Northern National Restoration Group Charity Number 1193235
Former Power Station, Philadelphia Lane, Houghton LE Spring, Tyne and Wear, DH4 4ES
' - Chairman s Report 2024 2025
Trustees
Craig M Smith-- Chairman Alan Smith-- Treasurer Sonya Thompson-- Secretary.
Callum Bowes-- Traffic Manager. Rachel J Smith-- Membership Secretary. Robert Facey-- Historian. Kyle Thompson-- Public Relations Officer.
Committee
All Trustees, Hayley Smith, Alex Davis, Anita Smith,
About the Charity.
The Northern National Restoration Group (NNRG) is a Transport Charity that is based in the former Power Station of the Sunderland and District Tramways. This grade 2 listed building is a one of a kind structure. It is steeped in the history of North East transportation as well as the National Coal Board.
The group was formed in 2006 by a small group of bus enthusiasts who had acquired a bus. From this early beginning NNRG has grown in the last 19 years into a CIO Charity with a solid base and membership. Also now with a fleet of 9 buses in its care.
NNRG moved into the Power Station in the Autumn 2019. We unfortunately suffered a huge blow with the COVID 19 Pandemic in 2020 as did many other's. From this we rebuilt the charity in the "new" world. Now we have a solid membership program, active board of Trustees and Committee who run the charity. That said we still suffer from the lack of support from our local authority.
The Charity is managed by the Trustees and the day to day operations of the charity are managed by the Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. Meeting are called every 6 weeks with special meeting called for important news. We also have a privet encrypted chat on social media.
Recruitment.
Membership recruitment is a vitally important part of the group. It lets the group be up to date and current. Although we deal with past history we also look at the present. Members can join through our website or though membership form's obtained from NNRG at a event that we go to. Trustees can be recruited from other organizations but they must have a proven track record and be known to the other Trustees. The more tried and proven form of Trustee recruitment is from a member who has shown dedication to the charity side of the group. They are then invited to become a Trustee at the AGM or at a Special Meeting.
2024-2025 achievements.
2025 started with the group attending The Workington Transport Trust Leyland National 52 event with our own Scania L94UB NK54NVN. Again forging our superb working relationship with this Charity. The Group spent 2 days in Whithaven assisting WTHT with their operations over the weekend. We also attended the various bus events in the North East. We helped several other bus charities over the year. We donated our time to various Elderly persons care homes within our region. they really enjoyed their trips out in one of our easy access buses. We also attend many of our local events and hosted 3 of our own at our depot. We also saved another bus from the scrap man. A633BCN.
In house we set the objectives of pushing forward with the group membership, building improvements, fleet improvement and also the buying of our building. To this we achieved all bar the buying of the building. This however has become rather difficult due to the people who said they would help us establish ourselves in the building not doing so. Also the Landlords who have changed some of the fundamentals.
The future.
NNRG won't stay still. We have the momentum now to continue to build on our achievement so far and go for major funding to enable us to secure the building well before we need to. We also want to work more with our local community. Continuing to forging long standing links with other local charities and community groups is vitally important. Not only the sustainability of our charity but there's as well. Working with those who are not as fortunate as ourselves. The Lead Into Apprentiship program is continuing to be highly successful with another 3 young volunteers gaining a start for big North East bus firms.