Beachwatch Bute SCIO - Charity Number SC029603
BeachwAtch Bute 'frustees' Annual Report- YeRr ended 31 March 2025
Reference and Administrative Informfition
Chllrity NAme
Beachwatch Bute SCIO
Charity Registration No.
SC029603
Contact Address
The Treasurer
10 Crlchton Road
Rothesay
Isle of Bute PA20 9JR
Trustees:
Principal Office BeArers:
C.hairper$on
Sccretary
Treasurer
Independent Examiner
One 2 One Accountancv
10 Gallowgate Rothesay
Isle of Bute PA20 OHR
B￿nkerS
Bank Of Scotland
Montague Street
Rothesay PA20 08U
BeAeh Ranger

Beachwatch Bute SCIO - Charity Number SC029603
Trustees, Annual Report- Year ended 31 March 2025
Objectlves and Actlvltles
To monitor and report on the condition of all beaches and shoreline walks, co-ordinate the removal
of marine litter and to maintain the highest environmental standard around Bute's coastline.
In doing so we aim to advance the education of the public about physical heritage, natural habitat and
coastline of the Isle Df Bute and their management for the benefit of the public and to preserve,
enhance and conserve the environmental quality of such coastal heritage.
Strutture Governance and Mana
ement
Governlng Document
The charity 15 a Scottish Charitable I ncorporated Organisation (a SCIOI. It was registered in its
current legal form on 30/09/2019. The charity was previously incorporated as a company limited bv
guarantee. The Assets of the Incorporated Company were transferred to the SCIO on the
01/10/2019. It has a single Tier structure and as such the trustees are the members of the charity.
Recrultment and Appolntment of Trustees
All Charity Trustees are appointed or re-appointed by the members at the annual General Meeting
or co-opted onto board as and when required.
Trustee Inductlon and Tralnln8
The appointment of a new trustee is made after the 8oard's discussion regarding the skills, abilities
and experiences that they can bring to Beachwatch Bute. On the recruitment of new Trustees, thev
are given guidelines and documentation on their responsi bilities, There is also an explanation and
discussion of roles and responsibilities during their first committee meeting.
Rlsk Management
The Trustees asses5 the risks of the Charity regularly and have noted the main risks found as Health
and Safety and Financial. These are being monitored, and the Trustees are doing everything to
minimi5e these risks. Risk Assessment has been compiled for Bute Beaches by the Beach Ranger.
Organlsatlonal Structure
Management of the charity's affairs are vested in its board of Trustees. The board meets on average
every quarter to discuss charity affairs.

Beachwatch Bute SCIO - Charity Number SC029603
Trustees, Annual Report- Year ended 31 March 2025
Related Partles
The trustees are not aware of any related party transactions during the year.
Introductlon
Beachwatch Bute SCIO continue5 to dellver a valuable service for the Island of Bute as it has for the
last 27 years. Thanks to the efforts over these years. Bute is in the fortunate position of having the
scourge of marine litter under control, unlike many other islands which are still dealing with a
backlog of marine plastic litter built up over the last 50 years or more. Constant effort is still required
to remove plastic litter which arrives with each tide to ensure that Bute's beaches continue to be
amongst the cleanest around.
Cleaning up the coastline has never been more important, and our Beach Ranger continues to
remove marine litter deposited by the tides and beach visitors. There have also been some more
unusual finds as well, such as catheters, syringes, several dead seals/porpoises, waste oil, large ropes
and nets which could have been dangerous for wildlife, beach users, shipping, and the environment.
Unfortunately, our Beach ranger is still having to deal with irresponsible behaviour such as depositing
human waste and fly-tipping on the beaches. Unfortunately, the major local landowner no longer has
a countryside ranger so it is likely that this will be a bigger burden on the charity in the peak summer
months.
Achlevements and performance
Between I, April 2024 and 31" March 2025, the Beachranger removed 3.05 tonnes of small marine
litter from the beaches of Bute and delivered them to the waste disposal site. This represented many
reused animal feeding bags of small items such as bottles, cans, small pieces of polythene and
wrappings, short lengths of twine/rope and other miscellaneous small items. This will amount to
many hundred thousand, if not millions of smal l items, all of which require liftin8 individually. The
weight is lower than in some previou5 years, but this probably reflects fluctuations in weather
patterns as well as limitations on Beachranger availability and a greater determination to reuse and
repurpose where possible
Also included in the tally were heavier lengths of rope and damaged fishing gear, oil drums etc.,
which could not be bagged.
Thi5 weight excludes items which can be reused such as floats, useable rope undamaged fish-boxes
and lost prawn and lobster creels which are returned to the fishing fleet, shellfish farmers and
boatyards for reuse. Some of these items can also be repurposed for use by farmers, gardeners etc.
This year, in addition to the usual repurp05ing, we were able to pass on several items including a
large section of trawl net to another local charity, which wa5 enhancing an area of public open space
using a nautical theme. We are pleased to have been of assistance to this project.
Sadly, several dead seals and porpoises, were also removed in cooperation with the local council.
Whilst these are sad occasions, they reflect the fact that local populations are strong and that illness
and injury is inevitable when number5 are good.

