2022-12-31-accounts

WildCookham CIO Annual Report 2022

This was our first full year as a Charity Incorporated Organisation and it saw our group returning to something approaching normal following the periods of Covid-imposed lockdown. Many projects had continued through this period but our walks and talks activities had been severely restricted. This has inevitably limited our ability to meet with our supporters and encourage additional volunteers. It has also meant a considerable reduction in our revenues from such activities, a problem compounded by the significant shift to a cashless society with fewer people having the loose change to donate at our events. This latter problem is being addressed by the introduction of online, cashless payments.

The most significant project during the year was our Water Vole recovery project. 2022 saw the second release of water voles in our local waterways, along with ongoing monitoring of the local American Mink population as well as the start of volunteer surveying for signs of the presence of the voles. Our thanks to the sponsors of the project (South East Water, Thames Water, Shanly Foundation, Naturesave Trust, Prince Philip Trust and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead) as well as to the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust for their advice and support throughout the project.

We continued our work with the National Trust to bring greater floral diversity to our commons (adding Cookham Moor and Odney Common to the list) and extended our relationship with Cookham Parish Council with the introduction of a wild flower patch to the Alfred Major Recreation Ground adding to our on-going management of the Harris Woodbridge Nature Reserve. The WildCookham Wild About Gardens Awards continued for a fifth year and we also continued our relationship with the John Lewis Partnership, monitoring the flora and fauna at their Odney Club. The presence of a significant colony of House Martins at the Odney Club led to another project initiated during the year – the placing of a number of house martin nest boxes on houses close to the Club. This did not result in any house martin takers in 2022 but we hope for success in future years.

Other survey work included a further year checking for the local presence of glow worms and ongoing data gathering leading to Cookham firsts for some damselfly species. A team of nearly 20 ornithologists was also created to look into the presence of Grey Partridge in Cookham and neighbouring farmland. This has now led to the early stages of a project to introduce these farmland birds to the area, drawing on the expertise of the Gaming & Wildlife Conservation Trust.

Our involvement in local policy and planning work continued through the year. We continued to play an important role on the working group developing the Cookham Neighbourhood Plan and our work with the other local Wild groups contributed to the RBWM Biodiversity Action Plan.

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An exciting project for 2023 first saw the light of day in 2022. Our Changing Earth will bring together artists and environmentalists at a weekend festival being held at the John Lewis Partnership Odney Club in June. This has generated significant funds from Awards for All and other grant-giving bodies.

In summary, 2022 proved to be yet another busy year for WildCookham. None of the activity would have been possible without the energy and commitment of our committee, to whom we owe a great debt of thanks. We introduced a new structure in April with chairman Mike Copland stepping back from day to day management of the committee and Lars Ahlgren taking on the role as chair of the Operations Committee. In a further move to ensure effective coordination of our efforts different committee members took on responsibility for a set of habitat and species-related projects.

Our treasurer Andy Blair stood down at the end of the year following his move away from Cookham. Andy was an immense help to us as we created the WildCookham CIO: we are greatly indebted to him and he leaves with our thanks and best wishes. We were fortunate that, during the year, local resident Geoff Elton joined our committee and subsequently agreed to take over from Andy and to become a trustee.

Our thanks also go to our many volunteers. As a local charity undertaking practical, hands on projects we are completely dependent on voluntary support and we thank all of our volunteers, the project leaders in particular, but also anyone who has been involved in any way.

Looking ahead, we aim to add more landscape-scale projects to our portfolio. This will link to the wider policies set out in the Cookham Neighbourhood Plan, the RBWM Biodiversity Action Plan and elsewhere as well as to the growing focus on nature recovery networks across the country and, more specifically, in Berkshire. In this way, we hope that WildCookham’s energy, vision and determination to make a practical difference – and the many volunteers who contribute to this - will continue to have a positive impact in meeting the accelerating threats to our natural world.

On behalf of the Trustees:

Lars Ahlgren, Mike Copland, Geoff Elton, Lynne Peperell, Rosie Street March 2023

Charity Name WildCookham

No (if any) 1193867

Receipts and payments accounts

Period start date 01/01.2022

Period end date

For the period from

To

31/12/22

Section A Receipts and payments

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Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Total funds
funds funds funds
to the nearest
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
£
A1 Receipts
Donations and fund raising 2,864 - - 2,864
Harris Woodbridge Reserve - 225 - 225
Water Voles project - 6,743 - 6,743
Wild SL6 projectys donations - 2,350 - 2,350
Nesting Boxes project donations - 500 - 500
Our Changing Earth Exhibition grants - 13,086 - 13,086
- - - -
- - - -
2,864 22,904 - 25,768
Sub total (Gross income for AR)
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total - - - -
Total receipts 2,864 22,904 - 25,768
A3 Payments
Admin costs 487 - - 487
General charity activity 158 - - 158
Harris Woodbridge Reserve - 48 - 48
Water Voles project - 9,360 - 9,360
Wild SL6 projects - 991 - 991
Seeding project - 76 - 76
Nesing Boxes project - 1,591 - 1,591
Our Changing Earth Exhibition - 549 - 549
- - - -
Sub total [ 645 ] 12,615 - 13,260
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ - ] - - -
Total payments 645 12,615 - 13,260
Net of receipts/(payments) [ 2,219 ] 10,289 - 12,508
A5 Transfers between funds - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end - - - -
Cash funds this year end [ 2,219 ] 10,289 - 12,508
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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

			Unrestricted		Restricted
Categories	Details		funds		funds
B1 Cash funds		Total cash funds	to nearest £ 5,085 - - 5,085		to nearest £ - 17,563 - 17,563
	(agree	balances with receipts and payments account(s))	Agreement Error	Agreement Error
			Unrestricted		Restricted
			funds		funds
B2 Other monetary assets	Details		to nearest £ - - - - - -		to nearest £ - - - - - -
B3 Investment assets	Details		Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional) - - - - -
B4 Assets retained for the	Details		Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional) -
charity’s own use					- - - - - - - -
			Fund to which		Amount due
B5 Liabilities	Details		liability relates		- - - - - (optional)
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees		Signature	Print	Name
			G Elton

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CC16a
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Last year
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to the nearest £

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-

-

-

Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - -

OK

Endowment funds to nearest £

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Current value (optional)

-

Current value (optional)

-

When due (optional)

Date of approval

01/04/23

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