declaration on public benefit
The trustees declare that they have complied with their duty to have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission in exercising their powers or duties.
Section D: Achievements & Performance
➢ Membership:
The charity saw a small reduction in its membership through the period at 230 members at the renewal date of 1st November compared with the previous year’s 245. We attracted 27 new members in the year. New members are often attracted through personal contacts with existing members, through seeing volunteers in action, and through our press & online presence.
➢ Education and Communication:
We believe that there is an on-going need to seek to engage more residents in the appreciation and recognition of nature and the environment. The main focus of BWMG's efforts to increase community involvement was the successful hosting of the second Bio-blitz event, covered below. The group contributed a new monthly feature to the local press and continues to publicise its informative newsletter on our website. The programming of online webinars that was developed through the Covid-restricted years of 2020 & 2021 has now been scaled back.
➢ BioBlitz:
Following on from its successful launch in 2022 the second BWMG BioBlitz event took place over the weekend of Friday 19th & Saturday 20th May in the Abbey Gardens in conjunction with West Suffolk Hive CIC under the Abbey Alive! banner. Friday was schools’ day when students from three schools - Guildhall Feoffment, Westgate and Priory – took part in a programme of an accompanied species discovery & identification walk and an associated participatory art activity. Saturday was the public day when visitors had the opportunity to join guided expert nature walks, attend a range of talks from local experts, and visit the tented hubzone staffed by enthusiastic volunteers and supporters from a variety of environmental organisations. There were also heritage actors, arts & crafts and facepainting activities. The whole event was free, fun and informative. Our overall objective was to continue to raise the status of the Lark & Linnet for the town, and specifically to showcase, explore and raise awareness of the diversity of life in the adjacent water meadows with a focus on engaging young people in schools. 13 BWMG volunteers contributed 151 hours over the weekend (plus unrecorded planning time).
In the autumn, one of our members organised a follow-up programme where school students made a field trip to the Lark as part of their National Curriculum studies – the idea being that the BioBlitz is not just a once-a-year event.
➢ Habitat conservation management and maintenance:
BWMG volunteers continued to support our activities in the conservation, maintenance and the management of the rivers Lark and Linnet and their surrounding water meadows in Bury St Edmunds. Volunteer work parties typically lasting 2-4 hours take place throughout the year with activities including ditch clearance, meadow scything, vegetation & invasive species removal, planting & sowing and path maintenance. 40 work parties were run in the year with 68 members plus 6 non-members taking part clocking up 1292 hours.
We have seen first-hand that volunteering brings benefits to the individual, to the local community, to wider society, and to the environment. It is good for the mind and body, providing a sense of purpose and helping people stay physically healthy. The social contact aspect of helping and working with others benefits overall psychological well-being and provides a solid support system with people keeping in regular contact with others.
• The Crankles
In the Crankles to the south of the cycle path we continued with our third year of work to encourage a more herb-rich and florally diverse sward through a scything programme and we are very pleased to see that this is working. Between March and September trained volunteers using traditional Austrian scythes implemented a schedule of regular cutting to suppress nettles and other rank vegetation. This involved regular cuts to both the margins and to the meadow itself, the removal of plants such as thistles and comfrey along with the sowing of yellow rattle and a wildflower seed mix. An equivalent number of volunteers are needed to rake clear the arisings otherwise the soil becomes too nutrient-rich. In the northern Crankles area a more
limited nettle scything and hemlock removal plan was conducted to help maintain the site and keep open access pathways.
• New Water Vole Habitat and Wetland Habitat in No Mans Meadows
In partnership with SWT, involving months of work to specify and obtain the necessary approvals, BWMG implemented two important new projects during the year. The first was to create a backwater habitat connected to the river Lark. This is an area of still water connected to the main river to act as a refuge for fish and river invertebrates providing habitat for other river wildlife, such as the endangered water vole, the target species for this habitat enhancement project. The backwater was created by employing a contractor to dig out an existing ditch between the Crankles and No Mans Meadows which will now hold river water all year round. A scrape pond feature was also created at the end of the ditch. The work was accompanied by some sensitive tree clearance to reduce leaf litter and to allow sunlight to reach the backwater, encouraging wetland plants to grow thus providing food and shelter for water voles.
