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2024-05-31-accounts

GREENING TETBURY MANAGEMENT REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MAY 2024

The management presents its Trustees’ report and financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2024.

Reference and Administrative Information

Charity name: Greening Tetbury Charity registration number: 1189693 Registered Office and operational address: 9 Downs Mill, Frampton Mansell, Stroud, Gloucestershire. GL6 8JX

Trustees

Fergus Dignan Chair Rosemary Bailey Secretary Benjamin Jackson Anne Cox Dan Fletcher Treasurer

Bankers

Triodos Bank, Deanery Rd, Bristol BS1 5AS Nationwide Building Society, Nationwide House, Pipers Way, Swindon SN38 1NW

Our Aims and Objectives

Purposes and Aims

Our charity’s purposes, as set out in the objects contained in the constitution, are:

Raising awareness through a website, workshops and other media;

Making grants for environmental projects that protect and improve the environment.

This is to be achieved by focusing on six areas: communication, energy, food, plastic, transport and wildlife.

What the outcomes of the charity’s work are:

In the town of Tetbury and surrounding villages, the main outcomes are: a reduction in the greenhouse gas footprint; a more sustainable use of resources; enhancement of the natural environment.

Where these outcomes happen:

These outcomes happen in the town of Tetbury, Gloucestershire, and surrounding villages.

How the outcomes of the charity’s work are achieved:

a) Communication

Providing information, raising awareness, and promoting such subjects as sustainable development, recycling and renewable energy sources. The information will be communicated, in particular but not exclusively, through the following outlets: the Greening Tetbury website, the Tetbury Advertiser (a monthly periodical), and social media. Also visits to local schools; liaising with local authorities, in particular Tetbury Town Council and Cotswold District Council, both of whom have declared a climate emergency; liaising with local businesses and other interested parties involved in the challenge of climate change.

b) Energy

Encouraging the use of renewable energy and reducing energy consumption in general by: raising awareness, providing information, as stated under a).

Providing information on locally produced organic food as stated under a); educational workshops; liaising with local farmers, improving access to local, highquality food including setting up community-supported agriculture and developing the community orchard. As well as the orchard, other trees will be planted for wildlife and as carbon offsets.

Providing information as stated under a); liaising with local businesses and encouraging them to stop the sale and use of single-use plastic products. The goal is to achieve single-use, plastic-free status in the town of Tetbury.

Providing information as stated under a); encouraging car sharing, public transport, and cycling.

Who benefits from these outcomes:

The general public of Tetbury and surrounding villages benefit from these outcomes, but also people in the wider world, as a result of a reduction in the carbon footprint.

Achievements and Performance

The charity has taken the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance into account when making any decision that it is relevant to.

Communication

In 2020 the charity’s website was set up. www.greeningtetbury.org

It provides a wide source of information to the public, including:

Greening Tetbury has its own Facebook page and also an Instagram account. A code of conduct has been drawn up for both of these sites and are monitored for any breaches. The charity’s aim using these social media sites is to facilitate the communication between the charity and the public. A particular objective of the Instagram site is to encourage people to upload photographs of the local flora and fauna.

The charity also has a monthly slot in the Tetbury Advertiser, a local magazine full of news and information relevant to the town and surrounding area. We were kindly given permission to contribute by the magazine’s owners, Tetbury Lions Club.

Greening Tetbury has strong links with Tetbury Town Council (TTC). One of our members is on the town council as well as being Chair of Cotswold District Council. Furthermore, the town council’s Climate Action Working Group has three of our members represented, two of whom are trustees of the charity.

In June 2023 we held our annual ‘ Paint the Town Green ’ month. It began on Saturday 3[rd] June with the Greening Tetbury flag flying from the Town Council building. On that day we had a stall in the town centre and encouraged people to sign a climate pledge. On the 10[th] June the charity had a presence with a stall at the annual St. Mary’s Eco-Church ‘ Count for Nature Day’. This annual event is not organised by Greening Tetbury but the main organiser happens to be a Greening Tetbury trustee.

On the 11[th] June Greening Tetbury held an event at the Goods Shed Arts Centre. It started with a video of a local nursery playgroup singing an eco song. This was followed by a presentation of book vouchers to five children from two local primary schools as a reward for submissions to a story competition, the title being ‘Eco Flash Fiction’. The winning entries were all read out to the audience.

