MURSTON ALL SAINTS TRUST
ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2020
| INDEX | 1 |
|---|---|
| Officers and Advisers | 2 |
| Formation | 3 |
| Objectives | 3 |
| Trustees’ Report | 3 |
| Independent Examiner's Report | 8 |
| Statement of Financial Activities | 9 |
| Balance Sheet | 10 |
| Notes to accounts | 11 |
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MURSTON ALL SAINTS TRUST
Charity Trust Number 273395
Website: MurstonHeArt.org Facebook: murstonHeArt Twitter: @murstonHeArt
Trustees
John Nightingale (chair) Colin Barnard Alexander Nightingale Nong Priestley Andrew Erskine Michael Haywood
25 West Square London SE11 4SP
Bankers
HSBC Bank Ltd 1/5 Week Street Maidstone Kent ME14 1QW
Independent Examiner
Peter D Hudson Kreston Reeves LLP 168 Shoreditch High Street London E1 6RA
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MURSTON ALL SAINTS TRUST
Formation and Objectives
Formation
The Trust was established by a conveyance and declaration of Trust dated 9 April 1976, which was amended by schemes of arrangement dated 25 January 1994 and 6 December 2014, and is registered as a charitable trust, no: 273395.
Under the 1976 conveyance the former church of All Saints Murston and surrounding graveyard were transferred to the Trust by the Church Commissioners. In 1978 two small strips of land abutting the North and East sides of the graveyard were donated to the Trust by Blue Circle Industries Ltd.
Whereas the Trust was managed from its conception by the Kent Archaeological Society and from 1994 by the Cromarty Trust, the 2014 scheme of arrangement established it as an independent stand-alone charity, with the Cromarty Trust appointing two of its trustees (John Nightingale and Alexander Nightingale).
Charitable Objects
The 2014 scheme of arrangement established the following charitable objects for the public benefit:
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to advance the arts, culture, and heritage; and
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to advance the education of the general public in the understanding and appreciation of the arts, culture and heritage; and
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to advance the education of the public in the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment; and
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to promote for the benefit of the public the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment;
including through (1) the conservation of such historical, architectural, archaeological and natural heritage as may exist in and around the former Church of All Saints, Murston, Kent in the form of buildings or other remains and (2) the building, establishment or running of a centre or other facilities for the arts, culture, heritage or conservation of the environment.
Trustees’ report for the year ended 31 December 2020:
The Trustees present their report for the 12-month period ended 31 December 2020
Trustees and Advisors: These are shown on Page 2.
The Trustees met for five meetings during the year to review activities, set strategy and take major decisions. The Trust is committed to equal opportunities. The Trustees maintain a risk
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register which is subject to regular review and have a safeguarding policy for keeping vulnerable beneficiaries and volunteers safe while taking part in activities organised by the Trust. No notifiable events arose during the period under review.
Review of activities:
The Trustees’ aim of establishing a creative community hub around the remains of the medieval church at Murston passed a number of significant milestones in 2020 notwithstanding all the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The latter necessitated the suspension of the Trust’s programme of community activities in March 2020 and subsequently caused a 6 month delay to the commencement of the planned building programme. However the crisis and its acute effects in Murston and Swale more generally, made the Trustees all the more determined to achieve something positive and permanent that would make a lasting difference to people’s lives in Murston. They therefore pressed on with fundraising with renewed determination throughout 2020, with the result that at the time of writing this report in October 2021, building work had commenced on site with the expectation that the hub would be up and running in summer 2022. What follows describes the background but further detail can also be found on the Trust’s website www.murstonheart.org .
Previous reports have described how the Trustees formulated and progressed a proposal in conjunction with members of the local community, the conservation architects Sell Wade, and the arts consultants Tom Fleming Associates to establish a creative community hub around the surviving chancel of Murston’s medieval church. It entails the construction of a new enabling building housing a café, wcs, community education room and eight studios in the corner of the churchyard, whilst the chancel building will be refurbished as an open space for exhibitions and music, and the surrounding churchyard will be restored as a little pocket park to be enjoyed as a peaceful haven by the 4,000 residents of Murston and the further 4,000 people who now work in the surrounding industrial estates. The challenges were always going to be considerable: Murston is one of the more deprived communities in south east England and the chancel and churchyard have long been plagued by vandalism and fly-tipping and are now largely surrounded by sprawling industrial units. But it was precisely for these reasons that the Trustees have sought to safeguard the future of the historic chancel and put it back at the heart of Murston in a way that contributes to the well-being of the community as a whole and gives it a pride in both its past and present. The Church Commissioners and Swale Borough Council welcomed the scheme and, following a series of archaeological assessments undertaken by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust and extensive discussions with Historic England, the secretary of state granted scheduled monument consent in January 2018 and planning permission was secured in December 2018. Getting to this point took many years due to the scheduled monument status of the site but it was made possible thanks to a series of development grants from the Architectural Heritage Fund, Historic England, the Heritage Lottery Fund, and a number of discretionary grants from individual local borough and county councillors.
