Queen’s Park and Charminster Neighbourhood Forum (a charitable incorporated organisation)
Trustees’ Report and Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 March 2023
Charity Number: 1193653
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Contents
| Report of the Trustees for the Period Ended 31 March 2023 | |
|---|---|
| Achievements and Performance | 2 |
| Plans for Future Periods | 3 |
| Our Aims and Objectives | 3 |
| How our Activities Deliver Public Benefit | 5 |
| Financial Review | 5 |
| Risk Management | 5 |
| Structure, Governance and Management | 5 |
| Reference and Administrative Information | 6 |
| Financial Statements | |
| Statement of Financial Activities for the Period Ended 31 March 2023 | 7 |
| Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2023 | 7 |
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Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 March 2023
Achievements and Performance
The Queen’s Park Neighbourhood Forum was designated by Bournemouth Borough Council on 6th April 2018. In the year prior to this, a number of public consultation activities took place, which indicated positive support for the establishment of a neighbourhood forum for the Queen’s Park ward area.
A local authority reorganisation formed Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council on 1[st] April 2019 and local ward boundaries changed with effect from that date. The Neighbourhood Forum’s Designated Area remains the former Queen’s Park Ward boundaries, which are Charminster Road in the East, Queen’s Park Avenue in the North, Wessex Way to the West and the railway line to the South. The exception to this former ward boundary is that our Neighbourhood Forum’s Designated Area takes in both sides of Charminster Road, as an important local district for shopping, eating and other recreation.
In 2019, the Neighbourhood Forum’s Annual General Meeting agreed to seek registration as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and to rebrand as Queen’s Park and Charminster Neighbourhood Forum, which was felt to be a more representative name for our area. After a pause in the Charity Commission approval processes due to the pandemic; on 24[th] February 2021, our application was successfully registered and Queen’s Park and Charminster Neighbourhood Forum became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation.
To develop a Neighbourhood Plan for the Neighbourhood Area, any neighbourhood planning policies proposed must be in general conformance with the strategic planning policies set out within the adopted Local Plan. Unfortunately, the existing Local Plan for Bournemouth is very old – a Bournemouth Core Strategy dated 2012 which incorporates some saved planning policies from a 2002 Local Plan is the ‘current’ Local Plan for the area. In the absence of the context of a current Local Plan, it has not proven possible to advance the development of a Neighbourhood Plan for our Designated Area.
From January to March 2022, Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Council held a Local Plan Issues and Options Consultation, which our Neighbourhood Forum’s Chair responded to. BCP Council’s aim had been to have a new Local Plan covering Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole adopted by summer 2023, but this target date slipped, partly because the response rate to the Council’s Issues and Options Consultation was poor. It is believed that the Council is now aiming to have a draft Local Plan available by January 2024, when it will be subject to a six-week public consultation exercise.
It is evident from the number of objections which some individual planning applications receive that many members of the general population have strong views about planning decisions and their impact on where they live. Also, the attendance that our Neighbourhood Forum achieved when we have held public meetings in the past strongly suggests that people value having the opportunity to get together to discuss what they appreciate in their locality and what positive changes they would like to see. Local residents have shown their support by delivering leaflets to promote Neighbourhood Forum meetings and thanks go to everyone who has provided such assistance over the years.
Our Annual General Meeting was held on Saturday 9[th] July 2022 at the Woodpecker Café, Queen’s Park, Bournemouth. The Trustees shared with attendees the watershed point that the Neighbourhood Forum was at – they advised that whilst they each firmly believed in the Charitable Incorporated Organisation and the value which it has the potential to bring to the locality, did not alone have the capacity to advance the organisation’s aims. Trustees sought to identify what appetite existed for the Queen’s Park and Charminster Neighbourhood Forum to continue, in particular whether any people within our neighbourhood area are willing and able to take on the role of Charity Trustee and what skills and experience anyone would be able to contribute which could make a tangible difference to the development of the neighbourhood planning policies which are required to underpin the drafting of a neighbourhood plan.
Unfortunately, whilst there was clearly expressed support for the Neighbourhood Forum to continue, this has not galvanized into the identification of a critical mass of people with the time, interest, skills and commitment to make progress with the drafting of the neighbourhood planning policies which would
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comprise our Neighbourhood Plan. Therefore, there are no achievements to report relating to the year ended 31[st] March 2023.
Plans for Future Periods
The charity trustees are mindful that a core trustee responsibility is to advance the objects of the charitable incorporated organisation. The trustees, which currently number three, are conscious that the Board of Trustees is not presently achieving this and if this does not change by the end of the 2023/24 year, they intend to approach the Charity Commission to seek to wind up the charity.
There are local elections in the BCP area in May 2023 and the trustees hope to continue to liaise positively with our ward councillors, including by seeking opportunities for funding, such as via the council’s Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), to be applied to improvements in the public realm which would benefit people who live or work within our neighbourhood area - for example to seek to secure safe pedestrian routes to access Queen’s Park, an amenity space that the pandemic affirmed to us positively impacts on the health and wellbeing of the local population.
We will support ward councillors as they seek to identify what appetite exists for the Queen’s Park and Charminster Neighbourhood Forum to continue - in particular whether there exist between three and twelve people within our neighbourhood area who could make a tangible difference to the development of the neighbourhood planning policies required to underpin the drafting of a neighbourhood plan, and who are willing and able to take on the role of Charity Trustee.