This was followed by an Eco puppet show, which was about Earth Protector Towns and Ecocide, and was entitled ‘Treemendous’.

On the 14[th] June, again at the Goods Shed, a presentation was given by Professor Dave Waltham, a lecturer in Geophysics at the Royal Holloway, University of London. The title was ‘Climate Change Solutions-why we need them, what they are and how can we pay for them?’ The evening was well attended, and judging by all the questions at the end, very well received. Prior to the lecture, two further prizes were awarded in the story competition, this time to students from local senior schools and these winning entries were again read out to the audience.

On the 17[th] June, two sessions of two hours each exploring the art and craft of repair were held at the Prince’s Foundation, Highgrove. It focused on the repair of clothing and furniture.

The ‘Paint the Town Green’ month was rounded off by our presence on the Greening Tetbury stall in the market place on Saturday 24[th] June.

We also had a presence at the Royal Agricultural College on the 7[th] March 2024. The theme was sustainable food production. It was attended by various local food-related organisations. The evening began with an inspirational presentation by Roz Savage (who has since been elected in 2024 Lib Dem MP for the South Cotswolds constituency) about her experiences of being the first woman to row across three oceans. This was followed by breakout groups. Afterwards there was a panel discussion.

Zero Hour UK is a non-political organisation that is promoting the Climate and Nature Bill as it makes its way through the various stages in Parliament. In April 2024 Greening Tetbury pledged to support the bill and publicised the bill on its website and social media sites and encouraged people on our mailing list to contact the prospective parliamentary candidates for South Cotswolds, requesting their support for the bill.

During the year there were a couple of local building development projects where the charity provided an input.

The first was a planning application for twenty-seven dwellings and a Primary Care medical centre on the Worwell Farm site. We appreciated that the loss of a very popular green space situated on the north-eastern edge of the town needed to be balanced against the urgent need for a new doctors’ surgery. The current surgery, the only one in the town, had been under threat of closure for several years, and without a new one, patients would have been required to travel to Cirencester, a journey of more than ten miles.

Consequently, we neither supported nor objected to the planning application, but instead wrote a detailed submission, outlining our environmental and ecological concerns and ways to help to mitigate them.

We did receive a few emails from local residents who were unhappy that we did not raise a formal objection to the development. The planning application has since been approved, although at the time of writing work is yet to start on the site.

The second development that the charity became involved with was following construction of two hundred and fifty houses on farmland situated at the northern edge of Tetbury. Although housing development had finished, the building company concerned had failed to complete its environmental and ecological obligations.

Greening Tetbury was approached by one of the residents of the new development. During a site visit, a record was made of all of the omissions, and after consultation amongst the charity’s trustees, a strongly worded letter was written to the building company. Omissions included the failure to plant numerous trees, a section of hedging, large areas of turf, and seeding of the various meadow areas.

Coincidence or not, many of the problems highlighted in the correspondence were subsequently finally addressed.

Energy

Thermal imaging camera: the charity has links with another environmental organisation called Sustainable Sherston, who own a thermal imaging camera. The camera is rented out

to people who wish to assess their home insulation requirements. It is advertised on our website.

Food

Two years ago, Greening Tetbury helped to set up a community fridge in the town. Its use continues.

Greening Tetbury are currently negotiating with interested parties with the setting up of a communal garden, the land for which has recently become available in the town. It has the potential for both growing food and wildflowers.

Plastics

No new developments.

Transport

In March 2023, due to the high volume of traffic, especially HGVs, through Tetbury town centre, a request was made to Cotswold District Council by the charity to monitor pollution levels. Monitoring of nitrogen dioxide began at the start of 2024, with results expected in 2025.

Wildlife

Tetbury Library

The collaboration between Sophie Tallis, Greening Champion for Tetbury library, and Greening Tetbury continues. Six further visits were undertaken in the last year. More hedging has been planted and further wildflower seed sowing as well as grass cutting and management of the raised beds where herbs have been sown.

Wildflower sites

There are seven active sites (including the library) around the town where the charity has been sowing wildflower seeds. During the year, Tetbury Town Council donated £250 to Greening Tetbury for furthering its work in the creation of wildflower areas.

