Whitby & Esk Valley Active Travel
Annual Report and Financial Statements for the period 2025-2026
Whitby and Esk Valley Active Travel, registered as a charity in England and Wales : 1206506
Legal and administrative information
Whitby & Esk Valley Active Travel is a registered charity governed by its Constitution.
Registered Office Sea Level, East Row, Sandsend, Whitby YO21 3SU Charity Number 1206506
Financial Year
Between 02/04/2025 and 31/03/2026
Trustees
The trustees who were in office during the financial year and up to the date of signing the Annual Report and Financial Statements were:
| Name | Position | Appointed | Resigned |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ian Suckling | Chair | 11/01/2024 | |
| Andrew Hatchwell | 11/01/2024 | 04/05/2025 | |
| Andrew Jefferson | Treasurer | 11/01/2024 | |
| Ben Noble | 11/01/2024 | ||
| Joseph Hogarth | Secretary | 23/07/2025 |
Governance & Management
The trustees aim to meet every 2 or 3 months as a minimum, and more frequently whenever decisions are required. During the financial year there have been meetings as follows
| Meeting Date | Trustee Attendance |
|---|---|
| 10/04/2025 | 100% (4/4) |
| 16/05/2025 | 100% (3/3) |
| 23/07/2025 | 75% (3/4) |
| 17/10/2025 | 100% (4/4) |
| 27/03/2026 | 100% (4/4) |
Conflicts of Interest
Each Trustee is required to disclose potential / actual conflicts of interest at board meetings if relevant. Such disclosures are registered in minutes of the meetings.
Employees
During the financial year Whitby & Esk Valley Active Travel had 0 employees.
Bank
Our current bank is The Cooperative Bank.
Whitby and Esk Valley Active Travel, registered as a charity in England and Wales : 1206506
Work of the Charity
Increasing Support
Much of the financial year 2025-2026 has been spent increasing awareness of the charity, its aims and activities, as well as progressing some of our work plan.
During this period we have continued to develop a website - adding a page for our Adaptive Bike Hire Hub, detailed sections on the Whitby LCWIP (Active Travel Plan), several additional proposals, and rework the format of the proposals to fit the actual work that would be needed in conjunction with such as North Yorkshire Council. The website will be continually developed as we move forward, and will adapt to changing goals and activities.
We have continued to grow a social media presence, primarily on Facebook (now approaching 200 followers), but also including X, Instagram and YouTube accounts. We have started adding route videos to YouTube, to highlight the positive things that we do have, primarily as an aide to visitors, but also aiming to add further in the coming months to highlight what routes would be possible. Social media work is expected to increase significantly over the next year as we will have our first full year of running the Adaptive Bike Hire Hub, as well as hopefully moving in to facilitating infrastructure.
We have presented updates on active travel at Whitby Community Network CIC (WCN) public meetings, as a way of keeping the local community informed of our work.
We also produced a poster to be displayed around the district advertising the group, and it has been distributed to many places.
Plans for Active Travel
The primary document that will govern active travel development in Whitby (Whitby LCWIP) was adopted by North Yorkshire Council in May 2025. This was the culmination of a long process that started with our campaigning for the document to be created back in 2022, and we were the main local contributor to the document during the consultation stages.
We have also been represented on the steering group for the Whitby Neighbourhood Plan, and the proposed plan document includes a policy on active travel, as well as addition of some active travel specific rules to the published “Design Code” for new developments in the town.
We made 2 proposals for minor infrastructure improvements to North Yorkshire Council, one of which has since been picked up by the NYMNP for submission for
Whitby and Esk Valley Active Travel, registered as a charity in England and Wales : 1206506
funding, aiming to replace pedestrian gates on the Cinder Track with chicanes for better accessibility.
Active Travel in Schools
One of our priorities has been to increase walk and cycle to school, and we have had regular communication with Whitby School regarding what changes would make an improvement to the current situation, and we ran a survey during January and February 2026. This has culminated in a few proposals being prepared for potential submission to the York & North Yorks Mayoral “Active Travel Fund”.
Adaptive Bike Hire Hub
We completed the purchase of our first adaptive bike, a VanRaam Fun2Go e-trike in May 2025. In February 2026 we were awarded sufficient funds from the York & North Yorkshire Mayoral “Movement Activity and Sport Fund” to be able to purchase a second adaptive bike, a VanRaam EasyRider Compact e-trike, expected to arrive in June 2026. Further to this we are now making plans for the launch of the adaptive bike hire hub later this year. We have had a discussion with the Wheels for All charity with respect to them helping us establish the adaptive bike hub.
Whitby and Esk Valley Active Travel, registered as a charity in England and Wales : 1206506
Volunteering
We have held limited volunteering tasks during 2025-2026, cutting back vegetation at several points on the Cinder Track, as well as alongside the A171 Stainsacre Lane. We held a meeting with North Yorkshire Council parks staff to discuss collaborating on maintenance. Thus far such events have not materialised, not for a want of trying on our part, but we will persist with this avenue for 2026-2027.