The second project was the re-digging of a grip system in Linnet Meadow. This area is bounded by two ditches to the north and to the south, both of which act as overflow channels to the Lark and Linnet rivers which bound to the east and west. The meadow is a flood-meadow, being naturally covered in shallow water by seasonal river flooding. However, there is evidence from the field patterns that this land was historically a water-meadow which was managed grassland subject to controlled irrigation. This irrigation did not aim to flood the ground, but to keep it continuously damp (a working water-meadow has no standing water). Irrigation in early spring kept frosts off the ground and so allowed grass to grow several weeks earlier than otherwise, and in dry summer weather irrigation kept the grass growing. It also allowed the ground to absorb any plant nutrients or silt carried by the river water which fertilised the grassland, and incidentally also reduced eutrophication of the river water by nutrient pollution. The grass could have been used both for making hay and for grazing by livestock.
Our project involved the contractor deepening the existing shallow grip channels and the Linnet ditch in order to hold water longer in the meadow, thus creating an enhanced wetland habitat.
• No Mans Meadows
In No Mans Meadows activity was limited to the winter months to respect the bird breeding season. Work parties were run to clear a section of riverbank at the junction where the river Linnet doglegs in No Mans Meadows from what may have been its original course (now Linnet ditch) to create more light. We also dug out returning invasive poplar suckers from another meadow and spread woodchip along the public pathways.
Following the creation of the permanent backwater work parties were organised to prepare the ground for wetland wildflower meadow planting, to build a dead hedge around the scrape pond feature, to lay footpath chippings and to clear a flightpath to the existing owl box.
• Abbey Gardens bankside west & River Lark path bankside east
Along the Lark path our main volunteer activity was in cutting down hemlock to reduce the dominance of this plant along with a scything & raking programme to suppress nettles. Along the Abbey Gardens bank volunteers cleared excess vegetation and planted plug plants.
• Ram Meadow
We continued in the autumn with the 4th year of the agreed multi-year habitat management programme for the scrape. Trained chainsaw volunteers with support volunteers coppiced a further segment of willow growth which both blocked light from the scrape and hid the habitat from the public’s view along the adjacent footbath. Volunteers supervised by in-water trained leaders then went into the scrape and pulled branched bur-reed by hand from the centre out to the margins. These heavy reeds were floated to the water’s edge and left in habitat piles to decompose on the side. Though not connected to the rivers the scrape is never dry and we’ve noticed that reeds can re-grow in the year following being pulled, and that new different vegetation has now established itself on the cleared fringe of the scrape. However, we have not yet seen evidence of new fauna being attracted to the open water habitat created.
Other volunteer work in the year included scythe cutting & raking of nettles between the path and the football ground, and spring maintenance work parties to create more light and access to a large area bounded by the West, South and F1 ditches.
➢ Purchases & Equipment
The major expenditure in the year was £5,109 for the cost of the permanent backwater and meadow wetland habitat projects which was mostly funded through the brought-forward grant balance and the SWT contribution leaving £1,107 to come from unrestricted funds, whilst the £1,334 cost for the BioBlitz was fully grant funded.
The group spent £763 on work party tools on a variety of pitchforks, rakes, shovels, saws and a post rammer. The majority were for additional tools to meet the increased scope of the work party activities and to recognise health and safety requirements.
➢ Training
Two new BWMG Trustees completed roles and duties of trustees training through the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) in the year. Four volunteer members each successfully renewed their RLSS Water Safety training renewal and several members attended the Understanding your communities river seminar.
➢ Invasive Species:
BWMG volunteers have for several years undertaken a programme to control Himalayan Balsam on the rivers Lark & Linnet. There are 7km of accessible sections of the rivers in the town and on summer evenings we worked downstream along the riverbanks, usually at water level, pulling up plants individually by their roots before the seed is set. This action effectively kills the plants but the scale of the task and the nature of the habitat with steep riverbanks and nettles makes this very labour-intensive work. The good news is that the process is working. Where we have previously pulled HB plants they return significantly less abundant in the following year and because of this we were able in 2023 to complete the full stretch of the Lark in the town from Rougham bridge to Fornham bridge from where our partners in RLCP start their efforts. Altogether volunteers clocked up 71 hours over 6 sessions on this project.
Muntjac deer are now common in the town. They are notorious browsers, eating the shoots from shrubs, as well as woodland herbs and brambles. This clearing of woodland understory has been linked to declines in species such as nightingales. Whilst the local councils consider how to deal with this problem species, BWMG has established 5 trial muntjac exclusion zones under the guidance of an expert across the areas in which we operate. These exclosure cages will stop the deer consuming the vegetation inside compared with a control zone outside.