Once again Greening Tetbury had a presence at the Count for Nature Day at St. Mary’s Church, Tetbury, held on the 10[th] June 2023. One of our members carried out an audit on bumblebees in the church grounds. One of our trustees, Rosemary Bailey, under the auspices of Eco-Churches, organises this event each year.

Greening Tetbury organised a dawn chorus activity on the 5[th] May 2024, which was also International Dawn Chorus Day. Eight people assembled in the Goods Shed car park at 0445 hours, and the bird song identification was led by one of the trustees.

Wildlife corridors

The charity has plans to encourage local farmers and landowners to create wildlife corridors across their land. With this in mind it has been agreed to focus initially on a 3km radius from the centre of Tetbury.

We have sought help and advice from several sources, including the National Trust Stroud Landscape Officer, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, and a local farmer cluster group.

Future Plans

The main focus of the charity over the next year will be to develop our plans to encourage farmers and other landowners to create wildlife corridors. If we can get interested parties, and farmer clusters are a likely avenue, then we may be able to help landowners to enhance their land for nature by raising money through grants to pay for the capital costs of the projects.

Meanwhile we will continue to manage the wildflower areas that we have already created in the town, and we hope to be able to contribute to the development of a community garden project, which is in its early planning stages.

We also plan to increase the number of trustees.

Financial Review

The total income for the year was £1,438 (2023: £336) with a net income of £687 (2023: deficit of £683). This has improved our balance sheet with net current assets of £2,216 (2023: £1,529).

Investment Policy

There are insufficient funds available at present to consider long term investment.

Reserves Policy

The charity has a Reserves Policy.

Structure, Governance and Management

Structure

The Management Committee consists of five Trustees. There are six Action Groups: Communication, Energy, Food, Plastics, Transport and Wildlife. People are not necessarily tied to one group.

The Trustees meet up whenever there are particular issues to resolve. There is usually a General Meeting every two months, most of the attendees being members. There is a business plan.

There is a Google Working Document which enables any member to access and update current projects/events that they are involved with.

Governing Document

Greening Tetbury is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, registered by the Charity Commission on the 28[th] May 2020. The governing document is a Constitution of a Charitable Incorporated Organisation with voting members.

Recruitment and Appointment of Management Committee

There are currently five trustees. They all give their time voluntarily and receive no benefits from the charity.

The constitution allows for a minimum of three and a maximum of eight Trustees.

Risk Management

The trustees are aware of their responsibility in regards to risk management of the charity. At present, we do not have a Risk Management Register, bearing in mind the relatively small size of the charity. Nevertheless, where the charity is responsible for organising an event, we do conduct risk assessments eg dawn chorus event, and document them.

On behalf of the trustees, I wish to thank all those who have taken time out in the last year to volunteer for the charity.

Fergus Dignan (Chairperson) 17.07.2024

GREENING TETBURY (Charitable incorporated organisation) REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER 1189693

REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

31 MAY 2024

Greening Tetbury Financial Statements 2024

Greening Tetbury (registered charity number: 1189693)

The trustees present the financial statements for Greening Tetbury (‘the Charity’) for the year ended 31 May 2024.

The Report and Accounts are compliant with the Charities SORP (FRS 102).

The principal activity of the charity in the year under review was the advancement of environmental protection and improvement for the town of Tetbury and surrounding villages.

There was a surplus for the year of £687. (2023: deficit of £683)

The Trustees are satisfied that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future and, accordingly, it is appropriate to continue to use the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements.

The Trustees who served during the year were:

Fergus Dignan Benjamin Jackson Rosemary Bailey Anne Cox Dan Fletcher

By order of the Board:

Treasurer signed electronically 24.07.2024………………………… Dan Fletcher

Secretary signed electronically 24.07.2024………… Rosemary Bailey

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Greening Tetbury Financial Statements 2024

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITY

For the year ended 31 May 2024

Note Unrestricted Restricted Total Previous year
funds funds funds total funds
Incomefrom
Donations 3 958 250 1,208 62
Subscriptions 165 165 215
Gift Aid 34 34 79
Interest 31 31 10
Total income 1,188 250 1,438 366
Expenditureon
Raising funds 0 0 0 0
Charitable activities 4 664 87 751 1,049
Total expenditure 664 87 751 1,049
Net income/(deficit) 524 163 687 (683)
Net transfer between 0 0 0 0
funds
Total funds brought 1,529 0 1,529 2,112
forward
Total funds carried 2,053 163 2,216 1,529
forward

All amounts are in respect of continuing operations.