Fundraising
We were a beneficiary of a fundraiser held at the Eighteen 91 venue in Brunswick Street, Whitby, with £500 donated to the charity, as well as a donation for our first adaptive bike.
Thanks
Thanks go to the Jack Brunton Charitable Trust for a grant of £750, as well as to the Marshall and Viggars Charitable Trust for a grant of £1100, both going towards accessories for our Adaptive Bikes. Finally thanks to those that have donated to the charity (such as a fundraiser run by Rachel Clarkson) or contributed ideas, or simply registered their support for more active travel in Whitby & the Esk Valley.
Whitby and Esk Valley Active Travel, registered as a charity in England and Wales : 1206506
Statement of Financial Activities for the year[1] ended 31 March 2026.[1] – period starting 02/04/2025
Receipts and Payments
| Unrestricted | Restricted |
Total Funds |
Total Funds |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funds | Funds | 2025-2026 | 2024-2025 | ||
| £ | £ | £ | £ | ||
| Receipts | |||||
| Grant Funding | 10,995 | 10,995 | 9,000 | ||
| Donations | 529 | 650 | 1,179 | 156 | |
| BikeHire | 39 | 39 | - | ||
| Bank Interest | 24 | 23 | 1 | ||
| Loans | 650 | - | |||
| SubTotal | 592 | 12,295 | 12,887 | 9,157 | |
| Asset/Investment Sales | |||||
| SubTotal | - | - | - | - | |
| Total Receipts | 592 | 12,295 | 12,887 | 9,157 | |
| Payments | |||||
| Stationery | 95 | - | 95 | 105 | |
| Bike Maintenance | 56 | - | 57 | - | |
| IT | 8 | - | 8 | - | |
| SubTotal | 159 | - | 159 | 105 | |
| Asset/Investment Purchases | |||||
| VanRaam Fun2Go purchase | - | 6,882 | 6,882 | 3,310 | |
| VanRaam Fun2Go accessories | - | 1,454 | 1,454 | - | |
| VanRaam EasyRider Compact | - | 8,132 | 8,132 | - | |
| purchase | |||||
| SubTotal | - | 16,468 | 16,468 | 3,310 | |
| Total Payments | 159 | 16,468 | 16,627 | 3,415 | |
| Receipts less Payments | 433 | (4,173) | (3,742) | 5,742 | |
| Transfer between funds | (892) | 892 | 0 | - | |
| Cash Funds last year end | 1,052 | 4,690 | 5,742 | - | |
| Cash Funds this year end | 593 | 1,409 | 2,002 | 5,742 |
Whitby and Esk Valley Active Travel, registered as a charity in England and Wales : 1206506
Statement of assets and liabilities at end of period
| Cash Funds | Details | Unrestricted Funds | Restricted Funds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash Fund | 593 | 1,409 | |
| Adaptive Bike Fund | |||
| Total Cash Funds | 593 | 1,409 | |
| Other Monetary | Details | Unrestricted Funds | Restricted Funds |
| Assets | |||
| Investment | Details | Fund name | Cost |
| Assets | |||
| Assets retained | Details | Fund name | Cost |
| for charity use | |||
| VanRaam Fun2Go | Adaptive Bike Fund | ||
| VanRaam Fun2Go accessories | Adaptive Bike Fund | ||
| VanRaam EasyRider Compact | Adaptive Bike Fund | ||
| Liabilities | Details | Fund name | Amount due |
| Loan for VanRaam Fun2Go | Adaptive Bike Fund | 650 |
Breakdown of donations and grants
The line entries for donations and grants in the above receipts table are broken down as follows.
| Donations | Grants | Total Funds | Total Funds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-2026 | 2024-2025 | |||
| £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| North Yorkshire Council | - | - | - | 1,000 |
| Normanby Charitable Trust | - | - | - | 3,000 |
| Woodsmith Foundation | - | - | - | 5,000 |
| Jack Brunton Charitable Trust | - | 750 | 750 | - |
| Marshall & Viggars Charitable Trust | - | 1,100 | 1,100 | - |
| Y&NY Mayoral Movement Activity | - | 9,145 | 9,145 | - |
| and Sport Fund | ||||
| Easyfundraising | 28 | - | 28 | 57 |
| Individual Donation | 1,150 | - | 1,150 | 10 |
| Carers Plus | - | - | - | 89 |
| Total | 1,178 | 10,995 | 12,173 | 9,156 |
Whitby and Esk Valley Active Travel, registered as a charity in England and Wales : 1206506
Declaration
The trustees declare that they have approved the financial statements as set out on pages 6 to 7.
For and on behalf of all of the Trustees.
19/06 /2026
Treasurer, Whitby & Esk Valley Active Travel
Date
Whitby and Esk Valley Active Travel, registered as a charity in England and Wales : 1206506