Beachwatch Bute SCIO - Charity Number SC029603
Last summer was a strong one for tourism, however, it didn't result in an improvement in behaviour
and the Beachranger continued to be faced with several instances of dumped human waste. Our
marine litter benches were also being used inappropriately for disposal of domestic and dog waste.
Dog waste does remain a problem with plastic bags being a continued feature of litter on the
beaches and along footpaths. Some dog owners appear to think they are acting responsibly bv
picking up but then discard the plastic bag5 With no regard to their long-lasting polluting effect.
We are awaiting assistance from the local Council to install a further litter storage bench at Kilchattan
Bay, which had been requested by the local community. Unfortunately, Council cutbacks have
delayed this installation, but we hope this will be resolved soon. The benches continue to be a big
Success, and the design has been picked up by a few other organisations. Locally, they are well used
with several people unofficially adopting their own favourite stretches of beach and clearing litter at
their leisure.
The upgraded equipment and pickup truck acquired over the last few years are performing well and
has significantly improved our capabilities, particularly on more remote and hard to access beaches.
We have done further work to improve the condltlon of our tractor and our plckup now carrles the
Beachwatch Bute SCIO logo and contact details.
As in previous years we acknowledge our main funders EB Scotland, whose funding has allowed us to
function efficiently throughout the year, and they have awarded funding which should see us
through the 2025-26 financial year. Having a reliable main funder is a huge advantage, but we are
always aware of the risk that this represents. The ban on landfill in Scotland comes into force at the
beginnlng of 2026 because of legislatSon on landfill changlng. It isn't clear what the future holds for
the Scottish Landfill Communities Fund (SLCFI which was distributed by EB Scotland. The charity did
contribute to the public consultation on the future of the SLCF making clear that the lack of money
from this source could have a direct effect on the level of service we are able to provide.
The Beach Wheelchair project ran through last summer with a volunteer rota from the charity
organising the hiring of the chairs. Again, poorer weather in late summer limited the use, but we
were reasonably happy with how the project was establishing. Unfortunately, there was mlnor
damage to the container and chairs because of Storm Eowyn in January, but all should be well for the
main summer season. We continue to look to partner with other local charities to make best use of
the equipment.
We organised a community beach clean to help catch up with marine litter deposited by Storm
Eowyn which was very successful despite poor weather conditions. Another similar clean has been
held, although strictly outwith the reporting period. These events are good for raisi ng pu blic profile
and it is likely that further cleans will be held,

Beachwatch Bute SCIO - Charity Number SC029603
We find social media is a useful way to inform the public about what the charity does and with our
photographs and videos of various beaches and coasts, let them see the difference that our work
makes. It also allows us to highlight i55ue5 that we are faced with in our work, and it is an easy wav
for people to communicate with us. Currently we have 2500 followers on Facebook and on our
Instagram account, we have 412 followers. Both accounts are growing steadily. Links to both pages
are below:
htt
www.facebook.com
beachwatchbute
htt
www.insta
ram.com
beachwatchbute
We will continue to collaborate and work with organisations such as SEPA, Scottish Marine Animals
Stranding Scheme, Argyll and Bute Council, Ioc31 farmers, and Police Scotland.
Our chairman continues to chair the Scottish Island Federation ISIFI Marine Litter Working Group
{MLWG), despite some difficulties with funding cuts by Scottish Government.
The quarterly surveys of a sample of island beaches from Arran to Shetland in conjunction with
Marine Conservation Society are an important part of its work. There is starting to be a body of
evidence showing that islands Suffer from a greater degree of plastic pollution when compared with
mainland locations and that the litter is from different sources. The fishing and aquaculture
industries are much more significant polluters on the islands, where in mainland locations sewage
derived plastics and domestic rubbish generally are much more common. There are also other
academic studies ongoing which are showing similar results. This is a very different situation from
what wa5 predicted through scientific modellingi and it is hoped that this data will lead to a change
of attitudes in the industries through education and possibly policy changes. MLWG is also involved
in some pilot studies on recycllng of marine litter and in research on the use of drone5 to identify
remote locations badly affected by marine litter and analyse its sources.
Beachwatch Bute SCIO has contributed fully to this, adopting Ardroscadale Beach as a monitoring
stretch and we are proud to say that we have maintained our record of completing all the monitoring
on time for another year.
htt
www.scottish-islands-federation.co.uk
Plans for future perlods
In addition to maintaining our core activities we hope to become more involved with education
around marine litter. We are looking to partner with GRAB Trust who have greater educational
resources to visit the 3 island primary schools during the 2025-26 reporting period.
We hope that the beach wheelchairs will get more use during this summer although this is weather
dependent to a large degree. We now have the operational organisation fully in place for this to be a
successful addition to our service.
We will apply again to Co-op Community Fund and to EB Scotland, as well a5 Other funding streams
locally. We are very conscious of the risk surrounding changes in Scottish Government landfill tax. We
are fortunate to be funded by both organisations this year and happy that EB Scotland funding

