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2023-03-31-accounts

Annual Report

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Contents

Chair’s Statement

Our achievements

10 Nature Recovery

throughout the year

People Engagement

24 Nature and Wellbeing 26 Team Wilder & Volunteers 28 Education

30 Youth Council 32 Our Partners

Resilience

48 Financial Review

Cash Flows

Statements

Chair’s Statement

I am very proud of all the work the Trust does whether in Education, Well-being, Protection of Habitats and Species, and Encouraging and helping people Engage with Nature in both rural and urban areas. In many of these we are leaders within our region and nationally. Our Peatlands Team has indeed achieved international recognition for its work on Lowland Bogs and wetter farming.

Our activities generally take place on the fantastic places we manage but we are also active in protecting nature and increasing biodiversity on land we don’t own or manage. We do this by contributing our expertise to farmers and landowners, to local authorities and by participating in regional initiatives. This financial year has been another year in which the Trust has continued to make progress on many fronts despite the legacy of Covid and the negative effect of the war in Ukraine on the UK economy.

“[Our membership ] continues to grow and in fact we grew our membership at a greater rate than any other Wildlife trust. ”

The Trust depends on its members, and I would like to welcome all new members reading this to the Trust. Our membership continues to grow and in fact we grew our membership at a greater rate than any other Wildlife trust. Our work on Carbon and Biodiversity attracts Corporate members and sponsors and our Corporate membership has grown.

You will read much more about our work and the finances that underpin it in the rest of this report. It wouldn’t happen without our staff, our members and supporters, and our volunteers and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all. I would also like to thank my fellow Trustees for their efforts and contribution.

Julian Jackson

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Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

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Rindle Moss
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Our Vision, Mission & Goals

Our Vision

That nature is recovering on a grand scale across Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside, and in our sea, and that everyone can enjoy our increasingly abundant wildlife.

Our Mission

To enable wildlife’s recovery in our area by working in partnership with others to conserve, restore, create and connect habitats and to increase species abundance

To connect people with nature and help them to take-action for wildlife, wherever they are

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30%
of land
and sea is
in recovery
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Our National Goals[*] :

Our Strategic goals

1. Nature is in recovery with abundant, diverse wildlife and natural processes creating wilder land and seascapes where people and nature thrive.

1. Nature is in recovery with abundant, diverse wildlife and natural processes creating wilder land and seascapes where people and nature thrive

2. People are taking-action for nature and the climate, resulting in better decision making for the environment at both the local level and across the four nations of the UK.

1 in 4 people

2. People are better connected to nature in their lives and more are taking purposeful action for wildlife

3. Nature is playing a central and valued role in helping to address local and global problems.

3. Lancashire Wildlife Trust has the financial and human resources, systems and skills that it needs to improve our impact for nature’s recovery

bigger, better and more joined up*

*These are the nationally agreed priorities with the partnership of The Wildlife Trusts (TWT)

Bigger: a larger organisation in terms of people, revenue and the amount of impact achieved. Better: Able to measure, monitor and demonstrate improved performance with evidence. More joined up: More working & sharing of knowledge and skills between teams, and across Trusts, and more working in partnership with and through stakeholders to deliver our goals externally.

Public Benefit Statement

The Wildlife Trust exists to promote the care and protection of the environment. The advancement of environmental protection and improvement is recognised as a charitable purpose and is regarded universally as producing a clear public benefit.

The Wildlife Trust’s philosophy is based on the belief that the natural world deserves conserving for its own sake and, since this is widely perceived to be a worthy aim of public policy, it may fairly be regarded as a benefit to the public at large. However, the public benefits provided by the Wildlife Trust go much further.

Our nature reserves are open to the general public, and many have access on way-marked routes. At many sites information and interpretation is provided to visitors. There are a few cases where there may be a conflict between management requirements and unfettered access, but where this occurs, we try to keep any restrictions to a minimum.

Our education programmes are aimed at schools, colleges, adult groups and the wider public. Education is also, of course, recognised as a charitable activity in its own right.

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thegreenhouses atWitton
in
ding
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Cro
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Our information gathering and provision of expert advice and opinion to local authorities and others helps to ensure that planning decisions are made on a rational basis taking full account of the public benefit of wildlife.

We can also exert influence through our substantial membership at local level, and nationally through our membership of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts. It is also our belief that the involvement of many volunteers in our work provides an outlet for altruistic endeavour which is of special benefit to those involved as well as delivering benefits to the wider public.

Promoting the enjoyment of the natural world is an important part of what we do: contact with the natural world and the appreciation of wildlife and wild places provides great pleasure to many people and contributes towards wellbeing and health. Our nature reserves and activities are available to benefit everyone and we also actively work with people to improve their mental health. We are also working to improve our provision for the disabled and disadvantaged wherever possible.

The Trustees of Lancashire Wildlife Trust Limited have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the key aims and objectives and in the planning of future activities. The Trustees have also actively considered how the planned activities contribute to the aims and objectives embodied in our Constitution.

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Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

As an environmental protection and improvement charity, part of our core purpose is to advance the education of the public in the principles and practice of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. “...development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (Brundtland Commission).

We are a local grass roots organisation that thinks globally and acts locally. In our work, and the work we undertake with others, we are actively working to creating a healthier more sustainable environment in Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside. Whilst acting locally, right is a short list of some of the ways that our work aligns with the United Nations international targets that all member states committed to.

GOALS

15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

INTERNATIONAL TARGETS

15.1 By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements

15.3 By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world

15.4 By 2030, ensure the conservation of mountain ecosystems, including their biodiversity, in order to enhance their capacity to provide benefits that are essential for sustainable development

15.5 Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species

15.8 By 2020, introduce measures to prevent the introduction and significantly reduce the impact of invasive alien species on land and water ecosystems and control or eradicate the priority species

15.9 By 2020, integrate ecosystem and biodiversity values into national and local planning, development processes, poverty reduction strategies and accounts

14.2 By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceans

14.5 By 2020, conserve at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with national and international law and based on the best available scientific information

3.4 By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being

13.3 Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Advised on 3,536 hectares of land outside of our own estate

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1079ha of this land is
of land outside of
designated as 55 Local
our own estate
Our 34 Wildlife Sites
28 Advised
Reserves
32 on 189.2km
1 Lunt Meadows 33 Helped 45 of water
2 Freshfield Dune Heath 30 27 446 events Organised schools to courses
3 Seaforth
4 Mere Sands Wood with 46,848 improve their
5 Cop Lane 29 participants grounds
6 Red Scar Woods
7 Freeman’s Pasture
8 Longworth Clough 31 25 15 Supported 120 groups and 1,556
9 Willow Farm Wood 13 people have benefitted from our
10 Dean Wood 14 support to these groups
11 Summerseat
12 Foxhill Bank
13 Cross Hill Quarry
1415 Moor Piece Salthill Quarry 16 6 Meaningful We have led
16 Brockholes engagement or been part of
17 Abram Flash and Lightshaw Meadows 5 9 12 with 249 68 partnerships
18 Highfield Moss people
19 Wigan Flashes who are in
20 Red Moss strategic/
21 Astley Moss influential
22 Cutacre 4 We supported
23 Moston Fairway 7 10 8 11 positions 17 placements/
24 Cadishead and Little Woolden Moss 2 20 trainees
25 Winmarleigh and Cockerham Moss
26 Holiday Moss
27 Freeman’s Pools 22
17 19
28 Over Kellet Pond 1 Supported
29 Middleton 21
30 Heysham Nature Reserve 3 26 24 23 through 747 participantsNature and
31 Barnaby’s Sands and Burrows Marsh 18
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34 Warton Crag

1,136 participants,

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

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Red squirrel by Peter Smith
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Our achievements

Nature Recovery

The Trust’s success in obtaining Natural Environment Investment Readiness Funding has allowed some pioneering work in the development of the Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) scheme. This scheme requires developers to compensate for any wildlife loss due to building schemes and to add a further 10% of ‘net gain’ for wildlife by creating new habitat off site.

Our funding was initially used to trial methods of assessing the compensation needed in a mossland situation and then to work closely with local authorities to explore joint systems for administration and delivery of compensation habitat units locally. This was explored with partner organisations using the Greater Manchester Environment Fund as a broker for this compensatory habitat, setting up the systems for liaison, locating suitable receptor sites and legal agreements.

The Trust has also been exploring models for restoring and developing new large scale habitat areas using BNG as a major opportunity to create and join up large habitat blocks such as in the Wigan and Leigh National Nature Reserve working with other land managers. We have begun to evaluate our current nature reserve land holding as potential recipients of BNG thereby securing valuable capital monies for restoration works and up to 30 years of a maintenance budget.

The Trust has been the habitat delivery partner for Natural England’s Great Crested Newt District Level Licencing scheme in Lancashire and the year saw us pass the landmark 100 new and or restored ponds in the County since the initiative began. We also established a Pond Officer post to liaise with farmers and land managers. These compensatory ponds are paid for by developers to replace those lost at the ratio of three new ponds for each one lost. Farmers are keen on the scheme as they are paid to build ponds on their land.

Work continued with National Highways (NH) along the M65 / A56 corridor. Primarily focussing on grassland habitats along the route, the project will work with NH staff to make the most of roadside and connectivity to existing and new habitat with adjacent farmers and land managers. Over 100 Ha of grassland was enhanced during the year.

The Red Squirrel conservation project has continued to support Red Squirrel survival through active control of Grey Squirrels. Awareness raising activities and fundraising effort is being provided through the Trust’s ‘Red Alert’ local group, who also help with the trap loan scheme. A successful crowd funding appeal raised over £10,000 towards the work. A major North of England lottery bid has been submitted to fund future work.

We felt some frustration during the year with the slow rollout of the Environment Act (2021) requirement to produce Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS). The strategies intend to highlight priority areas and actions to reconnect and rebuild nature. Development of the key funding mechanisms of new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELM) and BNG has also been slow. However, the Trust has been very active in developing these initiatives.

3,536 Area of land improved / advised on outside of our Nature Reserves

Farming occupies approximately 80% of our land area and many farms have a significant wildlife resource. Stewardship of that land is key to achieving the Government’s target (and our target) of 30% of our landscape and seascape in some form of sustainable wildlife management by 2030.

The Lancashire Wildlife Trust was commissioned by Defra to run a test of the new ELM scheme being developed by the Government to replace the existing EU scheme for agricultural support. The report focused on the peri-urban area of Greater Manchester. The Trust has worked with over 50 farmers and land managers to produce 10 detailed case studies. Findings and suggestions were well received by Defra and summary findings were presented to the ELM scheme development team in Whitehall. >>>

Great crested newt by Tom Bridges

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Highfield moss

Reserve Management

The Grazing project has purchased new cattle from Martin Mere and Bollin Valley Partnership which has helped to facilitate grazing on several of our own sites including Heysham Moss and Freemans Pools in the North of the County, we trialled winter grazing on a number of Sefton Coast sites, had a successful lambing season and a successful funding application for no fence collars from the Halpin Trust.

Ash Die back surveys and works have been completed on all our high-risk sites including Brockholes, Fox Hill Bank and Boilton Woods, much of the timber will be used in house within the Nature Works Team or sold as fire wood either through our own outlets or through a bulk sale.

Coppicing coupes has been completed at Brockholes, Mere Sands Wood and Willow Farm Wood, these works are in the management plans but would not have been completed without the help of the Woodland Oasis Project.

Orchard pruning at Lunt and Scutchers has been carried out in partnership with Wigan and Leigh College.

No 1 pit island has been scrapped at Brockholes, refreshing feeding and breeding habitat for over 1000 waders. The 30-year-old unused Tower Hide at Mere Sands Wood has been repurposed into a bat hibernaculum, with some glade clearance increasing feeding habitat, creating a home for over 40 bats of three species.

Creation of an island surrounded by predator fence was carried out last year that led to a successful Common Tern breeding season at Seaforth with 213 pairs and 186 fledglings , further to this in the winter of 22/23 the causeway has been remodelled and further predator fencing has been installed on the hope that this will mitigate for potential losses due to bird flu to allow breeding adults greater space to nest.

