**Rooting for Andover Trustee Report for the Period to April 30[th] 2024**
## **Objectives Governance and Structure.**
Rooting for Andover supports allotments and community gardens in the Test Valley area. We hold regular volunteer days at our main garden at Poppy Park next to the Augusta Park Community centre. Throughout the year, we hold a variety of community events in the garden which are advertised on social media. We are open to all and everyone is welcome.
We are a Charitable Incorporated Organisation set up using the Charity Commission’s Foundation Governing document. We have three trustees and appointments of trustees follows the model process set out in our governing document. Our charitable aims are described in the same document and can be viewed on the Charity Commission site. Broadly we aim to provide, for public benefit, facilities for community gardens for all members of the community in the Test Valley. We also aim to provide opportunities for learning about sustainable horticulture and community gardening. We provide a great place for people to meet, to enjoy green spaces and to enhance their knowledge and understanding of all aspects of horticulture as well as contributing free surplus food to those in the local community who might need it. The trustees are fully aware and always seek to comply with the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit. This second report only covers the period from 1[st] May 2023-30[th] April 2024.
## **Achievements**
Rooting for Andover has had another very busy year. Everything we do is focused on encouraging our visitors and volunteers to learn more about food growing, allotments, gardening and our environment.
There was a very successful Easter Egg Hunt which saw 70 children taking part. As usual, there were the two’ Easter bunnies’ hopping around the garden which caused squeals of laughter! We also attended a Unity children's Easter event at King Arthur's Hall where the sunflower seed planting was very popular.
We had a very successful King’s Coronation event in the community centre in May with over 250 attendees including a plant sale where we raised over £150 for the garden. We also ran a well-attended cobble painting event in the garden to coincide with the event. We ran several short but very successful ‘Square foot gardening ’courses in the summer. Square foot gardening is a very environmentally friendly way of increasing crop yield without using artificial fertilisers. It can be undertaken in small gardens and produces a
useful range of crops including carrots, lettuces, tomatoes, beetroot, beans and herbs. The events were well attended and much enjoyed.
We also had a very successful plant sale in the garden on Saturday 27th May . Every year, we survey our supporters from our Facebook page, which has well over 750 members, to enquire which events or activities are the most popular and which new activities they might like. The plant sales are one of our most popular event as well as raising some sustainable funding for the garden. Families come along to talk about their gardens, get suggestions and tips for plants and it enables us to sell on some of our surplus plants at prices that are much lower than people would pay for commercial suppliers whilst still providing some funds for the garden,.
We spent many enjoyable hours preparing the garden for our South East in Bloom entry. Judging, by John Tweddle from the RHS, took place in July and we were delighted to win our first ‘outstanding’ award! The gardens looked absolutely beautiful. We had so many visitors who just came through to enjoy the flowers, the scents and the sound of insects buzzing . The vegetables were beginning to be ready for harvest and the garden was in full bloom. John was very complimentary, especially in regards to the new orchard, the wildflowers and how colourful it looked when entering the garden.
We were also voted Acquisition International Magazine’s Most Inspiring Community Garden Organisation in Hampshire 2023 in their non-profit organisation awards.
Thanks to the help of one of our volunteers, we were offered ‘Kevin the Composter’ – a top of the range hot composter. ‘ Kevin’ was named after our TVBC contact who helps us with our licensing and permissions for the garden. Local residents can bring their uncooked kitchen scraps to put into a special bucket. Due to how often the compost gets rotated, it means that it only takes a few weeks to get good quality compost. A huge thanks to Harvey Sullivan (The Wildlife Gardener) for doing all the hard work to get this in place in the garden for us.
We finally got permission for an accessible path through the garden to the orchard. It needed to be woodchip rather than the hardcore type material originally planned but this made the path more environmentally friendly whilst being fully usable by mobility scooter users, wheelchairs and buggies. Our thanks go to TVBC and our local Councillors who supported the grant.
We also got permission and funding for a new, bigger and more sturdy polytunnel as the winter weather pretty much destroyed both of the less robust ones we previously had. Our thanks to members of Andover Town Council for their support for the grant and to all the volunteers who spent their weekends erecting it. It proved to be quite a challenge! In addition, we were also able to purchase a small metal shed to hold some of our bulkier items as we were beginning to outgrow our original shed.
We were able to install a children’s mud kitchen which is now at the back of the large shed and a new rose arch feature for the front entrance which will look beautiful in future summers.
A wildlife nature trail is our new attraction with bird and bug boxes, log piles and wildflowers, thanks to funding from the Hubbub Environmental Charity. We also now have some very smart and professional information signs for our garden
We also ran a barbecue at the Augusta Park fun day which was organised by our friends at the Augusta Park Community Association, as well as some NHS Healthy Living events in King Arthurs Way.
More information about our activities and events can be seen on our Facebook group.
https://www.facebook.com/691799534/videos/3590564821255662/
The Charity’s events were also advertised on our website which is currently https://rootingforandover.org.uk
## **Finance**
We normally strive to achieve around 6 months reserves which the trustees feel is a safe margin given our annual costs. Most of the funding we receive is related to project work but we aim to have between £2500 - £3500 in reserves which is our best current estimate of our 6 month running costs. At the end of the financial year, the charity was in a strong financial position and is a going concern.
## **Administrative information**
Rooting For Andover ((Charity Registration 1200827) has three Trustees at present; Mr Michael Parker (Chair), Mrs Vicki Cunningham (Secretary) and Mrs Maureen Treadwell (Treasurer). The postal address for correspondence is as follows: 21 Livia Close SP10 5QR. The contact email for the charity is info@rootingforandover.org.uk
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Charity Name No (if any)
Rooting for Andover 1200827
Receipts and payments accounts CC16a
For the period Period start date 30/04/2024
To
from 01/05/2023
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Total funds Last year
funds funds funds
to the nearest
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
£
A1 Receipts
Grants restricted inc Hubbub Note 1 - 6,600 - 6,600 1,946
Grants unrestricted - - - - 1,500
Plant sales/charitaable fundraising 397 - - 397 198
Transfers - - - - 2,690
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total (Gross income for
397 6,600 - 6,997 6,334
AR)
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- - - -
- - - - -
Sub total - - - - -
Total receipts 397 6,600 - 6,997 6,334
A3 Payments
Events restricted - 933 - 933 183
Garden sundries- restricted - 5,499 - 5,499 429
Grant items - - - - 619
Insurance 89 - 89 -
Admin 257 - - 257 -
Garden sundries unrestricted 899 - - 899 -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total [ 1,245 ] 6,432 - 7,677 1,231
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ - ] - - - -
Total payments 1,245 6,432 - 7,677 1,231
Net of receipts/(payments) - 848 168 - - 680 5,103
A5 Transfers between funds - - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 3,959 1,144 - 5,103 -
Cash funds this year end 3,111 1,312 - 4,423 5,103
**----- End of picture text -----**
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
29/01/2025
1
|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**|**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**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B1 Cash funds**|**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
At bank
**Details**
**Details**
shed
Polytunnel
Mower
Stimmer
Plantings
**Details**
Signature|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**3,111**
**1,312**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**3,111**
**1,312**
OK
OK
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
charity fund
**-**
A/A
**-**
A/A
**-**
A/A
**-**
A/A
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
Maureen Treadwell|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Current value**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Current value**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**When due**
**(optional)**
Date of
approval
24/01/2024|
Notes to accounts Hubbub grant received of £5100
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
29/01/2025
2