2024-03-31-accounts

Halesworth Millennium Green Trust CIO

Registered charity no. 1202703

http://millenniumgreen.halesworth.net

To January 2025: Brook House, Quay Street,Halesworth IP19 8ET and [e-mail] From January 2025: The Library, Bridge Street, Halesw’th IP19 8AD & [e-mail]

The above changes arose from the sudden death of Treasurer John Bainer on 3[rd] January 2025.

At January 2025:

Current Trustees - Barbara Harrison, Sarah (Sal) Jenkinson, Jane Kirkeby, Reuben Perkins Outgoing Trustee Treasurer John Bainer - deceased 3[rd] January 2025 Incoming Trustee to be confirmed at Trustees’ meeting in February 2025 - Valerie Bacon

Annual Report April 2023 – April 2024

General Background

The object of the CIO is to promote for the benefit of the inhabitants of Halesworth, the surrounding areas and visitors, facilities for recreation providing and maintaining the open space known as “Halesworth Millennium Green”. This includes protecting and enhancing natural areas where people can enjoy wildlife at first hand, making a positive contribution to the local environment while respecting the established character of the area.

The first 35 acres were acquired in 1999 when the charity was founded, and a further 20 acres of adjoining land have been added to the Green in the years since.

The Green now owns:-

• 55 acres of community access / agricultural land

• 2 x 20 foot storage containers

• Various mowers, hand-tools for mowing and for land maintenance

Organisation: The Green is remarkable in having reached its 25[th] birthday and still being run entirely by volunteers. In the year in question the Trust moved from a simple Trust to a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) Trust structure. The Trust previously recruited Trustees only from its practical management group but in recent years has begun also to recruit Trustees by general advertisement with an interview process.

Finances: Until 2024 the Green received a DEFRA grant (Basic Payment Scheme) in recognition of the 15 hectares subject to summer cattle grazing. We are now seeking replacement grants from the new SFI (Sustainable Funding Initiative) regime. Meanwhile we rely on approximately £2000 from Standing Orders, occasional one-off donations, and specific fund-raising for special projects.

• Major income was from the DEFRA grant, standing orders and one or two donations

• • Major outgoings included maintenance of farming machinery (mowers), fence posts and fencing to retain cattle, the printing of fresh promotional leaflets to support recruitment and standing order and legacy forms, increasing insurance costs.

In the year April 2023 to April 2024 our major activities and objectives were the following.

Weekly work parties Run and attended by volunteers

The Trust has a comprehensive Management Plan which describes and addresses each compartment of the Green in turn, in relation both to public access and to conservation (https://millenniumgreen.halesworth.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/HMG-Man-Plan-2024-toprint.pdf) From this Plan is generated the work which occupies the weekly work parties.

In 2023-2024 work was made particularly problematic because of the closure, as unsafe, by Suffolk County Council, of a crucial bridge on an official PROW (public right of way), which bridge connects the two halves of the Green. This created immense problems with getting maintenance equipment and volunteers to the necessary areas of the Green. Nevertheless access pathways were mowed and cleared, the community orchard pruned (and in summer the fruit scrumped), two

meadows mowed and hay-stacked (by hand to facilitate small mammal conservation), wooded areas checked for unstable trees and treated by professional tree surgeons where necessary, a newly-planted commemorative grove established, ditches cleared retaining undisturbed areas for water creatures, two larger meadows summer-grazed by cattle, fencing replaced and repaired.

The work parties engage up to 25 local people for two and a half hours every week. Details of volunteers and especially emergency contacts are maintained, risk assessments are carried out, first-aid kits are carried, training is organised for work-party leaders. The work parties are advertised on social media and in the local free paper which goes into every household,

Events These, like the work-parties, are run by volunteers.

• A major objective of the year was to celebrate in May the 10[th] Anniversary of Woolnough Way, the surfaced 1km Track which is part of National Cycle Route 1 (NCR1). As well as helping to connect Scotland to Dover, this Track enables buggies, bikes, people to reach parts of the Green which previously only hiking boots could have taken them to.

• The year began with a community collaboration between local firm Spectra, the River Waveney Trust, and other volunteers, who carried out a litter-pick along the waterways that

run throughout the Green, complementing the work of the many unnoticed people who regularly clear litter from paths and meadows.

• Volunteers participated, with other local community conservation groups in Halesworth’s first Environmental Conference .

• A guided walk attracted 30 people to discover more about the Green’s historical heritage – in the context of the national Heritage Open Days .

• The year ended with the WinterLight! Trail and Quiz in the February half-term. This is an annual event aimed at schoolchildren and families which has built from a handful of

participants in 2018 to over a hundred. Its main elements have included a procession featuring lanterns made by children with the support of the local schools and Library, and a story based on local history and happenings dramatized by illuminated puppets.

• Another major objective was to acquire Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) status , replacing the useful but outdated Trust structure which had served very will from 1999. This was successful. It was assisted by changes to our banking systems which are reported in the accompanying accounts.

• Coming into 2024 brought us to the 25[th] anniversary of the founding of the Green in 1999: we marked this by a whole-town recruitment survey, distributing forms through every letter-box in the town inviting use of, and participation in the running of, the Green.

• We also began the “ Explore in ’24 Festival ” to encourage users not already aware of what the Green offers. This began with a successful Bird Count as part of the RSPB national event in January, and continued with a specially commissioned film by a local video-maker designed to take part in the environmental Film Day which occurred in our local community arts centre, The Cut.

Annual Report Year 1[st] April 2023 – 31[st] March 2024 Halesworth Millennium Green CIO Trust

Income and Expenditure for year ending 31st March 2024 INCOME DEFRA Basic Payment Scheme Monthly Standing orders One-off individual donatioins Compensation for power lines HMRC overpayment Ipswich Building Society and Nat West interest Total	2348.98 1984.38 610.00 93.64 40.00 1363.88
	6440.88

NOTE: Basic Payment is for farming the land

EXPENDITURE
Maintenance of the Green	£2,704.61
Fundraising/admin/publicity	£1,927.17
Insurance	£1,720.39
Total	£6,352.17
Year-end balances

31/03/2024	Old SBS balance	£0.00
31/03/2024	New SBS balance	£3,214.52
31/03/2024	NW old Current Acct	£0.00
31/03/2024	NW new Current Acct	£6,480.33
31/03/2024	NW Deposit Acct	£35,730.02
31/03/2024	total balance	£45,424.87