National Museums Liverpool officially celebrated the end of the archaeological dig after 10 years and and 15,000 finds.

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Sandwich ternbyAlan Wright
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There have been some staffing changes within the Nature Reserves Team including 2 new Assistant Reserve Officer posts at Lunt and Brockholes, a new Reserve Officer Post for Scutchers Acres & Mere Sands Wood. Two Heritage and Conservation trainees, a Learning Officer & maternity cover for the Lunt Engagement and Communication Officer. Assistant Grazing Officer post still vacant and soon to be advertised.

We have had several successful funding bids and would like to thank our funders for helping us to improve our nature reserves, including Quercia (Brockholes), Big Give (Lunt), Biffa Award (Mere Sands Wood), Countryside Stewardship, Halpin Trust (Grazing), Lancashire Environment Fund (Mere Sands Wood, Aughton Woods, Heysham Moss), Natural England (Seaforth & Freshfield Dune Heath), RAF (Freshfield Dune Heath).

“[We have had ] several successful funding bids and would like to thank our funders for helping us to improve our nature reserves ”

After 20 years, Friends of Mere Sands Wood voted to end as an affiliated local group of the Trust on the 31st December. In that time, they have raised around £100,000 for the Trust, and enabled us to raise much more through unlocking the third party contribution element of bigger funding bids. They have provided visitor welcome, events, reserve ecological data and assisted with educational activities and we thank them for their support over the last 20 years. >>>

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Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Peatlands & Nature Based Solutions

A major achievement this year has been the Wigan Greenheart project’s successful inclusion as one of 22 schemes piloting the Landscape Recovery scheme in England. Lancashire Wildlife Trust, with Wigan Council and Forestry England, have secured £842k funding for the two-year development phase of this species recovery-focused project. Landscape Recovery is the highest tier of England’s new Environmental Land Management scheme, replacing the former agri-environment payment programme.

A new team has been recruited who are assessing the baseline of around 1,400 hectares of land across the borough of Wigan, including all the newly declared Flashes of Wigan and Leigh National Nature Reserve (NNR) sites, and working out the optimum activities to be delivered to achieve sustainable outcomes for willow tit, bittern, landscape connectivity and reducing climate change impacts during the 20-year implementation phase.

A pioneering feature of the Landscape Recovery work is to develop a blended public-private financing model to support delivery. This will look at the income available from investable public goods generated from nature based solutions being implemented such as biodiversity net gain, natural flood management and carbon emissions reductions.

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Sphagnum moss
by Jenny Bennion
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20
Number of
partnerships
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In June 2022 we kicked off the new Great Manchester Wetlands Land Manager Group. Supported by the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund, this aims to support and inform land owners/managers across the GM Wetlands partnership area to try to influence this key stakeholder sector to implement beneficial change to help create more of the nature recovery network.

Peat Programme:

We have continued to champion restoration of our peatlands where possible, but also drove forwards with our work to pioneer alternative management practises on farmed peat soils, at the Interreg NWE Care Peat funded ‘carbon farm’ trial in Lancashire and Precious Peatlands funded Rindle Moss wetter farming trial in Greater Manchester. The project has been well represented in the media, ranging from BBC Countryfile to features in international media such as the Washington Post.

The Trust’s peatland programme has continued to consolidate its reputation over the past year as a leader in the restoration and sustainable management of peatland habitats in the North West. The scale of the work and size of the team expanded – in line with the UK policy /funding focus for peatlands, and its crucial role in mitigating climate and biodiversity emergencies

A number of events looking at lowland raised bog restoration, alternative approaches to peatland management, willow tit habitat requirements, willow tit surveying techniques and fen restoration have been held with the group slowly establishing and increasing membership. Our work to attract innovative investment through new green finance mechanisms has been spearheaded through our role as managing agent for Greater Manchester Environment Fund. This work has been resourced through funding secured from the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund, both Rounds 1 and 2.

The team have been working across 12 externally funded projects worth a combined grant funding of approx. £3.5million, actively restoring or managing approx. 500 hectares of lowland peat alone – equivalent to about 700 football pitches! The support of our amazing volunteers has played a key role in delivering this, particularly with ongoing reserve management or monitoring activities.

The work we have been delivering is underpinned by scientific evidence and robust monitoring – collaborations particularly with Liverpool John Moores and Manchester Metropolitan universities.

Several exciting new projects came online over the past year, highlights include:

The Lancashire Peat Partnership has been given a massive boost through the funding, for the first time, of dedicated LPP staff by Esmée Fairburn. Two Officers took up post in November 2022 and are already making great strides in forging a more coordinated approach to peatland work, in Lancashire’s uplands in particular.

Nature for Climate Peatland Grant

Scheme (NCPGS) Discovery Grant to engage landowners and scope, survey and develop sites where peat can be restored across our region, to restore their carbon storage capacity.

Round 1 saw the development of two

investment models for habitat banking via Biodiversity Net Gain and Carbon Offsetting, based on a piece of land within the Chat Moss area and involved baseline assessment and a review of restoration costs that could attract both repayable investment as well as the delivery of ecosystem services

Lancashire Environment Fund grant – Winmarleigh Moss Plant Reintroduction to reintroduce key mossland plant species.

‘Maximising Manchester’s Mosslands’; funded by Global consultancy and construction company, Mace, got underway to support restoration of 157 hectares of mossland habitat in Greater Manchester.

This work saw Biodiversity Net Gain as both a huge opportunity and threat to the way future development will be granted. Round 2 bid focusses on how we can support Local Authorities to navigate the new system to ensure net gain of at least 10% is secured through any future development.

Environment Agency funded a project to investigate the feasibility for ‘wetter farming’ in Alt Crossens.

Aerial shot of Rindle Moss by Anthony da Silva

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

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Manchester Science Festival
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48 Number of partnerships we have been involved in

Urban Nature Programmes

The Urban Nature team has continued to engage with partnership structures including the Croal Working group to support and advocate for nature recovery action on this critical network.

Our My Wild City team have continued to deliver a range of events, workshops, volunteer led conservation activity and surveys / reports across the district. Key examples of activity have included partnering with the Museum of Science and Industry to support their annual science festival which saw the Trust engage with over 20,000 people about urban wildlife and delivering a series of volunteer led conservation sessions at Broadhurst Clough in north Manchester which helped support the designation of the site as a Local Nature Reserve.

Our Greenspace Fund Advisor has continued to connect and support a significant number of community groups with their ambitions to improve the natural environment in their area over the last year.

One of the key achievements by the Urban Nature team was the development of a new Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan for Manchester which has been approved by the Manchester City Council executive. This strategy, developed in collaboration with a number of stakeholders provides a framework for action over the next 10 years.

The core geographical focus of this work has been in a series of wards in Bolton and Bury which have high levels of deprivation and or poor access to greenspace. Alongside this our Greenspace Fund Advisor has also worked across other districts in Greater Manchester alongside fellow advisors hosted by partner organisations including Sow the City, RHS and Groundwork GM. Strong working relationships have been built with a number of these partner organisations which will be critical to support the Trust’s 1 in 4 priority, as well as our 30 by 30 ambition.

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Manchester Festival of Nature by Paul Heyes
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A key priority of the Urban Nature team is to support work associated with the Croal-Irwell Nature Recovery Focus Area (NRFA). Whilst we have not realised the vision / masterplan for this NRFA or secured stakeholder engagement we have secured additional grant investment from Veolia Environmental Trust to progress conservation at one of the priority sites along the landscape; Philips Park in Bury.

Manchester Festival of Nature by Paul Heyes

Our My Wild City funding from Esmee Fairburn Foundation culminated in March 2023. Despite this cessation, the Trust will continue to build on our strong partnership with Manchester City Council to lead and support the delivery of the Biodiversity Strategy and Action plan for the City – particularly around landscape scale work which connects and involves groups and residents.

The Urban Nature team have continued to work with other workstreams within the Trust to complement activity. This is most notable with our Nature Reserves Team where we have empowered a significant number of volunteers to help deliver management works across Cutacre Nature Reserve and Ashton Fields. The scope of our work on these reserves will increase in the next financial year. Elsewhere our work in partnership with Let’s Grow Preston we continue to work with and train up local individuals and groups to take positive action for nature and enjoy food growing. >>>

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Lancashire Wildlife Trust

264 Number of people in an influential position directly engaged

Standing Up for Wildlife

The Trust has also been active in commenting and lobbying on major infrastructure proposals that will affect wildlife in areas such as the HS2 rail link and the 3 proposed Mersey tidal energy scheme options. Liaison has started over proposals to develop the Morgan and Morecambe offshore wind projects in the open Irish Sea off Lancashire and north Wales with the Trusts sitting on the ‘Expert Working Group’ to discuss plans.

Cabling is likely to come onshore near Squires Gate, Blackpool and impact on recovering dunes. The dunes are already under threat from a proposal to extract sand off the beach at St. Anne’s to which we have objected.

Our work to comment on and influence the local authority strategic plans continues with over three submissions to local authority plan consultations. Submissions and presenting our case to the Examination in Public to the Greater Manchester ‘Places for Everyone’ (GM Spatial Strategy) and the Blackburn with Darwen Local Plan also took place. Housing allocations will potentially cause considerable damage to currently farmed peat areas and to major breeding wader populations.

Rachel Cripps, Fiona Whitfield, Tom Burditt, Alex Sobel MP and Bill Esterson MP

Local campaigning on development proposals, such as, Ellel Holiday Village, Galgate, Knott’s Lane housing proposals in Colne and continuing a dialogue with United Utilities over Haweswater Aqueduct Replacement Scheme (HARP) is helping to avoid damaging impacts upon a rare type of mossland habitat and biodiversity hotspot close to Newton in Bowland.

Continued contact with our sub-regions 46 MPs resulted in some valuable dialogue over specific issues. Shadow Defra Minister, Alex Sobel visited Lunt Meadows along with local MP Bill Esterson to discuss nature based solutions to the climate crisis. The “Attack On Nature” during the 6-week premiership of Liz Truss MP produced a flurry of national and local activity.

The Retained EU Law Bill remains on the parliamentary timetable under the current Government. It constitutes the greatest potential legislative threat to nature’s recovery for decades because it risks precipitate repeal of 30 years of environmental legislation and regulation on 1st January 2024 and gives Ministers of the Crown summary powers to amend the rest without consulting Parliament.

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Heron at Brockholes by Janet Stocks
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Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Living Sea Coastal Projects

The Trust works closely with the Wildlife Trusts of Cumbria and Cheshire to coordinate conservation and awareness activities in the North West Irish Sea. The group has been successful in lobbying for Marine Conservation Areas providing some level of protection for wildlife rich areas and there are now twelve designated by Government in this area. The Trusts lobbied for the designation of Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMA) and were successful with the designation of Allonby Bay HPMA.

October saw the publication of the Irish Sea Network’s (we are an active partner of this six-nation Wildlife Trust partnership) ‘Review of the Irish Sea’ the first attempt to work together to turn the tide of inaction on conservation of the Irish Sea. This hard-hitting document received limited media coverage due to rapid changes of Government and the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II. We are planning a relaunch and lobbying strategy to push for real actions by Government agencies on protecting the designated sites.

The Fylde Dunes Project had another successful year promoting and delivering conservation activities. This work was acknowledged by the NW Coastal Forum Excellence Award for coastal best practice projects in March 2023. February saw the return of volunteers in numbers to help with the annual Christmas tree tasks where the trees are partially buried to trap sand and build new dunes.

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Volunteers at St Annes
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The project uses donated trees that are collected by volunteers from local hospices for a small fee. The 2022/3 season resulted in 2500 trees being reused and 600M of Natural Flood Management being achieved. Over 400 volunteers gave their time (3,500 volunteer hours) and local charities raised over £22,000. Since 2006, the project has re-established the dune width to up to 90m seaward at the most vulnerable point in front of North Beach Car Park. The introduced Sand Lizards are now breeding successfully.