With the necessary consents in place the trustees of MAST set out in 2019 to raise some £832,000 to cover the capital costs and an initial three year programme of activities with the community and local schools. The Cromarty Trust, Swale Borough Council and the Henry Oldfield Trust started the ball rolling with combined pledges of over £250,000. This lead encouraged other charities to support the project and allowed the Trust to apply before the year end for both a £75,000 Historic England heritage at risk grant and a £246,000 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. As part of the preparation for the latter the Trustees mapped
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out a three-year programme of activities in conjunction with two local schools, Sunny Bank Primary School and Meadowfield, a school for special needs pupils; with the adjoining Wienerberger Smeed Dean Brickworks which has done so much to shape Murston and Sittingbourne over the last 150 years and is now the last brick manufacturer in Kent; and with Optivo, the housing association that manages over 400 homes in Murston. In doing so, the Trustees benefited greatly from the help and advice provided by the heritage consultant Alix Slater.
During 2020 both Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund confirmed grant offers at the levels requested; the latter’s grant was confirmed in early March 2020, just a few days before it decided to suspend its grant programme in order to refocus on emergency funding connected to the Covid-19 pandemic. In July 2020 the appeal target of £832,000 was reached thanks to substantial grants from the Colyer Fergusson Charitable Trust and Mohn Westlake Charitable Trust; grants were also received from numerous other charities, including the AllChurches Trust, Dulverton Trust, G. L. and Nona Doubleday Trusts, John Swire 1989 Charitable Trust, Loveday Charitable Trust, Nightingale Trust, Queenborough Fishery Trust, Pilgrim Trust, Sittingbourne Invicta Rotary Club, and Wheler Foundation, as well as from the local Kent County Councillor and a number of individuals. It need hardly be said that the Trustees are enormously grateful to all of them for making it possible to turn their vision into a reality.
With this financial support in place, the Trustees assembled the full professional team required to finalise and oversee the capital programme. The aim in summer 2020 was to commence building works in spring 2021 but this was before the second lockdown and the further disruption of the construction industry. As a result it was not possible to secure tenders until the end of April 2021 and these were at a higher level than originally anticipated due to increases in building materials and increased pricing for risks associated with the pandemic. However the combination of a substantial and very welcome grant from the Wolfson Foundation, combined with equally welcome increases in funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England and Swale Borough Council, allowed the Trustees to go ahead and award the building contract to Gransdens Construction Ltd, a long-established firm of local builders. At the time of writing this report in October 2021, Gransdens had commenced works on site and if all goes to plan (and the Covid19 pandemic makes one wary of making such predictions) the hub should be up and running by summer 2022.
It hardly needs to be said that getting to this point, after so many years of preparation, represents a major milestone for the Trust. However rather than sitting back and waiting for completion of the building programme, the Trustees will now turn their attention to attracting a wider group of volunteers and delivering the activity programme that had to be put on hold for over a year due the restrictions arising from Covid-19. The first step will be to appoint a part-time Community Engagement Officer before the end of 2021. The officer will both make preparations for the successful opening and operation of the hub and give a lead to the programme of community activities.
Prior to the Covid-19 lockdown, the church had already been used for a series of weekend festivals and other events organised in partnership with Green Cube, Kent Wildlife Trust, Amicus Housing, and Swale Borough Council, all of which had been led with great verve and passion by the Sittingbourne based artist Sioux Peto. A project to make poppies from recycled materials involved over 900 people taking part in 45 workshops involving a wide diversity of participants from primary school through to those in care homes. The resulting display of 4,500
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MURSTON ALL SAINTS TRUST
poppies, accompanied by a series of events in October / November 2018 to commemorate the centenary of the WW1 armistice attracted a large number of visitors from across the local area. The coronavirus pandemic forced the suspension of activities in 2020 but MAST is hugely looking forward to recommencing community activities. Indeed in June and July of this year it made a small start by welcoming 6 classes (some 180 children) from Sunny Bank Primary School to come and explore the churchyard and learn about the building and its place in Murston’s history. It was the first school outing for both pupils and teachers since March 2020, so quite an event for all.
Summary of results
The financial statements show income of £375,953 (2019: £125,273) and expenditure of £28,585 (2019: £5,140) on the furtherance of the objects of the Trust, leaving a surplus of £347,368 (2019: £120,133). Together with the funds brought forward and expendable endowment of £33,000, this resulted in combined balances at the year-end of £508,195 (2019: £160,827).
Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities
Law applicable to charities requires the Trustees to prepare Financial Statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the Charity’s financial activities during the year and of its financial position at the end of the year. In preparing Financial Statements giving a true and fair view, the Trustees are required to:
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select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
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make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
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state whether applicable accounting standards and statements of recommended practices have been followed subject to any departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;
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prepare the Financial Statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Charity will continue in operation.
The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records, which disclose with reasonable accuracy the financial position of the Charity and which enable them to ensure that the Financial Statements comply with applicable law. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Signed on behalf of the Trustees
John Nightingale 26 October 2021
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MURSTON ALL SAINTS TRUST
Independent Examiner’s Report
Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of the Murston All Saints Trust
I report to the charity Trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Trust for the year ended 31 December 2020.