The Neighbourhood Forum was designated for an initial period of five years. We anticipate that the local authority will contact us early in the 2023/24 year regarding whether or not the present Queen’s Park and Charminster Neighbourhood Forum should continue, and if so whether there should be any changes made to its designated area. Both of these questions will require careful consideration, with input from our membership and the wider neighbourhood population.
Our Aims and Objectives
The object of Queen’s Park and Charminster Neighbourhood Forum, as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) is:
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To promote high standards of planning and architecture in or affecting the Neighbourhood Area.
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To educate the public in the geography, history, natural history, culture and architecture of the Neighbourhood Area.
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To secure the preservation, protection, development and improvement of features or areas of historic or public interest in the Neighbourhood Area.
In furtherance of the above objects, but not otherwise, the trustees shall have the power to establish a neighbourhood forum for the Neighbourhood Area (within the blue boundary lines on the following map) to promote and or improve the social, economic and environmental well-being of the area.
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How our Activities Deliver Public Benefit
We deliver public benefit through holding Neighbourhood Forum meetings which facilitate community engagement in dialogue about i) promoting high standards of planning and architecture in or affecting the Neighbourhood Area; ii) educating the public in the geography, history, natural history, culture and architecture of the Neighbourhood Area; and iii) securing the preservation, protection, development and improvement of features or areas of historic or public interest in the Neighbourhood Area.
Financial Review
During the year, the CIO’s only activity was to hold a public meeting in July 2023, for which no costs were incurred. Expenditure in the year was limited to bank charges, which totalled £61.
The CIO did not recognise any income during the year ended 31[st] March 2023. The deficit for the year was therefore £61.
As at 31[st] March 2023, the CIO held cash at bank totalling £3,704, £2,416 of which is deferred income which had been received from the Co-Op Community Fund.
As at the end of the year, the CIO had £1,283 unrestricted funds, the original source of which was Bournemouth Council’s Local Improvement Fund (LIF) and we remain grateful to our ward councillors for arranging for this to be allocated to advance the Neighbourhood Forum’s aims.
Risk Management
The Trustees have considered the major risks to which the charity is exposed.
Recent years have seen a rapid change in planning law and national planning policy, such as changes to what is permitted development. The ability of the emerging Local Plan to appropriately respond to these changes is a risk consideration, as decisions made at this conurbation-wide level will impact on the formation of a Neighbourhood Plan for the locality, due to any neighbourhood planning policies being required to be in general conformity with the adopted Local Plan.
The most significant risk faced by our CIO is the availability of people with the time, skills, knowledge and commitment to dedicate to advancing the charity’s work. The present Trustees have reached a watershed point whereby they wish to step down from the Board of Trustees and therefore if the Neighbourhood Forum is to continue, between three and twelve of people willing and able to take on the role of trustee to positively take forward the neighbourhood planning agenda are needed.
Structure, Governance and Management
Governing Document
Queen’s Park and Charminster Neighbourhood Forum is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation – a CIO Association, registered with the Charity Commission on 24[th] February 2021.
Charity Trustees
Every charity trustee must be a natural person aged 16 or more. There should be not less than 3 nor more than 12 appointed trustees. Subject to this maximum number, the members or the charity trustees may at any time decide to appoint a new charity trustee.
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The charity trustees shall manage the affairs of the CIO and may for that purpose exercise all the powers of the CIO.
Trustee Induction and Training
All Trustees are provided with a copy of the Charity Commission’s guidance, CC3 – ‘The Essential Trustee’ and C15b – ‘Charity Reporting and Accounting: The Essentials’.
In addition, Trustees have access to a range of Bournemouth & Poole Council for Voluntary Services (CVS) training courses, such as ‘Being a Charity Trustee’ and ‘Better Governance’.
Reference and Administrative Information
| Charity Name | Queen’s Park and Charminster Neighbourhood Forum |
|---|---|
| Charity Registration Number | 1193563 |
| Registered Office | 67 St Alban’s Avenue |
| Bournemouth | |
| BH8 9EG | |
| Trustees | Julie Currin |
| Sarah Newell (resigned January 2023) | |
| Michael Rowland | |
| Roger Tomlins | |
| Bankers | HSBC |
| Old Christchurch Road | |
| Bournemouth | |
| BH1 1EH |
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Financial Statements
Statement of Financial Activities (SoFA)
| 2022/23 | 2022/23 | 2021/22 | 2021/22 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £s | £s | £s | £s | |
| Brought forward from Unincorporated Organisation | - | 1,315 | ||
| Groundworks Grant Funding | - | 285 | ||
| Income | - | 1,600 | ||
| Internet | - | 154 | ||
| Insurance | - | 81 | ||
| Bank Charges | 61 | 20 | ||
| Expenditure | 61 | 256 | ||
| (Deficit) / Surplus of Income over Expenditure | (61) | 1,344 | ||
| Balance Sheet | ||||
| 31/3/23 | 31/3/23 | 31/3/22 | 31/3/22 | |
| £s | £s | £s | £s | |
| Bank | 3,704 | 13,480 | ||
| Groundworks – Repayment of Grant | - | 9,714 | ||
| Deferred Income – Co-Op Community Fund | 2,416 | 2,416 | ||
| Bank Charge re March | 5 | 5 | ||
| Sub-total Creditors | 2,421 | 12,135 | ||
| Net Assets | 1,283 | 1,344 | ||
| Funds Brought Forward | 1,344 | 1,365 | ||
| Funds Applied in Year | 61 | 20 | ||
| Funds Carried Forward | 1,283 | 1,344 |
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