A new project called ‘Our Future Coast’ began in April. The programme will develop 14 varied site-based projects along the North West coast from the Wirral to West Cumbria. The Trust hosts one of the engagement officers as a crucial part of this innovative 5-year programme to test and develop nature-based solutions for coastal flood risk management. Funded through Defra’s Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme and focused on new approaches to co-designed solutions. Lancashire Wildlife Trust and Morecambe Bay Partnership will be working with project managers Wyre Council to deliver the community engagement programme.

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Rare Isle of Man cabbage by Alan Wright
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747 Number of participants benefiting from our nature and wellbeing programmes

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

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Finding newts in our new ponds
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859 Number of people advocating on our behalf

Calendar Highlights throughout the year

JULY TO SEPTEMBER

Wigan and Leigh Flashes, where we have been working for many years restoring nature to land damaged by industry, was made a National Nature Reserve. Over 7,000 people took part in 30 Days Wild and Manchester Festival of Nature. A feasibility study into the reintroduction of the White-Faced Darter dragonfly on GM Wetlands was completed. The Large Heath butterfly reintroduction on GM wetlands was confirmed to be going well. Two very experienced new Trustees were co-opted to Council. We celebrated the 60th Anniversary of the foundation of the Trust. Natural England awarded (us) £870k for the Wigan Greenheart Landscape Recovery project

APRIL TO JUNE

OCTOBER TO DECEMBER

We were awarded £100k of NEIRF funding for large scale habitat restoration in Greater Manchester, £75k from BIFFA to improve access at Mere Sands Wood, and £30k for MyPlace sessions at Philips Park. Innovative work on Winmarleigh and Rindle Moss included experiments with wetter farming. Our peatlands team won a CIEEM award 2022 for Sharing Knowledge of lowland peatland restoration.

Manchester City Council endorsed the Manchester Biodiversity Strategy and Action plan authored by the Trust.

The NHS directly commissioned our nature and wellbeing work for the first time. The education team won New First Schools accreditation. The Mere Sands Wood visitor infrastructure upgrades were started. An officer was recruited to work on the creation of new ponds for newts to replace those lost to development.

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Mere Sands Wood hide
by Charlotte Varela
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Audits on LWT and other land in Greater Manchester were undertaken to establish the base line for Biodiversity improvement and Carbon credits. This work, funded by NEIRF, will be an important part of our future activities and a significant revenue raising opportunity. Over 22,000 people attended the Manchester Science Festival where LWT showcased its work on peatlands, nature and wellbeing and the carbon landscape.

The Trust Won the National Cycle September award for best cycling to work organisation, winning a Cycle Parking Solution and Deluxe Repair Station. 26 staff cycled 3,460 miles (2,232 of which were commuting miles), saving 1,505lbs of CO2. We came 4th in the global competition.

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Mere Sands Wood hide
by Charlotte Varela
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A New Volunteering Manager is leading the application of the Team Wilder Approach to the Trust’s work. The annual LWT Supporters day was held at UCLAN in person for the first time since lockdown.

JANUARY TO APRIL

A new Project management procedure has been developed and training in its use delivered. This will be used to monitor and manage all Trust projects. The Peatlands team now have 15 fully funded restoration and species recovery projects across more than 30 sites. Some of these are in neighbouring counties and including upland sites such as Darwen Moor. We are getting a lot of interest from farmers particularly in Wetter Farming and upland conservation farming.

The Lunt meadows visitor centre groundworks were completed. Trust staff coordinated the annual beach restoration Christmas tree planting. 600M of sand catch fencing was built and the project won the NW Coastal Forum Excellence Award for coastal best practice projects in March 2023.

The Tower hide at Mere Sands Wood has been made safe by removing human access and replacing the top with bat friendly roof cladding.

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Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

People Engagement

Nature and Wellbeing From project to service, our Nature and Wellbeing offer started as Myplace back in 2016 and many will still know it as this. As it’s grown we’ve learned that consistency is key and we have worked hard this year to move away from a short term project model to a consistent service delivery where both referrers and the general public can have confidence in our commitment and presence in reconnecting people with nature. This is and will remain challenging in a grant funded environment but is key to long term success for people, communities and the environment.

We’re also really excited to be developing nature and wellbeing groups over the next few years at The Chai Centre in Burnley in partnership with Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust.

Getting out into nature is a great way to meet people

Last but not least, we have been working intently to deliver the second year of The Bay: a Blueprint for Recovery. A coastal social prescribing programme that’s seen us working across the whole stretch of Morecambe Bay communities from Fleetwood, to Morecambe and Lancaster, and up to Barrow and the beautiful Walney Island. In partnership with Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Eden Project Morecambe, and Lancashire and South Cumbria Foundation Trust we’ve not only developed the nature and wellbeing offer across new areas, but we’ve aligned this with proactive community engagement to ensure a healthy community that is well connected with nature at all levels of engagement and need.

This year saw the conclusion of the initial Nature for Health programme in Greater Manchester (GM). One of seven test and learn programmes nationally, we’ve been working with partners like Groundwork, Sow the City, Petrus, RHS Bridgewater, Salford CVS and City of Trees to test different approaches to embedding green social prescribing programmes across GM. With delivery primarily in Bury we have seen our Nature and Wellbeing work in Philips Park go from strength to strength and it’s been a key example of the power of working really closely both with local grassroots green groups and strategically.

Everywhere we work, partnerships

are key and we have been fortunate to work within some brilliant partnerships. In central Lancashire and Chorley, with Active Lancashire and the More Positive Together Partnership we are supporting people with poor mental health who are unemployed to regain their confidence, self-esteem, and re-enter education, employment, and training.

The difference it’s made to supporting people with poor mental health and wellbeing both to access services and go on to thrive in their local community has led to us developing ongoing work with both Pennine Care and Bury GP Federation. We’ve also been excited to see our delivery in Bolton really begin to embed, and the degree to which local social prescribing teams recognise and are passionate about the impact nature can have for people.

From outreach work in care homes, to a hub in Morecambe Arndale, to outdoor cooking sessions this has seen us create lots of new ways to engage. We’ve also been particularly excited to be supporting Living Seas North West in monitoring Sabellaria Reef along the Wyre Coast! This year see’s us both conclude the original Peoples Postcode Lottery funding and develop new funding pathways, in particular we’re looking forward to working together with the Eden Project to lobby for a more consistent role out and a more sustainable funding model that supports the much needed growth in green social prescribing activity.

In Blackburn with Darwen we have been amazed at the continued development of the renovation and community development activity people have so passionately and enthusiastically engaged with at Witton Park. Here, The Greenhouse Project not only runs nature and wellbeing sessions but supports wider community volunteering, acts as a local venue for skills sharing and is the central point for the community food growing network.

2,041 Number of people directly engaged through support to groups

As a team we’ve continue to develop and learn as more communities want to work with us, and seen the real impact that combining people and natures recovery can make. We are proud to have had an offer for the 745 people with poor mental health and wellbeing who have been referred to us this year across Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s Nature and Wellbeing Service, and it has been a pleasure to have engaged with over 4000 people across our wider communities.

It’s also important to recognise though, that all of those people have not only sought to support their own wellbeing and personal recovery, they have also been part of working with us to support over 1400 local actions for natures recovery. Our communities really can be both our own and nature’s greatest asset when given the opportunity.

Our Nature and Wellbeing team 24 – 25 makes a difference

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Annual Review 2023

Team Wilder & Volunteers

Our first year targeting our ambition to see 1 in 4 of our population taking meaningful action for nature has been spent reflecting on how we as an organisation and our many connections to people can enable and inspire those people to take action.

We recognise that our reach is at least 20% of our population however providing any evidence of how many people take action as a result of our contact is challenging. We know we need to explore ways in which our connection with people can inspire them to take action. To help drive this forward our new Engagement and Empowerment Committee is developing a programme of activity that helps us to convey our key messages as well as a range of inspirational and fun, quick actions that will have a positive impact on nature.

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Willow tit by Harry Hogg
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We had 798 active volunteers contributing 43,025 hours of volunteer time

Appointing a Volunteer Manager has really helped us to review our current support to volunteers, and to start putting in place the structures and procedures to ensure volunteers are supported and retained, as well as ensuring we have an effective recruitment and onboarding process for new volunteers.

A review of our volunteer demographic highlights key areas that we need to target, and we are developing ways to showcase and celebrate projects that are successful at recruiting new and diverse audiences, as well as building partnerships with new audiences that can help us become more diverse across our organisation.

This year we started our Nextdoor Nature project in North Merseyside to further define our Community Organising approach. Nextdoor Nature is a National Lottery Heritage Fund programme led by RSWT. The aim is to empower people to take action and it has helped us to highlight existing activity that already does Community Organising well.

One of the key projects that has excelled in this has been the Carbon Landscape Scheme funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund, which completed this year.

A step change for this Landscape partnership Scheme was through the delivery of a creative engagement programme that was co-designed with local people, artists and groups that has helped us to reach new and diverse audiences within our landscape. The recognition that creativity is a great way to connect with new people has led the Wildlife Trust to produce an Arts Strategy that promotes our ambitions for the coming years.

Our Community organising approach is truly demonstrated through grant giving and this year we saw the establishment of the Greater Manchester Green Spaces Fund with a Community Enablers programme that will support new and more diverse groups taking action for nature.

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Our volunteers are increasing in number
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Our related parties, the Lancashire Environmental Fund and Greater Manchester Environment Fund – are brilliant examples of ways in which people can be empowered to take action for themselves . Selection processes for the funds, ensure that all successful applicants have the skills, systems and procedures in place to ensure all activity is delivered safely and involve local people in direct action.

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Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Education

Therefore, we increase our reach, inspire nature connection and action, and work towards the goal of a self-sustaining team. NBL also manages our outdoor learning activity in Liverpool and Manchester, funded by Players of the Peoples Postcode Lottery. This work continues to connect children to nature and inspire them to take action through outdoor learning sessions and forest school programmes. The team is now working on an exit strategy as the PPL funding will end in March 2024.

A key priority for the team was growth, to support delivery on key sites and work towards engaging 1 in 4 to take-action for nature. We welcomed new Education and Engagement Officers to The Hive, Brockholes and Mere Sands Wood/Lunt Meadows, as well as bringing education and engagement delivery and staff based at Bolton ERC and Heysham, into the core team. This supports a standardised approach and ensures staff feel supported.

Funding successes have resulted in some fantastic joined-up work within the Trust. The NBL team, in partnership with MyPlace received funding from Bolton Together to deliver an arts programme, supporting young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Closely followed by IThrive funding for our Nature to Nurture programme. The team, secured funding to develop an accessible outdoor learning space at Brockholes Nature Reserve.

A key achievement was securing the Outdoor Learning Officer Grant from The Ernest Cook Trust, which will help support our fantastic outdoor learning work for the next 3 years.

The team has established the NatureBased Learning (NBL) outreach team. This team works closely with schools in their own settings to embed outdoor learning, community engagement activity and training for teachers. The NatureBased Learning team also launched our fantastic Wild Workshops programme where staff benefit from one free workshop per year as well as being advertised to the public.

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Children thrive when they are outdoors
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11,571 Number of children / students directly engaged directly in an education setting

We also secured funding to support Stay, Play and Learn sessions across children’s centres in Bolton. These sessions foster an early interest in wildlife and inspire young children and their families to spend more time in nature. The programme facilitates work with families that may not be able to access our beloved Nature Tots and Nature kids’ sessions, which take place at Brockholes, Heysham, The Hive and Mere Sands Wood.

Work started at Back Lane Woods, a 10year partnership with Clayton Le Woods Parish Council. Another joined up project delivered alongside the contracts, conservation and Myplace teams.

The Forest School training team has faced another challenging year, initially struggling to recruit staff to support delivery of the training programme. However, the team finds itself in a more settled position and is looking forward to delivering a full schedule of training in 2023/2024. The team has reviewed the qualification, changed awarding organisation and implemented an online learner management system.

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Annual Review 2023
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Woodland Oasis sites have been transferred back to landowners Lancashire County Council, and Arnside and Silverdale AONB. The Trust retained management of Booths plantation, continuing to run regular practical volunteering. Further funding to make improvements to the site’s biodiversity and support engagement on site is a key priority going forward.