The charity has no recognised gains or losses in the year, other than the deficit stated above, therefore no statement of total recognised gains and losses has been prepared.

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Greening Tetbury Financial Statements 2024

BALANCE SHEET

At 31 May 2024
Note		 31 May 2024 £ 31 May 2023 £

Current Assets
Cash at bank and in hand
Liabilities
Creditors: Amounts falling
due within one year
5, 6
Net current assets
Total Assets less liabilities
2,216
1,529
2,216
1,529
0
0
2,216
1,529
2,216
1,529

The financial statements on pages 3 to 7 were approved by the Board on and were signed on its behalf by:

Fergus Dignan Trustee Greening Tetbury

Signed … …………………………………………… Dated 25.07.2024

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Greening Tetbury Financial Statements 2024

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

1. Basis of presentation

1.1 Basis of Presentation

These financial statements have been prepared in compliance with the Charities Act, the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Charities SORP (FRS 102), taking advantage of the exemptions and simplifications available to smaller charities, including the exemption from preparing a statement of cash flows. The charity is a “Public Benefit Entity” as defined by FRS 102.

1.2 Adoption of going concern basis

The trustees have prepared these financial statements on a going concern basis. The trustees have made their assessment of the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern by having regard to the following key factors:

1.3 Restricted and designated funds

In accordance with the requirements of the Charities SORP, restricted and unrestricted funds are classified and presented separately. Funds are restricted when received on terms that limit their use to identifiable and specified purposes. The restriction may be identifiable from the terms of the appeal or request for funding, or from the terms of the grant disbursement, or both.

Where a donation is received under an expressed but non-binding preference, these are unrestricted funds, but the trustees designate that such funds are held and used for the expressed purpose and towards allocated support costs. When that activity is completed, any residual surplus is available to charity for use in any of its charitable activities.

The trustees may also designate existing unrestricted funds so as to earmark them for an intended future activity.

The designation of unrestricted funds from any source is not binding on the trustees and may be reversed on the completion of an activity or otherwise if the trustees consider that it is in the best interests of the charity to do so.

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Greening Tetbury Financial Statements 2024

2. Trustees Remuneration

The remuneration of the Trustees for services to the charity during the year was £nil.

3. Income

Restricted income for charitable activities in year was for the purposes of planting areas of Tetbury green spaces with wild flowers and bulbs

4. Expenditure

We continue to pay support costs, principally insurance and website maintenance.

IT and communications
Promotional activities
Insurance
Total		 2024
2023
£
£
108
140
128
292
348
274
584
606

5. Debtors

2024 2023
£ £
Debtors 0 0

6. Creditors: Amounts Falling Due Within One Year

2024 2023
£ £
Creditors 0 0

7. Related parties and transactions

The trustees consider that the charity’s related parties are the trustees, and persons closely connected to them (as defined more precisely in the Charities SORP (FRS 102).

Trustees The trustees receive no remuneration from the charity for their work as trustees (and nor do these financial statements include as a donation any amount

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Greening Tetbury Financial Statements 2024

in recognition of the value of the time that they have given). Trustees are authorised to settle expenditure directly where this is necessary; when this has occurred, they have been reimbursed.

No trustee has been re-imbursed for expenses incurred in fulfilling their duties as a trustee.

Payment to trustees by a charity for (other) services received is permitted by the Charity Commission, subject to appropriate safeguards. Payment to the trustees of Greening Tetbury by the charity for services received is permitted by the charity’s constitution, which in this regard adopts the Charity Commission’s standard wording. The trustees have careful regard to the relevant Charity Commission guidance before contracting to acquire any services from any trustee.

No trustee has provided any paid service to the charity in either of the years ended 31 May 2024 or 2023.

The trustees and persons closely connected to them donated a total of £620 to the charity in the year (2023 £65).

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