Beachwatch Bute SCIO - Charity Number SC029603
should see us through 2025-26. However, there is considerable uncertainty around funding
thereafter and we are alert to other opportunities.
Overall, we are happy to have got through 2024-25 with our service intact and to have maintained
the good condition of our beaches despite various challenges, thereby contributing to health and
wellbeing of our residents and visitors alike and we are positive that we can continue to do so
throughout 2025-26 financial year.
We will contribute actively to the SIF MLWG and assist with setting up similar groups on other islands
as required. We are pleased to say that the group that we provided with initial advice in Westray are
doing very well albeit using a different model and are themselves now encouraging others in Orkney
and Shetland. We will continue to supply data a5 required and will consider involvement in future
academic research and projects as the opportunities arise.

Beachwatch Bute SCIO - Charity Number SC029603
Trustees, Annual Report-year ended 31 March 2025
Prlnclpal Funding Sources
Our main source of income continues to be E8 Scotland. Other funding has come from other
generous sources and private indivldual donations. We also contlnue to receive donatlons through
our collection boxes and by standing order to our bank account.
Reserves Pollcy
Our policy is to keep three months of annual expenditure based on 2025 figures this equates to
£4558.00, this would enable us to wind down charity in an orderly manner and honour any
commitments we may have if the Charity was to cease. At 31.03.2025 unrestricted reserves
amounted to £8,135.00 which 15 above the target level.
Statement of Trustees, Responslbllltle5
The charity Trustees are responsible for preparlng 3 Trustees Annual Report and Financial
Statements In accordance with applicable requirements with the Charities and Trustees Investment
(Scotlandl Act 2005, the Charltles Accounts (Scotlandl Regulations 2006. The Trustee5 are
sponsible for keeping proper accountlng records, which, on request, must reflect the financial
position of the Charity at any time. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the
Charlty and must take reasonable steps for the prevention and/or detection of fraud and other
irregularities,
Approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf,

Beachwatch Bute SCIO - Charity Number SC029603
Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees of Beachwatch Bute SCIO.
l Report on the accounts of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2025 which arc sct out on
pa&Tes I to 10.
Re%pective responsibilities of trustees Hnd exllmincr
Tlic cliai"ity's ti'ustees dre responsiblc for thb prcparation ot. the accounts in accordance with
Ihe terni.q of tlie Charities and Trustee Investincnt (Scotl&tnd) Act 2005 and the Charitios
Accounts (Scotland) R¢gulations 2006.
The chai'ity trustees consider that thc audit Irquireillent of Reg7ulation l O( l )(d) of thc Accounts
Regulations doLs nol ¢ipply. It is my respoiisibility to exainine the accounts as requii'ed under
Section 44(1)(c) of the Act and to state whether Jnatters havc come to my attention.
Basis of independent examiner's statement
My examination is carricd out in ilCL()rdance witli Regulation I l of the CharitiC8 Accounts
(Scotland) Regulations 2006. An cxainiiiation includes a review ot.tlic accountiiig recor(Is kept
by tlie charity and a Loinpcirison urthe accounts presented with thuqe records, It al.$0 inLludes
consideration of aiiy uiiusual iteins or disclosures in ihc accounts and seeks explanations fi'oin
tli¢ trusl¢es Loncerningr any SULh mallors. The procedures undcrtaken do not provide all tlie
evidence tliat would be required in an audit, and consequently I do not expre.%s an audit opinion
01) the view given by the dccounts.
Indcpendcnt cxrdminer's statement
DLiring Jny exaininatioii no iyiattci. lias come to my attention
wl)ich givcs inL' rL'tisull£ible cause to believe tlial in any material respcct tlic rcquireinents:
*To keep accoiiiiting records in accordancc witli Section 44(1)(a) ot. thc 2005 Act and
RebTulalion 4 ot'the 2006 Accounts Re&iulations, and
To prepare accounts which accord with tlie accounting rccords and coinply witli
Regulation 9 of the 2006 Accounts Regulalions have not been met, or
2. to which, in Iny opinion. attcntion should be drawn to enable a pr(Iper understanding of
thc accounts to be reaLhed.
AIAAP, MIAB One 2 One Accountancy Services, l O Gallowgate Rolhesay
20 OHII
Date".