In July 2022 the Education team undertook the caretaker role of the Hive, taking the opportunity to make some changes to the site when it was closed over winter. The team will continue delivering outdoor learning in line with the core objectives of the Trust through season/day passes, holiday and weekend engagement, school visits, wild workshops and volunteering. We will continue to work closely with the commercial team to ensure larger scale events can be scheduled by the commercial, volunteering and events teams.

Overall, the education team has engaged 16,430 people, with 4,378 taking-action for nature!

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

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17
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Number of placements / traineeships

The Youth Council took part in the Manchester Festival of Nature

Annual Review 2023

Youth Council

The Youth Voice Officer and Youth Council go from strength to strength. The Youth Council has seen young people take part and lead in a raft of activity to promote natures’ recovery. Achievements in 2022 included joining a youth delegation that went to 10 Downing Street to deliver a petition calling for changes to the Environment Act.

They also appeared on BBC Radio Manchester and BBC Asian Network talking about the importance of peat restoration. The group secured £1,000 which helped to install a new pond dipping platform. They also helped to represent the Trust at Manchester Pride and Manchester Festival of Nature.

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Members of the 2023-24
Youth Council
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The new Youth Council recruitment process for 2023-24 has gone well and has seen 15 new people recruited from across our region. The outgoing Youth Council gave very positive feedback on the skills, experience and confidence they had gained from the experience. Several former Youth Council members are now working in the environmental sector. Being on the Youth Council is helping young people positively progress in their lives.

A member of the Youth Council attended Trust Council meetings and has cemented the link between the Board of Trustees and the Youth Council, with trustees attending some Youth Council meetings too, helping to keep young people’s voices at the heart of the organisation.

The Wilder Youth online monthly sessions aimed at a wider audience of young people is being relaunched in early summer 2023. Wilder Youth is a way that young people can learn about the amazing wildlife in our area and keep connecting with us.

We are starting to work with other youth groups to provide support and inspiration that will empower lasting action for nature. For example, a youth group called ‘Positive Futures’ has started to work with the Trust, supported by the Youth Voice Officer.

This organisation supports young people struggling to engage with mainstream education. The Youth Voice Officer and the Education team have submitted a joint bid to the National Citizen Service that, if successful, would see an expansion of youth engagement in the Bolton area.

The Youth Council with national colleagues in Downing Street

At a time when so many young people are feeling anxious about the state of the planet it is vitally important that we at The Trust, provide a range of ways they can take positive action for nature and are equipped to be the environmental leaders of tomorrow.

“[At a time when] so many young people are feeling anxious about the state of the planet it is vitally important that we at The Trust, provide a range of ways they can take positive action for nature and are equipped to be the environmental leaders of tomorrow. ”

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Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Our Partners

Thank you to our corporate partners who help us financially and love to get involved in our activities. All of these partners are taking action for nature and making a difference.

Beechfields Close Brothers Crystal Doors Eagle & Child Ramsbottom Eco Speed Couriers Eric Wright Group Gresham Office Furniture Mace Siemens Standby Productions Volker Stevin VP plc Decordia Ltd Fort Vale Engineering Ltd MJ Wilkinson Plant Hire Nurturing Hope Derek Fox Timber Dugdale Nutrition Holiday Cottages Responsible Mailing Valley Mist Weinerberger Hoofs & Paws Su Melville Art Morecambe Bay Wills & Estates Ltd Worthington Sharpe Ltd

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Northstone gardeners at Applecast Annual Review 2023
Little Green Feet at MFoN
by Paul Heyes
20
Number of
partnerships we
have led
Decordia’s Cordelia Ashwell with Peatlands
Comms Officer Jenny Bennion
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Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Resilience

Fundraising to the public

Growing our resources

Our fundraising activity generates vital unrestricted income for the Trust, meaning we can invest this money where wildlife really needs it the most. We are working to embed our supporters at the heart of everything we do, fundraising in both a respectful and inspiring way.

Unsurprisingly, the impact of the cost-of-living crisis has been closely monitored throughout the past year and we will continue to do so. Our supporter retention remains steady, but membership recruitment has slowed, with a particular challenge in our activity on reserves. We have however achieved a small amount of growth this year and we continue to explore sustainable ways to fundraise with the public.

Without our dedicated supporters, our organisation could not carry out the wide range of essential work for wildlife we do. Our focus around growing resources with our fundraising this year has been to deepen supporter connections with our organisation. We have been working hard behind the scenes to set up and test new systems to ensure each supporter has an engaging and inspiring journey with our charity.

Delivered this year by carefully vetted and monitored fundraising professionals: Face to face membership recruitment on private sites (CF Fundraising)

Telephone Fundraising – member welcome calls (QTS Fundraising)

This has involved a lot of digital transformation work, we have sourced the right systems and further developed and integrated our CRM system to ensure we can create meaningful interactions in the future.

Delivered by our skilled in-house team:

Online membership recruitment Fundraising appeals

Membership recruitment on our reserves In memory and in celebration donations

Individual Fundraising General Donations Corporate Fundraising

You can find out more about our fundraising, and see our supporter care charter at www.lancswt.org.uk/ support-us/about-ourfundraising

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Bluebells by Alan Wright
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Some key highlights include:

Our corporate fundraising has focused on strong partnership development, and we are seeing a significant increase in the number of businesses who want to engage with us, and really make a difference.

An overhaul of our our email system, to ensure we are speaking to our supporters in the right way and at the right time. We will monitor and adjust this over the coming year.

Our first major digital campaign was launched in January, with the learnings from previous testing seeing a record 388 new members join the Trust.

We continue to grow our external face to face fundraising, and this year we have set up the functionality to be able to add in donations to this area of fundraising.

We held a series of thank you events, including an art exhibition event to engage key supporters and further nurture relationships

We have sourced and developed a new fundraising platform, and we are in the process of finalising a new fundraising pack to empower others to fundraise in aid of our charity, and their local wildlife.

We continued to work in partnership with the Big Give, creating match funding opportunities for our major appeals

A huge thank you to all our supporters during these challenging times – we simply could not do it without you!

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Blackbird by Peter Smith
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Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Brockholes Enterprises Limited Brockholes Enterprises Limited (BELt), was established as our trading subsidiary in 2010 to run commercial activities to generate income for our charitable purposes.

This year there has been a focus on structuring the commercial operations in order to ensure the right focus and expertise to drive us forward, and continue to add value to the overall objectives of The Lancashire Wildlife Trust. This has involved a new focus around commercial volunteering opportunities, training and support, and a change in the way our visitor operations are run at Brockholes in particular.

Events was also a big focus this year, looking at where these can add value, attract new audiences and generate crucial commercial income to support the Trust. These have included the launch of new Artisan Markets across multiple sites, and partnership working with other charities to trial more accessible Christmas events such as BSL interpretation and Makaton supported sessions and autism friendly sessions. These were extremely popular and very well received.

With wedding restrictions lifting, we saw an increase in bookings in particular from those delayed during Covid. The conference market is also continuing to grow and we will monitor trends closely over the coming year.

The new Lunt building by Tom Burditt

Mere Sands Wood visitor centre was opened to the public and is moving towards a profitable status. A blended service of volunteers and staff to enhance the visitor experience is continuing roll out. Car park renovations have seen facilities improve, and further trialling of events will take place over the coming year.

Moss Bank Park café continues to perform well, and is sustaining good footfall throughout the year. We have formed one long term relationship for ongoing monthly consultancy with another Wildlife Trust to assist with commercial activities, and it may grow to 3-4 relationships by the end of the year coming helping us generate income from consultancy fees, expand our supplier partnerships to assist in better buying and also help other trusts in the movement generate valuable income.

BELt continues to look for new revenue generating opportunities that also adds to visitor experience and increases our exposure in the area.

Overall, BELt continues to deliver sustainable profit levels and the forward plan is to carefully grow this, whilst working in line with the core values of the Trust.

1,159 Number of people trained

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Aerial view of Brockholes by Stephen Melling
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Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Ensuring the Trust has the financial and human resources, systems and skills that it needs to improve our impact for nature’s recovery

Environmental Sustainability & Maintenance

The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside has committed to work towards net zero carbon emissions by 2030. The Trust aims to achieve this through the delivery of a programme of energy use reduction and active review of our working procedures.

Our 2021-2022 carbon calculations are based on the third iteration of the RSWT metric, which contained updates for working from home; addition of commercial waste to landfill and expansion on Well-To-Tank factors. This contributed to total emissions for the 2021-2022 period rising by approximately 258 t CO2e (56%), when compared to the previous year’s emissions, like for like (excluding new emission sources), there was an increase of approximately 117 t CO2e (26%).

2019 2020 2021 2021 -2022 -2020 -2021 -2022 (Excl. new elements) 653.5 456.9 714.98 573.88

An increase in emissions due to travel was expected, as staff and volunteers returned to working on LWT sites after Covid19 pandemic restrictions. During this period the Trust has adopted a hybrid working system the benefit of this will be seen in future calculations.

There were no planned measures introduced to reduce emissions in the 2021-2022 period although review of lighting and rollout of LED replacements was started and Siemens have now completed a viability study to install electric vehicle charging points at Brockholes and Mere Sands Wood, which will be progressed this year. Carbon Literacy Training will be introduced for LWT staff during the 2023-2024 period based on materials commissioned by RSWT.

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Andrew Spencer
by
brimstone
n
o
m
m
o
C
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Annual Review 2023
Dandelion clock by Alan Wright
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With the aim of improving the sustainable culture and empowering LWT staff to implement realistic and effective actions. A facilities manager was appointed in November 2022 to improve coordination and efficiency at our sites. The team structure has been updated to include a position for a mobile maintenance technician.

A temporary maintenance system JotForm, was introduced whilst a long-term digital maintenance system to control compliance, facilities and assets was identified, which will be rolled out across LWT during 2023.

Areas of compliance covered will include audits of buildings to ensure consistency across all sites and a compliance register. Contractor control and ongoing security improvements will be rolled out, along with improvements to work security procedures for reserves and buildings.

154 Number of landowners advised

The facilities manager has also stepped into a project support role for the new Lunt building.

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Total SHE Reports

Safety, Health and Environmental Performance

(SHE)

A new SHE Advisor was appointed in August 2022 and has continued with our ambition to drive safety improvements across the Trust. Accident, Incident, Near Miss and Safety Observation reporting continues to increase year on year and they have now become well established and used by Staff and Volunteers helping to promote a positive safety culture within the Trust.

There was a significant increase in the number of Safety Observations reported in 20222023. This is seen as a positive and a direct result of raising awareness of their importance and encouraging all staff and volunteers to report them in addition to reporting Accidents and Incidents.

Safety Observations lead to repairs or changes to procedures carried out, thus preventing potential accidents leading to injury. It is encouraging to see the number of Near Misses reducing whilst Safety Observations are on the rise.

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400
200 178
227
55
123 128
0
2018-2019 2019-2020 2020-2021 2021-2022 2022-2023
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Graph 1

Total SHE reports submitted. The increase in reports from the start of the 2021-2022 period coincides with the Trust returning to normal operations and an increase of visitors to our sites following the Coronavirus pandemic, along with an updated procedure, that resulted in improved reporting by staff.

Total SHE Reports

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250
200 49
28 19
150
100 9 8 1423 49 94
44
50 106 91 1217 57 65
26
0
2018-2019 2019-2020 2020-2021 2021-2022 2022-2023
Accident Incident Near Miss Safety Observation
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Graph 2

Total SHE reports broken down by type. There has been a significant switch in the type of reports raised with Incident Reports exceeding Accident reports for the first time. During 2022-23 one accident was RIDDOR reportable.

There has been an increase in incident reports attributed to People/Abuse/Vandalism across our Reserves, with a reduction in Near misses and a comparable increase in Safety Observations. It is reasonable to conclude that the reporting of Safety Observations has enabled staff to act on hazards before they become a safety issue.

Going Forward

It is planned to increase personal safety training for our staff and volunteers this year. This will include an update to our dogs on LWT sites guidance note. This will help improve individual personal safety on our sites. The SHE Advisor will be working closely with the new Facilities Manager to deliver up to date legislative support and guidance for all staff via training, guidance notes and procedural updates.