➢ Biodiversity:
The group’s dedicated team of volunteers, half of whom are different to the work party volunteers, take part in the monthly biodiversity survey across our town’s green spaces. This has allowed a further increase in data recording from an average of around 50 hours of observation per month at the end of 2022 to between 70-100 hours per month (depending on the time of year) in 2023.
The results have identified up to 178 varieties of flowering plant and grasses in a single month. Other monthly maximums include 43 species of bird, 57 types of insect and spider, 17 moths and butterflies, and 32 different fungi, lichens and mosses.
New bird boxes were installed: 1 for owls, 1 for kestrels, and 6 open fronted for small birds such as nuthatch and robins, and 2 others are awaiting installation for wagtails. 12 swift nest cabinets were installed on St Mary’s church.
➢ Partnerships:
We are a member of the Abbey of St Edmund Heritage Partnership’s Core Group, which works to care for, conserve and enhance the Abbey Precinct (including the Crankles & No Mans Meadows). The Heritage Partnership aims to help people to experience the international significance of St Edmund and the historic Abbey whilst BWMG speaks up for the rivers and the associated water meadows. We are working with the Partnership to help raise the status of the Lark and Linnet within the Abbey Precinct.
We worked with SWT in the year both on the backwater habitat project, and with their planning officer in relation to the ongoing Abbots Vale planning application and the new St James School planning application.
➢ River flow and water quality policy:
Anglian Water Services’ (AWS) current Water Resources Management Plan includes a commitment to invest in river restoration on chalk streams. Where AWS public water supply abstraction is contributing to the rivers failing the Water Framework Directive (WFD) flow targets a programme of habitat improvement work has been agreed with the Environment Agency whereby river restoration will be used to mitigate this impact. Under this AWS has awarded a contract to Jacksons for work on the Lark at Tuddenham and Cavenham, the Linnet, KennettLee Brook, and the Lee Brook. In January 2023 BWMG Trustees were invited to meet AWS, Jacksons and WSC along the river Linnet where we were shown outline plans involving gravel channel creation, benching (terracing the bank), tree/scrub clearance and re-planting. Our takeaway from this consultation exercise is that the proposed work will not achieve much real benefit with an ongoing continuing severe seasonality of water flow in the Linnet.
Under the river Lark Flagship chalk stream recovery project AWS has entered into partnering agreements with Norfolk Rivers Trust (NRT) for the project design and with RLCP as the community partner. In July 2023 BWMG Trustees met with NRT and RLCP along the river Lark to contribute to this. At the time of publication of this report we have not had any further feedback.
Section E: Financial Review
Review of the financial position at the end of the period
The charity held a total of £9,069 in funds at the end of the period, all as unrestricted funds.
For the previous year the corresponding sums were a total of £13,989 comprising restricted £7,195 and unrestricted £6,794.
Principle sources of funds
The charity’s total income in the period was £5,289, compared with £14,147 last year.
The charity received a contribution of £1,500 from the Suffolk Wildlife Trust to support the creation of a water vole habitat and a contribution of £1,225 from West Suffolk Hive CIC for the costs of the 2023 BioBlitz event.
The balance of income of £2,564 was primarily received from membership dues and donations.
Statement of the charity's policy on reserves
The charity’s aim is to broadly match its annual income with its expenditure but will keep financial reserves on the following basis:
The charity’s operational spend is mostly discretionary with a low level of fixed overhead (eg insurance). This spend is more than covered by the annual membership income and donations which can be reliably expected to be in the range of £2,500.
However, we also have the intention to maintain our commitment to annual public events with the centrepiece being the Bioblitz. These event costs have so far been covered by grant funding but there is no guarantee that this will continue to be the case.
We should also be aware of the risk of having to meet the cost of an unexpected need (eg) the replacement of storage container or high value equipment, or to be able to spend money ahead of funding being received as has been the case with the water vole habitat project.
The total reserve to cover these requirements will be held equivalent to the annual membership and donations income of £2,500.
The actual level of reserves at £9,069 is higher than the reserves policy. The trustees are confident that this excess will be spent on activities in line with the group’s charitable purposes.
Details of any funds materially in deficit
The Trustees declare that the charity had no funds which were materially in deficit at the date of the statement of assets & liabilities.
Particulars of any outstanding guarantee given by the charity
The trustees declare that the charity has given no guarantee where potential liability is outstanding at the date of the statement of assets & liabilities.