Respective responsibilities of Trustees and examiner
As the Trustees of the charity you are responsible for the preparation o the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011.
Having satisfied myself that the accounts of the charity are not required to be audited under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of the trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 (“the 2011 Act”). In carrying out my examination I have followed the directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.
Independent examiner’s statement
Since the charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000 your examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the 2011 Act. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants In England And Wales, which is one of the listed bodies.
I have completed my examination, I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe:
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accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Charities Act; or
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the accounts do not accord with those records; or
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the accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a “true and fair” view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Signed P D Hudson BA FCA
Dated 26 October 2021
Kreston Reeves LLP Chartered Accountants London
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MURSTON ALL SAINTS TRUST
Statement of financial activities for the year ended 31 December 2020
| Income Notes Donations and legacies 3 Investments Total income Expenditure Raising funds 4 Charitable activities 5 Total expenditure Net income/(expenditure) for the reporting period Net gains/(losses) on investments Net income/(expenditure) Net movement in funds Reconciliation of funds: Total funds brought forward Total funds carried forward |
2020 2019 £ £ 375,950 125,273 3 0 375,953 125,273 450 156 28,135 4,984 28,585 5,140 347,368 120,133 347,368 120,133 160,827 40,694 508,195 160,827 |
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All income received during 2020 and the comparative year was restricted income.
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MURSTON ALL SAINTS TRUST
Balance sheet as at 31 December 2020
| Notes Current Assets 3 COIF Deposit Fund Cash at Bank Total Assets Current liabilities Creditors Net current assets Represented By: Endowment Fund 6 Opening Balance at 1 January Additions during Year Endowment Total c/fwd Restricted Fund Opening Balance Add: Excess of Income over expenditure Restricted Fund Closing Balance c/fwd Combined Balances at 31 December c/fwd Signed on behalf of the Trustees John Nightingale 26 October 2021 |
2020 2019 £ £ 150,003 373,282 160,827 523,285 160,827 (15,090) 0 508,195 160,827 33,000 33,000 33,000 33,000 127,827 7,694 347,368 120,133 475,195 127,827 508,195 160,827 |
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MURSTON ALL SAINTS TRUST
Notes to the Accounts
For the year ended 31 December 2020
1) Accounting Policies:
The following is a summary of significant accounting policies:
1.1 Basis of preparation
The accounts have been prepared under the historical cost convention with items recognised at cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant note(s) to these accounts. The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the ‘Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)’, the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Charities Act 2011.
1.2 Income recognition
All incoming resources are included in the Statement of Financial Activities when the Trust is entitled to the income and the amounts can be quantified with reasonable accuracy. Income from listed investments and fixed interest investments is recognised when it is receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the Trust. This is normally upon notification by the investment advisor of the yield of the investment portfolio. Interest on funds held at bank is included when it is receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the Trust; this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the bank.
1.3 Expenditure recognition
All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis. At this stage all expenditure is on raising funds for the repair of the All Saints other than filing and other minor regulatory costs.
1.4 Fixed assets
No value has been accorded to the church and surrounding land at Murston since these are held solely to further the Trust’s charitable objects.
The restoration and new build had yet to be incurred at the balance sheet date.
| Note 2 - Analysis of expenditure Incurred seeking grants Expenditure on charitable activities: Site maintenace Professional fees for capital project Legal costs and insurance Total expenditure on charitable activities Expenditure on raising funds: |
2020 2019 £ £ 450 156 1,370 25,265 4,600 1,500 384 28,135 4,984 |
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The Trust does not employee staff and so there were no employee expenses.
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MURSTON ALL SAINTS TRUST
Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2020 (continued),
Note 3 Grants and donations received
| Grants AllChurches Trust Sittingbourne Rotary Club Queenborough Fishery Trust Kent County Council Discretionary Grant Swale Borough Council Wheler Foundation Loveday Charitable Trust Henry Oldfield Trust Nona Doubleday Trust Colyer Fergusson Charitable Trust Nightingale Trust Mohn Westlake Foundation G. L Doubleday Trust Dulverton Trust John Swire 1989 Charitable Trust Cromarty Trust Esmée Fairbairn Foundation General donations Total Income |
2020 2019 £ £ 20,000 0 500 0 3,000 0 2,250 0 100,000 500 2,500 0 10,000 0 50,000 50,000 2,500 0 60,000 0 10,000 20,000 100,000 0 10,000 0 5,000 0 0 22,600 0 20,000 0 12,000 200 173 375,950 125,273 |
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All grants received are restricted
Note 4 - Creditors
Creditors are all trade creditors and are due within 12 months of the balance sheet date.
Note 5 - Related party transactions
Alexander Nightingale and John Nightingale are trustees of the Cromarty Trust which made a £20,000 grant to Murston All Saints Trust in the previous year. John Nightingale is also a trustee of the Nightingale Trust which made grants of £10,00 during the current year and £20,000 during the previous year.
Note 6 - Endowment Fund
The Endowment Fund was established to hold donations given as expendable endowment by the Cromarty Trust; the income may be used on furthering any of the Trust's charitable objects.
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