Salisbury EcoHub Alliance CIO Registered Charity no. 1203831 Incorporated 4[th] July 2023 Report of Trustees to the Charities Commission, October 2025 Salisbury EcoHub Alliance came into existence as an unincorporated association in the summer of 2022, and held an open general meeting in November of that year at which an initial constitution was formally adopted and a steering group elected. On 4[th] July 2023 the organisation became a registered charity CIO, of which four members of the original steering group, Evelyn Goulden, Caroline Lanyon, Richard Sharp and Graham Oubridge, became the founding trustees. On 21[st] November 2023, approximately one year after the initial general meeting, a first general meeting of the new CIO was held at which the founding trustees were elected as trustees of the charity. Accounts were presented and approved for the period up to 26[th] October 2023, including both the periods before and after CIO registration. On 27[th] November 2024, the first AGM of the CIO was held, and accounts were presented and approved for the period 27[th] October 2023 to 1[st] November 2024. In accordance with the CIO's constitution, one of the Trustees chosen by ballot, Graham Oubridge, stood down and was then re-elected as a Trustee. In accordance with Charities Commission reporting rules, this report covers the period from Salisbury EcoHub Alliance CIO's registration on 4[th] July 2023 until 31[st] December 2024, and includes accounts for the whole of that period, and henceforth our accounting years will begin on January 1[st] and end on December 31[st] each year. In keeping with this change, we intend to hold our next AGM at the end of January 2026. In November 2023 the Trustees reported as follows: “In the 18 months since the EcoHub idea was first floated in a meeting at Brown Street, we have grown to be an organisation with over 60 individual members and 19 member organisations. “We have obtained the help of the city council in providing us with a free pitch in Salisbury Market, and have run a regular Saturday stall since last September, providing hundreds of local people with energy advice through a year of soaring energy prices and cost of living crisis. “We have provided a platform for many of our partner groups to reach out to the public by sharing our stall, showcasing what they have to offer, and this continues on an on-going basis. “We have created a firm organisational base, and become a registered charity, so that we can now move on to obtain grant funding, and (when we do eventually obtain premises) benefit from business rates exemption. “We are about to unveil our new website on our own web domain, which will be our virtual EcoHub, linking, and providing information on our member groups, and serving our members and the public. “We can also announce details of our first successful grant funding application, to the Rural Communities Energy Support Network Fund. This is the funding arm of the Centre for Sustainable Energy, who have provided us with their energy advice leaflets, and this £3,500 grant will, amongst other things, enable us to purchase a thermal imaging camera to survey heat losses from homes locally.” In November 2024 the Trustees reported as follows: “Over the past year, Salisbury EcoHub Alliance has continued to prosper, though as yet without the big breakthrough of acquiring its own premises. “Shortly before our last AGM a year ago, we received a grant of £3,500 from the Rural Communities Sustainable Energy Network, a charity administered by the Centre for Sustainable Energy in Bristol. This has provided the core of our funding over the past year. “We have continued to have a stall in Salisbury Market on a weekly basis, and elsewhere when opportunities have presented themselves. However, after a break in the summer our regular market day changed from Saturday to Tuesday. “Since beginning the new arrangement in September, we have found that the Tuesday markets generally appear to be quieter than Saturdays, although it does have the advantage of giving the Trustees and other stall helpers Saturdays off, which allows them to do other things and attend other events. “In addition to Salisbury Market, we have taken our stall to the COGS Active Travel Conference in the Guildhall in February, Salisbury Transition City's annual People in the Park event in Queen Elizabeth Gardens in May, an event at St. Mark's church marking Great Big Green Week and the "We Love Harnham” event at Harnham Parish Hall, both in July, and to Winterslow WI Summer Fayre in August. A small stall featuring our Bite-size Climate Science leaflets went to the Green Gathering festival in Chepstow in August, and to an event hosted by Sustainable Warminster in October. We hope to further extend this outreach work in the year ahead. “Our biggest innovation in the past year has been the launch of our free Thermal Imaging Surveys. “We have been in touch with Salisbury Library, who now have thermal cameras and a long waiting list of people wanting to borrow them, even though the scheme has not so far been very well publicised. We have offered our assistance and experience to the library, and hope to be able to begin running a regular thermal imaging advice stall in the library in the near future. “The grant we received a year ago from RESN has funded most of our activities over the past year, and they also made a further grant to buy our second thermal camera. “During the past year we have received almost £1,500 in donations, and a further grant of £5,000 from Evelyn's course in Domestic Retrofitting. “We therefore have a balance of over £6,700. This is a very healthy financial position in relation to the levels of activity and expenditure we have had over the past year, but leaves us well short of the £20,000 or so we would need to rent premises in the city centre for the year ahead.” During 2024 the CIO also published its own series of ten “Bite Size Climate Science” A4 leaflets, designed to be easily understandable for non-scientists, which had been much appreciated, and at the November 2024 meeting the Trustees unveiled a new ten foot by five foot banner of climate science information. (Both this series of leaflets and the banner have since been read and approved for accuracy by Professor Richard Betts, a British member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and advisor to H.M. Government.) During December 2024, our market stall featured a banner proclaiming “Santa is against climate change” and (as it had also done the previous year) a Trustee in Santa costume giving away free mince pies to anyone signing a pledge card to their children or grandchildren promising to do something to combat climate change in the year ahead. We intend to repeat this again in 2025. ## **Salisbury EcoHub Alliance CIO registered charity no. 1203831** ## **Summary of accounts, 4th July 2023 to 31st December 2024** After adjustment for temporary bank errors subsequently corrected. Gross income for the period was **£11,189.64** Expenditure during the period was **£4,362.52** , leaving a balance of **£6,827.12** On 31[st] December 2024, this balance comprised **£6,670.54** in the Co-op bank and **£156.58** held in cash. ## **The Income comprised:** |Amount carried forward from Salisbury EcoHub Alliance (unincorporated association)
Grants from Rural Communities Sustainable Energy Network
Grant from Centre for Sustainable Energy Lead Training Fund
Donation from Salisbury Community Energy CIC
Online Donations via Peoples Fundraising
Other donations (cash and cheques)
Donation in kind (banner purchase)
**Total Income**|£386.59
£3,992.26
£5,000.00
£500.00
£710.18
£508.71
£91.90| |---|---| ||£11,189.64| ## **Expenditure comprised:** |Leaflets and printing
Thermal Imaging cameras
Website costs
Transport costs
Market stall volunteer refreshments
Insurance
Banners
Stall costs outside events
AGM costs (2 years inc. room hire)
Stall costs miscellaneous
Postage and office sundries|£1,630.70
£933.60
£390.00
£524.09
£305.86
£211.68
£132.23
£70.00
£112.98
£18.50
£32.88| |---|---| ||£4,362.52|