Particulars of any outstanding debt
The trustees declare that the charity has no outstanding debts which are secured by an express charge on any of the assets of the charity at the date of the statement of assets & liabilities.
Declaration
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
| Signature | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Ian Campbell |
| Position | Trustee & Treasurer |
| Date | 19thFebruary2024 |
| Bury Water Meadows Group CIO 1185321 Receipts andpayments accounts For the period from 01-Jan-23 To 31-Dec-23 |
Bury Water Meadows Group CIO 1185321 Receipts andpayments accounts For the period from 01-Jan-23 To 31-Dec-23 |
Bury Water Meadows Group CIO 1185321 Receipts andpayments accounts For the period from 01-Jan-23 To 31-Dec-23 |
Bury Water Meadows Group CIO 1185321 Receipts andpayments accounts For the period from 01-Jan-23 To 31-Dec-23 |
CC16a |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| For the period from |
01-Jan-23 | To | 31-Dec-23 |
| Section A Receipts and payments | Section A Receipts and payments | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Receipts | Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 2,540 24 1,225 3,789 - 3,789 488 140 71 68 60 1,107 171 319 6 241 301 42 3,014 - - 3,014 775 1,500 6,794 9,069 |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ 1,500 1,500 - 1,500 275 230 28 160 114 1,334 4,002 397 380 250 25 7,195 - - 7,195 (5,695) (1,500) 7,195 - |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - 0 - - |
Total funds to the nearest £ 2,540 24 - - - 1,225 1,500 - 5,289 |
Last year to the nearest £ |
|
| Membership& Donations | 2,540 | 3,317 | ||||
| Booklet Sales | 24 | 25 | ||||
| Zoom/Web Hosting | 50 | |||||
| Grant BurySt Edmunds Town Council | 9,255 | |||||
| Abbey1000 Millennium Celebrations | 1,500 | |||||
| West Suffolk Hive CIC | 1,225 | - | ||||
| Suffolk Wildlife Trust Water Vole Project | - | |||||
| - | ||||||
| Sub total | 3,789 | 14,147 | ||||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
||||||
| - | ||||||
| Sub total | - | - | - | |||
| Total Receipts | 3,789 | 14,147 | ||||
| A3 Payments | ||||||
| Work PartyTools & PPE | 488 | 922 | ||||
| Scythes | 29 | |||||
| Chainsaw & PPE | 73 | |||||
| Wildflower Planting | 140 | 1,224 | ||||
| Contractor Expenses | 450 | |||||
| Work PartyExpenses | 71 | 51 | ||||
| SurveyExpenses | 68 | - | ||||
| Training | 60 | 410 | ||||
| BioBlitz Expenses | 1,554 | |||||
| Water Vole Project | 1,107 | - | ||||
| Bird Boxes | 171 | 80 | ||||
| Deer Exclosures | - | |||||
| Printing/Stationery | - | |||||
| Insurance | 319 | 346 | ||||
| Legal & Professional | 6 | - | ||||
| Signage | - | |||||
| Publicity | 138 | |||||
| Zoom/Webinar Expenses | 241 | 194 | ||||
| Retirement Gift | 94 | |||||
| MembershipEvent Expenses | 301 | 191 | ||||
| Equipment Storage | 42 | 289 | ||||
| Other | 9 | |||||
| - | ||||||
| Sub total | 3,014 | 6,054 | ||||
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
||||||
| - | - | |||||
| Sub total | - | - | - | |||
| Total payments | 3,014 | 6,054 | ||||
| Net of receipts/(payments) | 775 | (5,695) | 0 | (4,920) | 8,093 | |
| A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end |
1,500 | (1,500) | 0 | 0 | ||
| 6,794 | 7,195 | - | 13,989 |
5,896 | ||
| Cash funds this year end | 9,069 | - | - | 9,069 |
13,989 |
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B5 Liabilities B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B3 Investment assets B2 Other monetary assets B1 Cash funds |
Signature Details Details Land for Footpath Entrance Work Party Tooling & Equipment Personal Protective Equipment Publicity Display Material Storage Container for Equipment Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Details Details Current Account |
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ 9,069 - - - 9,069 - OK OK Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) Unrestricted - Unrestricted - Unrestricted - Unrestricted - Unrestricted - - - - - Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) - - - - - Print Name IAN CAMPBELL |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| OK | |||
| Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| When due (optional) |
|||
| Date of approval |
|||
| IAN CAMPBELL | 19/02/2024 | ||