Beachwatch Bute SCIO - Charity Number SC029603
Be4chwAtch Bute
Receipts and Payments Account- Yegr ended 31 March 2025
Unrestricted Restricted
Funds
Funds
2025
2025
Total
2025
Total
2024
Receipts
Donations
Activities for generating Funds
Mcrcliatidi5c Sold
Note
2,291
2.291
7,512
189
2.291
2,291
7,701
Grants (EB Scotland)
Sea Cliangyer% Mariiie Grant
Co-op Commuiiity Fund
Miscellaneous
8,593
8.593
16,927
500
500
Total Recelpts
Payments
Cost of Gcncrating Fuiids
Cliaritablc Activitics
Otlicr
A%sctS
Govemance Costs
Total Payments
16.884
714
63()
16.884
714
636
17,508
636
I xcess of Receipts over Payments (Payments
over Receipt) for the year

Beachwatch Bute SCIO - Charity Number SC029603
Be2chw8tch Bute
Statement of Balances on 31 March 2025
Unrestricted
Funds
Restricted
Funds
TotAI
2025
Total
2024
Bank and Deposit Balances
BalanLC4 broughi Ibrward
14.985
14.985
8,501
Movement in year
Excess of Rcceipty over Payments
(6,850)
(6,850)
6,484
Bank Mnd Dcpo$lt Balances
Balanccs caLTicd forward
ASSETS
Blliwd.
FixturL¥ & Fittings
Equipment
Tractor
Bench
I'ractor Bucket
Bench
Toyota Ili-Lux
Whcelchthlrs
Container
Added
94
8()6
9,950
3,391
450
619
18.770
7.58()
94
66
9,950
4,105
450
619
18.770
7,586
94
866
9,950
3,391
450
619
18.770
7,586
714
Totsl
714
Tlie Accounts were approved by the Board of ljeacliwatch Bule on
io

Beachwatch Bute SCIO - Charity Number SC029603
Beachwatch Bute
Notes to the Accounts
l. Trustee RemunerRtion and Related Party Transactions
DuriLig thc ycar no trustccs of Bcachwatcli Butc rcccivcd any moiiics for providing scrviccs. No
tnistccs rcccivcd Expcnscs oli bohalf of the cl?arity in tlic financial ycar to 31.03.2025,
2. Movements in Funds
At 01.04.24 Receipts Payments Transfers At 31.03.25
Unrestricted Funds
Gcncral Fund
14,985
11,384
18,234
8,135
Restricted Funds
Total Funds
Pur
oscg of Rcstrictcd Funds
li

Beachwatch Bute SCIO - Charity Number SC029603
Unrestricted Restricted
Funds
Funds
2024
3. Analysis of Donations
Scottish Flying Club
Anchor Tavern
Mar%hall Trust
Tax recovered on Gift Aid Donatioiis
Cuinulative Iiidividual Donations
Bute Fainily Trust
WRI
Collcction Boxcs
MisccllaiiLous
300
150
300
150
3,750
355
998
2,000
100
309
336
1,038
336
1,038
467
467
4. Analysis of Payments
Cost of Fundraising Events
Fundraisiiig Expetises
CharitabRe Activities
Rangrcr Wagcs
Motor Vchiclc Cost
Mobile"fclephone
Adverti%in
Repairs
Postag?e
Insuraiicc
Cliaritablc Donation
Usc of Ilall
Mcinbcrship
Mi.4ccllancous
Governance Costs
AccountaLicy Fccs
13.668
2,123
360
106
13.668 12.720
2,123
2,654
360
316
106
597
597
459
597
30
30
25
636
17520 17412
12

Beachwatch Bute SCIO - Charity Number SC029603
13