Principal Risks and Uncertainties

A risk register is annually updated and reviewed quarterly. The Risk and Governance Sub Committee meets quarterly and the Trust’s senior management team meet regularly to discuss any principal or emerging risks and how to manage them. A summary of key risks is included:

The Trustees are responsible for ensuring that there are effective and adequate risk management and internal control systems in place to manage the strategic and operational risks the Charity has and could be exposed to.

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RISK MITIGATION
Insufficient capacity New business plan in place with clear objectives for the organisation
to deliver strategy and and its staff. The Senior Management Team are being rigorous in
business plan objectives prioritising and ensuring objectives are realistic. Improved culture
of sharing resources/breaking down silos.
Failure to support and New Volunteering manager in post to co-ordinate and drive
recruit volunteers consistency across the Trust and ensure the value of volunteers
is recognised.
Contract management Scheme of delegation and introduction of project management
for services provided to procedures means much greater attention paid to chain of
external stakeholders authorisation. Improving project management ethos has created
better and more efficient processes.
Loss of existing legislation Attack on Nature’ campaign currently active. Supporting national
for wildlife conservation campaign locally. Work with TWT and other Trusts/NGOs to monitor,
influence, campaign and lobby.
Concern over Retained EU Law Bill going through Parliament process
resulting in diminished environmental protection. New Environment
Act and Agriculture Act in risk of stalling. Significant delays being
experienced in release of Regulations and Guidance for Local Nature
Recovery Strategies (LNRS) Planning guidance expected soon to
inform Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) which becomes statutory in
November 2023.
Continued decline in public The Trust is working with RSWT on national advocacy and continues
sector funding sources/ to explore more diversified income streams e.g. Biodiversity Net
loss of EU funding Gain, Carbon Credits and Nature Based Solutions.
Damaging new Attack on Nature campaign underway. Continue research work on
legislation or policies evaluating carbon cost of turf cutting through Lancashire Peat
for land management Initiative and CarePeat project. Work with TWT and other Trusts to
(e.g. farming policy) monitor, influence, campaign and lobby.
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Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Future Outlook – Tom Burditt

I think next year at Lancashire Wildlife Trust promises to be just as exciting as the last, and we remain extremely well placed to take advantage of the emerging green financial opportunities and other new funding streams.

2023/4 is the year when the statutory county-based Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) process will really hit its stride, especially in Lancashire and the Liverpool City Region. We will be playing a full and enthusiastic role in these processes to ensure that they will enable good decision-making, planning and nature recovery prioritisation for years to come.

We will be doing more detailed work on the areas around our largest nature reserves (our “nature recovery focus areas”) to improve ecological connectivity and to facilitate and encourage nature friendly land management (including farming) in both rural and urban areas. We will be working with others on a nature recovery action plan for the Irish Sea.

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Kestrel atBrockholesb
yLes
Pric
e
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Rindle Moss by Jenny Bennion
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We are at our best where we involve and inspire local people from all backgrounds to take your own actions to improve your locally accessible greenspaces and natural habitats. It is wonderful to see how embedded our nature and wellbeing projects are now becoming, to see our programmes expanding and continuing all around our patch, from my own beloved Morecambe Bay to the towns of East Lancashire and boroughs of GM.

On our own nature reserves we have a focus on robust improved management and monitoring plans, and improvements in reserve infrastructure, particularly to improve our conservation grazing. I am particularly excited about the new satellite collars for our cattle, making safer, more efficient and easier to control grazing without the need for fences.

Our peatlands team really does go from strength to strength and in the coming year we hope to be expanding the amount of upland peat in restoration, particularly in the West Pennine Moors, and expanding the piloting of wetter farming and paludiculture (growing crops in peat soils in a way that enables vastly reduced carbon emissions and more space for nature) both on our own land and by working in partnership with members of the local farming community.

This work not only improves the lives of the ever increasing numbers of participants (now in the thousands), but acts as a stimulus to new volunteer opportunities on – and off – Wildlife Trust land and project sites.

Following on from our first direct green social prescribing commissioning from our much valued partners in our local NHS foundation Trusts, we will be looking at other sustainable funding models for this work including expanding our popular “Wild wellbeing days” for employees (why not join one?).

We are looking at how to set up sites for the delivery of nature restoration funded through offsite statutory Biodiversity Net Gain, especially across Greater Manchester (GM) and near major infrastructure developments. We hope to be developing a range of nature based solution “products” for investors and buyers. All of this means turning LNRS into reality – creating and restoring real habitats on the ground.

48,219 Number of people engaged through our events

In the coming year, we will be growing our communications team and its reach to grow support and enable people to understand how to take meaningful action for nature wherever you live; consolidating our education and forest schools teams and training; and undertaking behind-thescenes planning to improve the experience (and accessibility) of our nature reserves for people from all backgrounds, especially at Brockholes.

To improve our effectiveness and efficiency we also have a focus on improving our back office systems – project management, facilities and buildings management and maintenance, and our volunteer system. These will help to improve our impact and should make working with us, for us, in partnership with us, or visiting us even more enjoyable and rewarding.

Above all in the next year we will continue to stand side by side with YOU: our members, volunteers, supporters, partners, communities and funders, to help each other to take action to reverse the declines in our natural world. We will continue to fight together with you for a better, wilder future, for all our sakes.

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Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Structure, Governance and Management

The Charity is governed by the Articles and Memorandum of Association for the incorporated company which instructs the Trustees to act in a way to promote the objects of the Charity for public benefit.

The Trustees hold ultimate responsibility and authority for the charity and work collectively as “Council/Board” in the governance of the charity. Council consists of up to 30 Trustees. Trustees are elected at the Annual General Meeting in accordance with the Memorandum and Articles of Association. Trustees can also be co-opted by Council and serve until the next Annual General Meeting and then stand for election.

Trustees have a recruitment and retirement policy, all Trustees must now stand for re-election every three years and have limited terms in office as Trustees, serving a maximum of nine years except in extenuating circumstances that best serve the interests of the Trust. The policy has helped Council to increase skills and diversity within the group. In line with the policy, two co-opted Trustees were elected at the AGM in October. All Trustees are volunteers and members, who have access to a Trustee Team site and easy access to Charity Commission guidance.

The Trustees, are Trustees of the Charity (according to charity regulations) and serve as the directors of the Company for the purpose of the Companies Act and are the officers of the Company.

The Trustees are responsible for all policymaking, budgetary decisions and strategic leadership. The Chief Executive Officer, appointed by Trustees, manages the day-to-day operations of the Trust, including management of staff. In addition to Council meetings, the Charity has established the following advisory groups and committees:

 Finance Sub Committee

Other sub groups/task and finish groups are commissioned as required by the Trustees.

Related parties

Charity is a member of the Wildlife Trusts Partnership (registered as the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, registered charity number 207238), which acts as an umbrella body carrying out lobbying and public relations on behalf of all 47 Wildlife Trusts across the country. Partners have the use of the Wildlife Trusts’ logo and benefit from the resources, best practice and speciality experience of other member trusts. Membership gives the Charity a national voice and profile, as well as respectability by association for those unfamiliar with our particular work.

The Trustees of the charity, who are also Members of the Board (“Council”), who have held office in the year and to the date of this report were:

The Charity is a member of Lancashire Environmental Fund Limited (“LEF”) with the power to appoint one Trustee to the Board. Full details of transactions with LEF are given in note 20 to the financial statements.

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Mr J B Jackson Chair
Ms. H A Ryan Vice-Chair
Mr Nick Williams Hon. Treasurer
Mr R Wade
Mr J M Wells
Mr A J M Berry
His Honour Judge J R Duggan
Professor Philip James
Ms Gemma Grady
Ms Deborah Shackleton CBE
Mr Satyen Sinha
Ms Joan Hunter
Mr John Loder
Mr Iqbal Hasan
Professor Sheila Pankhurst Appointed
08/10/2022
Ms Gemma Wren Appointed
08/10/2022
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The Charity is a member of Greater Manchester Environment Trust (“GMET”) with the power to appoint one Trustee to the Board. Full details of transactions with GMET are given in note 20 to the financial statements.

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

The Lancashire Wildlife Trust Limited is a company limited by guarantee and a registered Charity. Registered with the Charity Commission in England and Wales with the number 229325. Registered office: The Barn, Berkeley Drive, Bamber Bridge, Preston, PR5 6BY

The Group includes The Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s subsidiary trading company Brockholes Enterprises Limited.

President Vice President Chief Executive Company Registered Number Entrust Registered Number Bankers

Mr C G Davies Mr E E Jackson MBE Dr Tom Burditt 00731548 025077 Virgin Money (formerly Yorkshire Bank) 44 Fishergate, Preston, PR1 8BH Brooks MacDonald Group plc No 1 Marsden Street, Manchester, M2 1HW MHA Moore and Smalley Richard House, 9 Winckley Square, Preston, PR1 3HP

Investment Advisors

Auditors

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Statement of the Board’s responsibilities

The Trustees (who are also directors of Lancashire Wildlife Trust Limited for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and the group and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable group for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and the group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Statement as to disclosure of information to auditors

The members of Board who were in office on the date of approval of these financial statements have confirmed, as far as they are aware, that there is no relevant audit information of which the auditors are unaware. Each of the members of Board have confirmed that they have taken all steps that they ought to have taken as members of the Board in order to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that it has been communicated to the auditor.

The Report of the Trustees, which includes the Strategic Report on pages 4 to 45, were approved by the Board on 20th July 2023 and signed on their behalf:

Cyclist on the Guild Wheel

Julian Jackson, Chair LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH 2023

Six-spot burnet on orchid by Alan Wright 46 – 47

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Financial review

Our investments fell by £44,000 as a result of market movements in the year. The level of debtors has decreased in the year, reflecting changing activity. Trade creditors have shown a small increase, related in part to timing as well as increased activity.

The year ended 31 March 2023 has been a year of consolidation as well as one of considerable activity. Our unrestricted net expenditure during the year was £192,000 after investing in staff and new activities.

Our cash balances have decreased by £494,000 to £1,066,000. Despite the investment in the year and expenditure on core activities we continue to maintain a healthy financial platform from which to move forward and deliver on our Business Plan objectives.

Investment policy

The Trustees have an investment policy in place that allows them to employ a specialist investment management company to manage the Trust’s investment funds. This company is charged with investing the funds in a portfolio of socially responsible collective investments that maximises return from the charity’s investments with a moderate level of risk. The performance of the fund is reviewed on a regular basis and in the event of under-performance, the Trustees would consider placing the investment elsewhere.

Financial activities

Overall financial activity showed a reduction in turnover on the prior year with income of £7.6m compared to £8.0m in 2022. There was also an increase in expenditure in the year resulting in the small deficit in unrestricted funds and the net expenditure of £842,000 in restricted funds where there has been spending of brought forward balances.

The Trust’s investments include an endowment fund which was established to provide income to support the maintenance of Freemans Pool, a parcel of land near Heysham and a restricted fund established in the previous year for the management of Scutchers Acres.

The operational financial performance of BELt has improved in the year delivering a profit for the Trust of £119,000 (2022: £114,000) on increased turnover.

Statement of financial position

Financial reserves

There was only a small amount of fixed asset investment during the year. Overall investment amounted to £437,000 including the continuation of the development of a new visitor centre at Lunt Meadows (£231,000), replacement motor vehicles (£48,000) and various pieces of equipment. The overall value of fixed assets decreased by £192,000 with depreciation and amortisation on the existing assets of £583,000.

The Trust’s financial reserves are made up of permanent endowment funds of £588,000 (2022: £648,000), and a variety of restricted and unrestricted funds. Total funds as at the 31 March 2023 were £11.7m (2022: £12.8m).

Restricted funds

The Trust has a number of restricted funds where the donor restricts the purpose for which the funds can be used. As at 31 March 2023 restricted funds were £9.6m (2022: £10.6m) including fixed assets of £8.4m. Further details of these funds and the purposes for which they are intended are provided in note 21.

Unrestricted funds

The remainder of the Trust’s funds are held in a general unrestricted fund, which as at 31 March 2023 was £1.5m (2022: £1.5m).

