2024-10-31-accounts

Milnathort & Kinross Allotments Association

MKAA Chairperson Report 2024

Compiled 6 January 2025

Joiners, Movers and Leavers

Over the course of 2024 we have welcomed 16 new members to MKAA and said farewell to five plot holders who have moved on for various reasons. One notable member not planning on continuing with his plot into the new year is and I want to take this opportunity to wish him well and thank him for the commitment and passion he has shown towards the allotment association over many years. He will be greatly missed, and I hope he still feels welcome to join us on site at any time to share his knowledge or for a cuppa and a chat.

With regards to the steady stream of new members, thanks go out to z= who has promoted the association on Facebook and generated interest in membership from the local community.

Changing requirements of existing plot-holders, along with the continued demand for new plots, has challenged us to be flexible in our approach to offering new growing space. New plots, co-working, plot swaps and division of larger plots have enabled us to best use the available space on site to the benefit of members.

Finances

We have had a very successful year at the farmers markets, generating more income than previous years. The use of a card reader has helped to increase sales, and the beautiful plants donated for sale by members generated over £1000 profit between the April and May markets. A special thank you goes to who continue to donate their time and effort to ensure our stall is filled with healthy attractive plants which sell easily.

This year has seen MKAA as recipients of a £3000 grant from the Royal Warrant Holder’s Association for development of the community space. I would like to thank who kindly made the successful application on our behalf, and for the additional £250 he donated from his own business. Hjordis has been instrumental in drawing up plans for the development of the community area as a social space, an area for quiet reflection, with a fruit cage and raised beds to be added to the space beside the polytunnel in the new year to allow us to grow fruit and vegetables for the community. Thank you to her for pushing the plans forward and I am excited to see this develop as the weather improves over the next few months.

We have successfully transferred all MKAA accounts to Virgin money, and my thanks to or coordinating this. This has allowed us to become fully digital with our finances over the last few months, significantly reducing the administrative burden associated with banking now that we can easily view and manage MKAA funds with the touch of a button.

Charity and Community Work

Over the course of this year, we have established relationships with several local charities and services including The Kinross Centre, Broke Not Broken and Causeway Court. They are delighted at the prospect of being the recipients of allotment produce as we get the community produce garden up and running in 2025. We have maintained contact with CHAS, with an ongoing offer of help in their vegetable garden, albeit they have not been in a position to take us up on this in 2024. We will reach out to them again in 2025 and, if nothing else, hope to donate any spare vegetable plants from the farmer’s markets to them for onward growing and use by their in-house kitchen staff.

Workdays

We have continued to have very good turnouts at the workdays this year, in part due to the now-standard offer of a cuppa and cake during the sessions. It has been thoroughly enjoyable to see everyone working hard together then taking the opportunity to catch-up and share news and gardening tips during the well-earned breaks.

Thank you to all members who have attended, those who have kindly donated their home baking, and especially to who bakes her delicious loaves for every session, even when is not able to attend.

Plot Inspections

We have introduced more regular plot inspections this year, allowing us to identify and address small potential issues such as broken glass, waste and weeds before they become a problem. Thank you to all members who have positively responded to ‘Notices of Work Required’. The last inspection of the year was completed during a workday, with the involvement of non-board members. We look forward to taking this approach into 2025 so that any member can be involved in the process, should they wish, and at a convenient time when they are already on site.

Digital First

Thanks to we now have a Office365 charity account, and we are in the process of transferring all historic records onto cloud-based storage, ensuring better security of our documents, and improved access for approved individuals to help with the smooth running of the association. We are also able to utilise available applications to support and streamline communications and activities such as data collection during plot inspections and newsletter production. As a result, we have significantly cut down on our use of stationery and hope to be paper-free in the future.

Into 2025

As we move into 2025, I look forward to seeing the allotment association continue to thrive, welcoming new members and establishing ourselves as an important part of the Kinross and Milnathort community. I hope the development of the community garden will offer a space to support local groups with healthy produce, as well as offer a beautiful place to relax and reflect away from the bustle of everyday life. I wish all our members the best of health, and welcome opportunities for us to benefit from each other’s company, knowledge and support.

Thank you

I want to take this opportunity to thank all members of the current board for their dedication and support as without them we would not be able to function as a charity. I would particularly like to offer gratitude towards for the time and effort they willingly donate on a regular basis to undertake the duties of Secretary and Treasurer, ensuring the association runs smoothly and within the requirements of the Scottish Charity Regulator.

Furthermore, thank you to all members for their ongoing support and commitment to the association, it is a pleasure to work with you all.

MKAA Chairperson, 2024

Page 2 of 2

MKAA Chairperson Report 2024

Milnathort & Kinross Allotments Association

Annual General Meeting 2024 Secretary’s Statement

I would like to start my 2024 statement by thanking all the other board members for their support over the past 12 months. I would also like to record my thanks also to for her support with the Allotment Web site.

During the period being reported on we have had sixteen new members join the association, six of these have been allocated a plot and eight have either a raised bed or a starter plot while 2 are still waiting on a plot.

Unfortunately, due to a range of issues we have seen five members giving up their plots during the year. The waiting list for full plots is currently sitting at 5. All 4 raised bed are taken at present.