Reserves policy

The Trust has established a financial reserves policy to cover for unexpected reductions in short-term income. Under the policy the Trust aims to hold sufficient unrestricted reserves in sufficiently liquid form (ie. as net current assets) to enable it to cover three months of core operating expenditure (excluding depreciation). Core operating expenditure excludes expenditure funded by restricted or endowment funds.

Based on the budget for the coming year the Trust has calculated that the level of reserves required under this policy to be approximately £980,000. At 31 March 2023 the Trust had £680,000 (2022: 770,000) of unrestricted net current assets, which is a cover ratio of 0.69, the equivalent of 2.1 months core operating expenditure. Work to bring the ratio back to at least three months cover is underway together with a review of the policy formula to ensure that it remains fit for purpose.

Remuneration

The Trust is committed to ensuring that we pay our staff fairly and in a way that ensures we attract and retain the right skills to have the greatest impact in delivering our charitable objectives.

The Head of Human Resources undertakes comparisons with other public sector and charitable organisations, particularly other Wildlife Trusts, to benchmark salariesin combination with an internal benchmarking system. The overall objective of the policy is to ensure that staff are provided with appropriate incentives to encourage performance and, in a fair and responsible manner, be rewarded for their individual contributions to the success of the Trust.

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Independent Auditor’s Report to the Members and Trustees of The Lancashire Wildlife Trust Limited

Basis for opinion

We have audited the financial statements of The Lancashire Wildlife Trust Limited (the ‘parent charitable company’) and its subsidiary (the ‘group’) for the year ended 31 March 2023 which comprise the Group Statement of Financial Activities, Group and Charity Balance Sheets, Group Cash Flow Statement and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies.

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the group and parent charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate. Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the group’s or parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The other information comprises the information included in the report of the trustees, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves.

If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of our knowledge and understanding of the group and parent charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the strategic report and the directors’ report. We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

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Responsibilities of Trustees

As explained more fully in the Trustees’ responsibilities statement, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the group’s and parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the group or the parent charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements We have been appointed auditor under the Companies Act 2006 and report in accordance with this Act.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion.

Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are

instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The specific procedures for this engagement and the extent to which these are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

Because of the field in which the client operates we identified that employment law, health and safety legislation, environmental legislation and compliance with the UK Companies Act are the areas most likely to have a material impact on the financial statements

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of noncompliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/ auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Nicola Mason (Senior Statutory Auditor) for and on behalf of

MHA Moore & Smalley Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditor

Richard House

9 Winckley Square Preston PR1 3HP

28 July 2023

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES (INCORPORATING CONSOLIDATED INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

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Notes Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total Total
funds funds funds 2023 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Income
Donations and legacies 2 1,468 66 - 1,534 1,751
Charitable activities 3 1,690 3,061 - 4,751 5,072
Other trading activities 4 1,327 9 - 1,336 1,178
Investment income 5 9 2 4 15 11
Other income 6 - - - - 7
Total income 4,494 3,138 4 7,636 8,019
Expenditure
Raising funds 7 (2,035) (13) (6) (2,054) (2,132)
Charitable activities 7 (2,651) (3,967) (32) (6,650) (5,930)
Other expenditure 7 - - - - (42)
Total expenditure (4,686) (3,980) (38) (8,704) (8,104)
Net (outgoing) /
incoming resources
before other recognised
gains and losses (192) (842) (34) (1,068) (85)
Gains / (losses) on
investments (11) (9) (11) (31) 18
Net (expenditure) /
income (203) (851) (45) (1,099) (67)
Transfers between funds 179 (164) (15) - -
Net movement in funds (24) (1,015) (60) (1,099) (67)
Reconciliation of funds
Total funds
brought forward 1,482 10,641 648 12,771 12,838
Total funds
carried forward 1,458 9,626 588 11,672 12,771
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The statement of financial activities contains all gains and losses for the year and all activities relate to continuing operations. The (loss) / profit for the purposes of the Companies Act 2006 is the net (outgoing) / incoming resources before gains / (losses) on investments.

The accompanying accounting policies and notes on pages 56 to 82 form an integral part of these financial statements.

LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST

CONSOLIDATED AND CHARITY STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL POSITION AS AT 31 MARCH 2023

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Group Charity
Notes Total Total Total Total
2023 2022 2023 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Fixed assets:
Intangible fixed assets 11 40 43 38 37
Tangible fixed assets 12 6,323 6,468 6,303 6,438
Heritage assets 13 3,468 3,468 3,468 3,468
Investments 14 583 627 583 627
Total fixed assets 10,414 10,606 10,392 10,570
Current assets:
Stock 15 37 20 14 -
Debtors 16 1,384 1,778 1,293 1,825
Cash at bank and in hand 1,066 1,560 889 1,229
Total current assets 2,487 3,358 2,196 3,054
Liabilities
Creditors: falling due within one year 17 (1,229) (1,193) (1,064) (996)
Net current assets 1,258 2,165 1,132 2,058
Total assets less current liabilities 11,672 12,771 11,524 12,628
Creditors: falling due after one year - - - -
Total net assets 11,672 12,771 11,524 12,628
The funds of the charity:
Endowment funds 21 588 648 588 648
Restricted funds 21 9,626 10,641 9,626 10,641
Unrestricted funds 21 1,458 1,482 1,310 1,339
11,672 12,771 11,524 12,628
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The accompanying accounting policies and notes on pages 56 to 82 form an integral part of these financial statements. The financial statements were approved by the Trustees on 20 July 2023 and signed on their behalf by:

Julian Jackson Chair

Nick Williams Treasurer

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

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Notes 2023 2022
£’000 £’000
Cash flows from operating activities:
Net cash (outflow) from operating activities 22 (64) (69)
Cash flows from investing activities:
Purchase of intangible fixed assets (7) -
Purchase of tangible fixed assets (430) (173)
Proceeds from disposal of tangible fixed assets 7 -
Purchase of heritage assets - (335)
Additions to investments - (150)
Net cash used in investing activities (430) (658)
Cash flows from financing activities
- -
Net cash used in financing activities
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting period (494) (727)
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period 1,560 2,287
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period 22 1,066 1,560
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The accompanying accounting policies and notes on pages 56 to 82 form an integral part of these financial statements.

LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

1.1 Basis of accounting

These accounts have been prepared under the historical cost convention as modified by the inclusion of investments at market value and in accordance with the Companies Act 2006.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 October 2019) – (Charities SORP (FRS 102)), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.

The Trustees have considered the appropriateness of the going concern assumption and believe it is appropriate to prepare the financial statements on this basis due to the Trust’s level of reserves and agreed funding. At the time of approving the financial statements, the Trustees deemed the Trust to have sufficient resources to continue to operate for a period of at least twelve months and there are no material uncertainties regarding the Trust’s financial position. The financial statements have therefore been prepared on a going concern basis.

Lancashire Wildlife Trust meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

All income resources and resources expended derive from continuing activities. The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. The (loss) / profit for Companies House purposes comprising the net income for the year before gains and losses on investments was (£1,068,000) (2022: £85,000).

1.2 Consolidated financial statements

The Statement of Financial Activities (SOFA) and Statement of Financial Position consolidate the financial statements of the charity and its wholly owned subsidiary undertaking, Brockholes Enterprises Limited on a line by line basis.

The charity has availed itself of Paragraph 4(1) of Schedule 1 of the Large and Mediumsized Companies and Groups (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and adapted the Companies Act formats to reflect the special nature of the charity’s activities. No separate statement of financial activities has been presented for the charity alone as permitted by Section 408 of the Companies Act 2006 and paragraph 397 of the SORP.

1.3 Company status

The Trust is a company limited by guarantee. The members of the company are the Trustees named on page 45. In the event of the Trust being wound up, the liability in respect of the guarantee is limited to £1 per member of the Trust.

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Lancashire Wildlife Trust

LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

1.4 Funds held by the charity

Endowment funds

Endowment funds are capital funds which the Charity is legally prevented from spending and must retain intact as part of the Charity’s capital.

The permanent endowment fund is represented by the nature reserves of the Charity and the expendable endowment fund is represented by the Barn Resource Centre, and land at Freeman’s Pool.

Restricted funds

Restricted funds are funds which are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by donors which have been raised by the Charity for particular purposes. The costs of raising and administering such funds are charged against the specific fund.

Unrestricted funds

General funds are those held where there are no restrictions and which are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the Charity.

The Trustees occasionally vote to designate unrestricted funds for specific projects or programmes of work, thereby reclassifying them as designated funds.

1.5 Incoming resources

All incoming resources are included in the statement of financial activities when the charity is legally entitled to the income and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy. Restricted income is included in the restricted statement of financial activities when receivable. Membership subscriptions are accounted for on a cash received basis.

Donations are recognised as income when the donation is made.

Each legacy and bequest entitlement is recognised as an incoming resource once a reasonably reliable estimate of its value can be made and when it is reasonably certain of the ultimate receipt. Where the Trust is left part of the residue of the estate, recognition is normally the date when payment or a letter of notification from the solicitor advising of the likely amount is received.

Grants income is recognised in the statement of financial activities in the period to which it relates. Where a grant is restricted by the funder for use in a future period, its recognition is deferred until the charity becomes entitled to the resource. Grants in respect of specific projects are credited to a restricted fund against which relevant expenditure is charged.

Contractual income is recognised in incoming resources in the statement of financial activities to the extent that the charity has provided the related goods and/or services.

Where such income is received in advance then the income is deferred until the charity becomes entitled to the resource. Payments generated from an invoice are treated as contract income and are recognised in the year they are earned rather than received.

Investment income and gains and losses on disposals are allocated on the basis of whether the funds invested are for restricted use or for general unrestricted purposes.

Gifts in kind donated for distribution are included at valuation and recognised as income when they are distributed to the projects. Gifts donated for resale are included as income when they are sold. Donated facilities are included at the value to the Charity where this can be quantified and a third party is bearing the cost. No amounts are included in the financial statements for services donated by volunteers.

Intangible income, which comprises donated services, is included in income at a valuation which is an estimate of the financial cost borne by the donor where such a cost is quantifiable and measurable. No income is recognised where there is no financial cost borne by a third party.

1.6 Resources expended

Resources used are accounted for on an accruals basis, inclusive of any irrecoverable VAT. Resources used are apportioned on the basis of whether the incoming resources were for restricted purposes or for general unrestricted purposes. Expenditure is reported gross of related income.

Cost of generating funds comprises the costs associated with attracting voluntary income and the costs of other income generation.

Charitable expenditure comprises direct expenditure including direct staff costs attributable to the charity’s activities. Where costs cannot be directly attributed, they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources as detailed below.

Governance costs include those costs incurred in the governance of the charity’s assets and are associated with constitutional and statutory requirements. Support costs include the central functions and have been allocated to activity cost categories on the basis of staff numbers. All support costs have been treated as unrestricted expenditure as they relate to the overall running of the charity.

1.7 Intangible fixed assets

Intangible assets comprise the cost of computer systems. Intangible fixed assets are amortised over ten years.

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Lancashire Wildlife Trust

LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

1.8 Tangible fixed assets and depreciation

All assets costing more than £2,000 are capitalised at cost.

Depreciation is not provided on freehold and long leasehold land or land acquired by the Trust for nature reserves. Long leasehold is considered to have a useful life of more than fifty years.

Depreciation is provided on all tangible fixed assets, other than land and nature reserves, at rates calculated to write off the cost of fixed assets, less their estimated residual value, over their expected useful lives on the following bases:

Land and buildings

4% to 20% straight line

Motor Vehicles 33⅓% straight line

Furniture, fittings and equipment 20% straight line

Donated assets, other than nature reserves, are included at fair value at the date of acquisition.

1.9 Heritage assets

The charity’s objects include the conservation of nature for the purpose of study and research and to educate the public in the understanding and appreciation of nature, the awareness of its value and the need for its conservation. As such the charity owns and maintains a number of nature reserves that fall into the definition of heritage assets as they cannot be readily resold and so in the normal operations of the Trust are not available for other use.

The Trustees consider that owing to the incomparable nature of these reserves, conventional valuation approaches lack sufficient reliability and that, even if valuations could be obtained, the costs would be onerous compared with the additional benefits derived by the Trust and users of the accounts. The figures in the accounts represent the cost or valuation of the asset on acquisition where available, or where this is not available are included at the historic book cost.

The costs of maintaining the heritage assets are expensed through the statement of financial activities as incurred, as part of the Trust’s charitable activities.

1.10 Investments

1.11 Stocks

Livestock assets are stated at the lower of cost and net realisable value.

Retail stock is valued at the lower of cost and net realisable value after making due allowance for any obsolete items.

1.12 Operating leases

Rentals applicable to operating leases where substantially all of the benefits and risks of ownership remain with the lessor are charged to the statement of financial activities as incurred.

1.13 Pension costs

The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme for the benefit of eligible employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the Trust, being invested with insurance companies. Contributions are charged to the statement of financial activities in the year to which they relate.

1.14 Financial instruments

The charity and its subsidiary only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value.

1.15 Critical accounting estimates and areas of judgement

The charity makes estimates and assumptions concerning the future. The resulting accounting estimates and assumptions will be, by definition, seldom equal to the related actual results. The estimates and assumptions that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of the assets and liabilities within the next financial year are discussed below:

Useful economic life of tangible fixed assets

The useful economic life of tangible fixed assets is judged at the point of purchase. As standard, a useful economic life of five to twenty-five years is set for land and buildings, three years for motor vehicles and five years for furniture, fittings and equipment.

There are no critical areas of judgement.

Quoted investments held in the nature of fixed assets are stated at market value. Gains and losses on disposal and revaluation are credited or charged to the statement of financial activities in the year in which they arise.

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Lancashire Wildlife Trust

LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

2. DONATIONS AND LEGACIES

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Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total Total
funds funds funds 2023 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Income
Membership 1,199 - - 1,199 1,096
Donations 161 66 - 227 564
Legacies 100 - - 100 87
Donated goods and services - - - - -
Other 8 - - 8 4
Total donations and legacies 1,468 66 - 1,534 1,751
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In 2021-22 donations and legacies of £1,751,000 comprised £1,335,000 unrestricted and £416,000 restricted funds.

3. INCOME FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

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Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total Total
funds funds funds 2023 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Income
Grants 805 2,959 - 3,764 4,057
Primary purpose trading 885 102 - 987 1,015
Total income from
charitable activities 1,690 3,061 - 4,751 5,072
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In 2021-22 income from charitable activities of £5,072,000 comprised £871,000 unrestricted and £4,201,000 restricted funds.

3. INCOME FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES (continued)

The following grants are included in the restricted funds in the consolidated of financial activities and as a funding requirement are highlighted below:

4. INCOME FROM OTHER TRADING ACTIVITIES

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Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total Total
funds funds funds 2023 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Income
Events and car parking 1,293 - - 1,293 1,131
Visitor centres 7 - - 7 6
Rent and room hire 8 2 - 10 39
Other 19 7 - 26 2
Total income from other
trading activities 1,327 9 - 1,336 1,178
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In 2021-22 income from other trading activities of £1,178,000 comprised £1,160,000 unrestricted and £18,000 restricted funds.

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LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

5. INVESTMENT INCOME

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Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total Total
funds funds funds 2023 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Income
Bank interest 5 - - 5 5
Dividends 4 2 4 10 6
Total investment income 9 2 4 15 11
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In 2020-21 investment income of £11,000 comprised £8,000 unrestricted and £3,000 endowment funds.

6. OTHER INCOME

Other Income of £7,000 in 2021-22 represents furlough claims made through the Government Coronavirus Job Protection Scheme in the year. There was no other income in 2022-23.

7. ANALYSIS OF TOTAL RESOURCES EXPENDED

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Direct Other Support costs Total Total
staff costs direct costs (note 8) 2023 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Cost of raising funds
Visitor centres 545 629 52 1,226 1,207
Membership recruitment 12 403 43 458 415
Marketing and advertising 317 8 43 368 487
Other - 2 - 2 23
Total cost of raising funds 874 1,042 138 2,054 2,132
Cost of charitable activities
Nature recovery 1,018 1,774 208 3,000 3,243
People engagement 1,401 1,557 208 3,166 2,490
Maintenance and contracts 289 103 92 484 197
Total cost of charitable activities 2,708 3,434 508 6,650 5,930
Cost of other expenditure
RSWT levy - - - - 42
Total cost of other expenditure - - - - 42
Total resources expended 3,582 4,476 646 8,704 8,104
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In 2021-22 total direct staff costs were £3,208,000, total other direct costs were £4,442,000 and total support costs were £454,000.

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Total resources expended are stated after charging: 2023 2022
£’000 £’000
Amortisation of intangible assets 10 7
Depreciation of tangible fixed assets owned 573 558
Auditor’s remuneration
Audit fees (including irrecoverable VAT) 19 15
Taxation services 1 1
Operating lease rentals
Land and buildings 3 3
Office equipment and vehicles 2 3
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No Trustees were remunerated for their role as Trustees during the year.

Trustees were reimbursed for reasonable and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their duties, with total expenses of £Nil (2022: £Nil).

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

8. ALLOCATION OF SUPPORT COSTS

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Raising Nature People Maintenance Total Total Basis
funds recovery engagement and commercial 2023 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Finance 34 80 80 34 228 163 (1)
Human resources 33 27 27 13 100 89 (2)
Management
and Governance 37 30 30 15 112 112 (2)
Premises 25 59 59 25 168 48 (1)
IT 4 7 7 3 21 30 (1)
Health and Safety 5 5 5 2 17 12 (2)
Total 138 208 208 92 646 454
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(1) Estimated % of charity only activities

(2) Estimated % of total group activities

9. EMPLOYEES

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2023 2022
Total staff costs £’000 £’000
Salaries and wages 3,749 3,435
Redundancy payments 3 -
Social security costs 319 273
Other pension costs 145 129
Total staff costs 4,216 3,837
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2023 2023 2022 2022
Average number of employees (and full-time equivalents Total FTE Total FTE
analysed by activity for the year ended 31 March 2023 No No No No
Nature recovery 50 45 53 46
People engagement 53 51 53 49
Maintenance and contracts 5 3 7 7
Fundraising 12 11 14 14
Commercial 18 15 17 15
Management and administration 23 20 19 17
Total staff 161 145 163 148
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In addition to the above there were an average of 30 employees (2022: 22 employees) on zero-hours contracts.

In addition to our employees the Trust relies on volunteers to help in all aspects of our work, particularly conservation work, administration and fundraising.

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The number of employees whose emoluments (including taxable benefits 2023 2022
in kind but excluding employer pension costs) exceeded £60,000, was as follows: £’000 £’000
£60,000 to £69,000 - 1
£70,000 to £79,000 1 -
Total over £60,000 1 1
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Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

9. EMPLOYEES (continued)

Emoluments paid to the highest paid employee, the Chief Executive, were £71,000 (2022: £66,000). Payments made by the Trust during the year into the defined contribution pension scheme on behalf of the Chief Executive amounted to £14,000 (2022: £13,000).

During 2022-23 employee salary and benefits of the key management personnel of the Trust totalled £655,000 (2022: £547,000).

Trustee roles are voluntary and received £Nil remuneration (2022: £Nil)

10. PENSION ARRANGEMENTS

The Trust operates a group personal pension scheme for its employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity. In addition, the Trust partakes in the “auto-enrolment” pension scheme for staff not members of the company scheme. The annual contributions payable are charged to the statement of financial activities in the year incurred.

Historically the Trust has an obligation for one ex-member of staff who is part of the Wildlife Trust’s multi-employer defined pension scheme. The underlying assets and liabilities of the scheme cannot be identified on a reasonable and consistent basis and the scheme is accounted for as a defined contribution scheme. Based on the last valuation at 1 April 2019, the Trust’s share of the scheme deficit amounted to £4,000 (2022: £6,000) and provision has been made in the accounts for this amount which is included in creditors.

11. INTANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

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Group Charity
Computer Total Computer Total
systems systems
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Cost:
At 1 April 2022 68 68 54 54
Additions 7 7 7 7
At 31 March 2023 75 75 61 61
Amortisation:
At 1 April 2022 (25) (25) (17) (17)
Charge for the year (10) (10) (6) (6)
At 31 March 2023 (35) (35) (23) (23)
Net book value:
At 31 March 2023 40 40 38 38
At 31 March 2022 43 43 37 37
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At 31 March 2023, there is a possibility that the Trust’s liability is more than £6,000 but the amount of the additional contingent liability cannot be quantified at present; however, it is not believed to be material.

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

12. TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS (excluding Heritage Assets)

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Group Freehold Leasehold Buildings Motor Fixtures, Total
buildings buildings under vehicles fittings and £’000
£’000 £’000 construction £’000 equipment
£’000 £’000
Cost:
At 1 April 2022 10,886 720 104 329 1,426 13,465
Additions 75 - 231 48 76 430
Disposals - - - (30) (73) (103)
At 31 March 2023 10,961 720 335 347 1,429 13,792
Depreciation:
-
At 1 April 2022 (4,900) (540) (302) (1,255) (6,997)
-
Charge for the year (449) (29) (26) (69) (573)
Disposals - - - 30 71 101
At 31 March 2023 (5,349) (569) - (298) (1,253) (7,469)
Net book value:
At 31 March 2023 5,612 151 335 49 176 6,323
At 31 March 2022 5,986 180 104 27 171 6,468
Charity Freehold Leasehold Buildings Motor Fixtures, Total
buildings buildings under vehicles fittings and £’000
£’000 £’000 construction £’000 equipment
£’000 £’000
Cost:
At 1 April 2022 10,886 720 104 329 1,426 13,465
Additions 75 - 231 48 76 430
Disposals - - - (30) (73) (103)
At 31 March 2023 10,961 720 335 347 1,429 13,792
Depreciation:
-
At 1 April 2022 (4,900) (540) (302) (1,255) (6,997)
-
Charge for the year (449) (29) (26) (69) (573)
Disposals - - - 30 71 101
At 31 March 2023 (5,349) (569) - (298) (1,253) (7,469)
Net book value:
At 31 March 2023 5,612 151 335 49 176 6,323
At 31 March 2022 5,986 180 104 27 171 6,468
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13. HERITAGE ASSETS

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Group and Charity Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total Total
funds funds funds 2023 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Cost:
At 1 April 2022 345 2,911 212 3,468 3,133
Additions - - - - 335
Disposals - - - - -
At 31 March 2023 345 2,911 212 3,468 3,468
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A five-year summary of heritage asset transactions is as follows:

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Group and Charity 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Cost brought forward 3,468 3,133 3,133 2,778 2,778
Purchases in year - 335 - 380 -
Disposals in year - - - (25) -
Cost carried forward 3,468 3,468 3,133 3,133 2,778
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Heritage asset additions in 2021-22 relate to the acquisition of 12.9 hectares of land known as Rindle Moss.

The buildings under construction are the new visitor centre at Lunt Meadows, due for completion in 2023-24.

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

14. INVESTMENTS

The Trust has one externally managed mixed fund whose purpose is to generate income to support the maintenance of two reserves. The movement in that fund during the year was as follows:

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Group and Charity 2023
£’000
Market value at 1 April 2022 627
Additions -
Movement in valuation from investment management (44)
Market value at 31 March 2023 583
The analysis of investments by category of holding is as follows: 2023 2022
£’000 £’000
Collective investment funds 551 600
Cash held as part of the portfolio awaiting re-investment 32 27
Total investments 583 627
The analysis of investments by location is as follows: 2023 2022
£’000 £’000
Funds invested in the UK 583 627
Total investments 583 627
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15. STOCK

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Group Charity
2023 2022 2023 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Livestock 14 - 14 -
Visitor centre retail and food stocks 23 20 - -
Total stock 37 20 14 -
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16. DEBTORS

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Group Charity
Amounts falling due within one year 2023 2022 2023 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Trade debtors 533 366 486 335
Other debtors 26 379 11 363
Prepayments and accrued income 825 1,033 796 1,016
Amounts due from subsidiary undertaking - - - 111
Total debtors 1,384 1,778 1,293 1,825
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The above investments were all invested through UK registered funds which, in some cases, include overseas holdings.

14. INVESTMENTS (continued)

Brockholes Enterprises Limited On 10 May 2010, Brockholes Enterprises Limited (“BELt”) a company limited by guarantee was incorporated. Lancashire Wildlife Trust is the sole member of the company and has control of all the voting rights of the company.

Further information is provided at note 25.

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

17. CREDITORS

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Group Charity
Amounts falling due within one year 2023 2022 2023 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Trade creditors 513 683 468 625
Social security and other taxes 78 71 78 71
VAT 54 83 13 56
Other creditors 233 25 233 25
Accruals and deferred income 351 331 259 219
Amounts due to subsidiary undertaking - - 13 -
Total creditors 1,229 1,193 1,064 996
Group Charity
Deferred income 2023 2022 2023 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Balance as at 1 April 2022 19 4 19 4
Amount released to income (19) (4) (19) (4)
Amount deferred in year 116 19 116 19
Balance as at 31 March 2023 116 19 116 19
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18. OPERATING LEASE COMMITMENTS

At 31 March 2023 the Trust had outstanding commitments for future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases which fall as due as follows:

Land and buildings
Ofce equipment
and vehicles		 Land and buildings
Ofce equipment
and vehicles
2023
£’000
2022
£’000
2023
£’000
2022
£’000
Within one year
Between one and two years
Between two and fveyears		 3
-
-
-
-
-
7
7
10
2
-
-
3
-
24
2

19. CAPITAL COMMITMENTS

At the 31 March 2023 the group had contracted future capital expenditure not provided for in these financial statements amounting to £65,000 (2022: £156,000).

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

21. ANALYSIS OF CHARITABLE FUNDS

LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

20.RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

The Lancashire Wildlife Trust Limited is a member of Lancashire Environmental Fund Limited (“LEF”) with the power to appoint one Trustee to their board. Mr J Drury, a former Trustee of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, is the charity’s appointed representative on the LEF board during the year. During the year the charity provided management, organisational, administrative and supervision services to LEF for which £67,000 (2022: £65,000) was received in the statement of financial activities.

A balance of £7,000 (2022: £7,000) was due from LEF at 31 March 2023. This comprised outstanding grants of £Nil (2022: £Nil) and service charges of £7,000 (2022: £7,000). Grants totalling £67,000 (2022: £68,000) have been awarded to Lancashire Wildlife Trust by LEF during the year.

The Lancashire Wildlife Trust Limited is a member of Greater Manchester Environmental Trust (“GMET”) with the power to appoint one Trustee to their board. Mr T Burditt, the Chief Executive Officer of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, is the charity’s appointed representative on the GMET board during the year.

During the year the charity provided management, organisational, administrative and supervision services to GMET for which £23,000 (2022: £34,000) was received in the statement of financial activities.

A balance of £183,000 was due to GMET (2022: £365,000 due from GMET) at 31 March 2023. This comprised net grants received on behalf of GMET of £206,000 (2022: £399,000 net grants paid out) and costs of services and costs on behalf of the company of £23,000 (2022: £34,000). Grants totalling £Nil (2022: £500,000) have been awarded to Lancashire Wildlife Trust by GMET during the year.

It is the charity policy that Trustees must inform the board of their interests in grant applications at the start of Board meetings. The interested Trustee will not participate during the consideration of these applications. In the case of the Chairman having an interest in an application, the Chair is taken by the Vice-Chairman.

An unrestricted donation of £20,000 (2022: £27,000) has been received from a Trustee in the year.

----- Start of picture text -----
At 1 April Total Total Net gains on Transfers At 31 March
2022 income expenditure investments £’000 2023
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Endowment:
Freemans Pool 216 4 (9) (11) 25 225
Endowment fixed asset
funds (expendable) 220 - (29) - (40) 151
Endowment fixed asset
funds (permanent) 212 - - - - 212
Total endowment funds 648 4 (38) (11) (15) 588
Restricted:
Wigan Greenheart
Landscape Recovery - 40 (37) - - 3
Wetter Farming
and Hydrology - 35 (23) - - 12
Lancashire Peatland
Initiative 171 2 (50) - - 123
Nature Recovery
Network 40 - (14) - - 26
Our Future Coast - 23 (22) - - 1
Scutchers Acres 148 3 (41) (9) - 101
Care Peat 22 69 (114) - 23 -
Heysham Community 2 35 (36) - 4 5
No Fence Collar Trial - 9 (9) - - -
Lunt Meadows
Visitor Centre (83) 442 (240) - - 119
Mere Sands Wood
Development 24 63 (65) - - 22
Foxhill Bank
Butterfly Walk 6 - (4) - - 2
Fylde Sand Dunes 37 105 (98) - - 44
Manchester Mosses 55 48 (90) - (13) -
Red Moss 13 40 (37) - (16) -
Lancashire Peat
Partnership 70 7 (23) - - 54
Precious Peatlands –
Rindle Moss 42 46 (79) - - 9
Precious Peatlands –
Winmarleigh Moss 35 79 - - (109) 5
Moss Plant
Reintroduction - 6 (7) - 1 -
Nature for Climate
Peatland Scheme 27 231 (351) - 93 -
Nature for Climate
PGS Discovery - 94 (98) - 4 -
Mosslands (20) - - - 20 -
River Douglas Challenge 12 18 (30) - 2 2
My Wild City 79 7 (71) - - 15
----- End of picture text -----

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

21. ANALYSIS OF CHARITABLE FUNDS (continued)

----- Start of picture text -----
At 1 April Total Total Net gains on Transfers At 31 March
2022 income expenditure investments £’000 2023
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Restricted (continued):
Nature Tots 17 - (5) - - 12
My Place 205 202 (385) - 162 184
Woodland Oasis (51) 145 (84) - - 10
Community Food
Growing (20) 18 (33) - 35 -
Preston Contracts 25 13 - - (35) 3
The Bay 156 445 (431) - - 170
Bury Green Social
Prescribing 45 31 (14) - - 62
Living Seas 71 - - - - 71
Team Wilder Pilot - 18 (12) - - 6
Landscape Adventurers 1 56 (16) - - 41
Philips Park 9 40 (18) - - 31
Kingfisher Trail 18 - (14) - - 4
Carbon Landscape
Capture 254 202 (451) - - 5
Highfield Moss BNG - 25 (13) - - 12
Greater Manchester 2
Greenspace Advisor - 27 (25) - -
Other restricted
project funds 252 514 (450) - (248) 68
Restricted fixed
assets funds 8,979 - (490) - (87) 8,402
Total restricted funds 10,641 3,138 (3,980) (9) (164) 9,626
Unrestricted:
General funds 1,482 4,494 (4,686) (11) 179 1,458
Total funds 12,771 7,636 (8,704) (31) - 11,672
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22. CASH FLOW ANALYSIS

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2022
The reconciliation of net expenditure to net cash flow £’000 £’000
from operating activities is as follows:
Net (expenditure) / income for the year
(from the statement of financial activities) (1,099) (67)
Depreciation and amortisation 583 565
-
Surplus on sale of tangible fixed assets (5)
Losses / (gains) losses on investments 44 (18)
(Increase) / decrease in stock (17) (4)
Decrease / (increase) in debtors 381 (829)
Decrease / (increase) in creditors 49 284
Net cash (outflow) from operating activities (64) (69)
----- End of picture text -----

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2022
Analysis of cash and cash equivalents £’000 £’000
Cash in hand and at bank 1,066 1,560
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23. ANALYSIS OF GROUP NET ASSETS BY FUNDS

----- Start of picture text -----
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment 2023 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Intangible fixed assets 40 - - 40 43
Tangible fixed assets 174 5,998 151 6,323 6,468
Heritage assets 345 2,911 212 3,468 3,468
Investments 219 143 221 583 627
Net current assets 680 574 4 1,258 2,078
1,458 9,626 588 11,672 12,684
----- End of picture text -----

The general unrestricted funds represent the available unrestricted funds of the charity which the Trustees are free to use in accordance with the charitable objectives of the Trust.

Restricted funds represent funds received by the Trust for use towards a specific purpose or particular project.

The permanent endowment fund is represented by certain nature reserves of the Charity.

The expendable endowment funds are represented by the construction of the Barn Resource Centre and Freemans Pool (contained in notes 13 and 14).

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

24. COMPARATIVE FINANCIAL INFORMATION FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR TO 31 MARCH 2022

----- Start of picture text -----
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total
funds funds funds 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Income
Donations and legacies 1,335 416 - 1,751
Charitable activities 871 4,201 - 5,072
Other trading activities 1,160 18 - 1,178
Investment income 8 - 3 11
Other income 5 2 - 7
Total income 3,379 4,637 3 8,019
Expenditure
Raising funds (2,119) (12) (1) (2,132)
Charitable activities (1,272) (4,653) (5) (5,930)
Other expenditure (42) - - (42)
Total expenditure (3,433) (4,665) (6) (8,104)
Net (outgoing) / incoming resources before
other recognised gains and losses (54) (28) (3) (85)
Gains / (losses) on investments 7 4 7 18
Net (expenditure) / income (47) (24) 4 (67)
Transfers between funds 218 (218) - -
Net movement in funds 171 (242) 4 (67)
Reconciliation of funds
Total funds brought forward 1,311 10,883 644 12,838
Total funds carried forward 1,482 10,641 648 12,771
----- End of picture text -----

24. COMPARATIVE FINANCIAL INFORMATION FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR TO 31 MARCH 2022 (continued)

----- Start of picture text -----
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total
funds funds funds 2022
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Fixed assets:
Intangible fixed assets 43 - - 43
Tangible fixed assets 89 6,199 180 6,468
Heritage assets 345 2,911 212 3,468
Investments 235 154 238 627
Total fixed assets 712 9,264 630 10,606
Current assets:
Stock 20 - - 20
Debtors 419 1,359 - 1,778
Cash at bank and in hand 847 695 18 1,560
Total current assets 1,286 2,054 18 3,358
Liabilities
Creditors: falling due within one year (516) (677) - (1,193)
Net current assets 770 1,377 18 2,165
Total assets less current liabilities 1,482 10,641 648 12,771
Creditors: falling due after one year - - - -
Total net assets 1,482 10,641 648 12,771
The funds of the charity:
Endowment funds - - 648 648
Restricted funds - 10,641 - 10,641
Unrestricted funds 1,482 - - 1,482
1,482 10,641 648 12,771
----- End of picture text -----

Annual Review 2023

Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Chaffinch by Alex Critchley

LANCASHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

25. TRADING SUBSIDIARY

The charity is the sole member of a company limited by guarantee, Brockholes Enterprises Limited (BELt), and has control of all of the voting rights of that company. It is registered in England and Wales.

These include car-parking, retail and catering services at the Brockholes Visitor Centre and Mere Sands Wood Nature Reserve and catering services at Moss Bank Park. It is intended to expand these activities to other Trust sites when and if opportunities arise.

The company’s objective is to raise funds for the Trust through commercial activities.

During the twelve months to 31 March 2023, the trading subsidiary made a profit of £119,000.

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2022
Profit and loss account for twelve months to 31 March 2023 £’000 £’000
Turnover 1,375 1,323
Cost of sales (1,031) (836)
Gross profit 344 487
Overheads (225) (373)
Profit before interest 119 114
Interest receivable - -
Profit for the financial year 119 114
----- End of picture text -----

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2022
Balance sheet as at 31 March 2023 £’000 £’000
Fixed assets:
Intangible fixed assets 2 7
Tangible fixed assets 20 30
Total fixed assets 22 37
Current assets:
Stock 23 20
Debtors 104 58
Cash at bank and in hand 177 331
Total current assets 304 409
Liabilities
Creditors: falling due within one year (178) (303)
Net current assets 126 106
Net assets 148 143
Capital and reserves
Profit and loss account 148 143
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82 – 83

Our History

www.lancswt.org.uk

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