This year we have seen another improvement in the number of members attending the workdays with an average of eighteen members attending each day. This has allowed the site to be maintained in good condition and most of the jobs that required completing have be done. Thanks to all those who attended. Following feedback on workdays timings we are going to change the times to a 9am start with a 1pm finish on weekend days.

Again, this year we had a stall at both the April and May farmers market and sold a great deal of vegetable and flower plants. A big thanks to all members who either contributed to the stall or helped cover the stall during both days. A special mention must go to both a for their contribution of flower and veg plants.

We were very fortunate to get some advice from concerning applying for a grant from the Royal Warrant Holders Association. We applied and received £3000.00 plus a donation from of £250.00.

This money will be used to purchase a fruit cage, raised beds and some more seating for community garden.

I applied to the Woodland Trust for more trees, and we received 115 saplings which have been planted to fill in some gaps in the hedges and to form a wind break around the site. Some Silver Birch have still to be planted which will be done once the new seating is in place in the community garden.

I am delighted to report that we now have a total of 19 co-workers, which will be great for the continuity of plot holders.

I have not had any further communication from CEO of Calder’s Garden Centre regarding any changes to our agreement with Calder’s.

Secretary January 2025

Milnathort & Kinross Allotments Association [Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation number SC044354]

Milnathort & Kinross Allotments Association

Milnathort & Kinross Allotments Association [Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation number SC044354]

Milnathort & Kinross Allotment Association Treasurers Report MKAA 1st Nov 23 to 31st Oct 24

The handover of the role of treasurer from to me was smooth and straightforward and I would like to thank for his work in the role and help in the transfer.

We took the opportunity to change banks because the TSB customer response was not great. We are now with Virgin money and the transfer was seamless. We have set up the account with online banking with 2 signatures for all transactions. We have 3 signatories – and we can select any 2 from these 3.

We also set up Microsoft 365 for communities and have this excellent service free of charge.

We joined the Social Farms & Gardens network which gives free access to a library of good documents and risk assessments as well as general information.

Turning to the finances.

We started out the year with £4,725.27 in the bank and £100 in petty cash. We end the year with £8700.47 and the same amount in petty cash.

This increase in reserves came from two sources.

1. Our income was £3893.69 and Expenditure of £3208.49 giving us an addition of £685.20 to our reserves.

2. The association were fortunate to receive a grant £3250 to enable us to provide training and a source of produce for the community. Our sincere thanks to who made this grant possible.

Let me provide some detail around the normal transactions and then we will cover the plans for the Grant.

for the Grant.
Item	Income	Item	Expenditure
Rent Plots	2130.00	Refund	47.00
Membership	245.00	Rent Site	240.00
Donation	40.00	Site Maintenance	1443.78
Rent Poly	120.00	Equipment	516.84
Events	1127.42	Admin	276.00
		Web	156.92
		Events	93.79
Post sales	268.00	Posts	434.16
Bank	3.27
Total	3933.69	Total	3208.49

As can be seen in table we made over £1000 (£1127.42- £93.79) from sale of plants at the farmers markets and on site. Without this our expenditure would have exceeded income by £308.

We made considerable progress this year on site maintenance and renewed many of the hand tools, replaced some posts and improved water collection facilities. We added three new plots and planted over 100 trees.

We did not hire any skips this year and manged to recycle or take waste materials from workdays to the recycling centres which saved us £250.

Our aim, as was communicated last year, is to cover normal expenditure from normal income and keeping a reserve for unplanned events such as poly tunnel re-covering, machinery replacement etc.as well as expected costs such as increased ground rental and increases in general costs for maintenance.

To meet this goal, we propose an increase in plot rents of just under 5% for the coming year. Poly fees and membership fees would be unchanged.

Poly fees and membership	fees would be unchanged.
Plot size	Present Fee	Proposed Fee
Per Square Metre	44p	46p
200m Plot	£88	£92
100m Plot	£44	£46
70m Plot	£31 (rounded up from £30.80)	£32 (rounded down from £32.20)
50m Plot	£22	£23
Other sizes		Pro rata at 46p per square metre

Compared to most other allotment fees, we hope you agree that the rents still represent very good value.

Turning to the Grant.

We have a wonderful opportunity to improve and enhance the community areas of the site and provide better facilities for training and general awareness / place to visit for the community. The plans were shared with members at site in 3Q and we will be moving ahead with making this happen this year. We are planning a large fruit cage with raised beds to reduce maintenance, and this will be easily accessible for anyone with disabilities. We will also improve access to the existing raised beds and enhance the community area with planting and seating. The grant will be used to cover the costs of these improvements.

Many thanks for your ongoing support and happy growing

Treasurer Milnathort & Kinross Allotments Association SCIO 044354

MKAA Year to 31st October 2024 Debit-Expenditure Refund Credit - Income Rent Plots 2130.00 47.00 Membership Donation 245.00 3290.00 Rent Site 240.00 1443.78 Site Maint Rent Poly 120.00 0.00 0.00 1127.42 Equipment Admin 516.84 276.00 156.92 93.79 Web Events Events Posts 268.00 Posts 434.16 Bank otal In 3.27 7183.69 Bank Total Out 0.00 3208.49 Opening Account Plus Income less Expenditure Running Account 4,725.27 3,975.20 8,700.47 8,700.47

Indopandent Examlnefs Reportto the Truste85 of MiEnathort & ￿nrOSS Allotments I report on the accounts of Ihe cnariw for the year end￿ 31 ottober2024 whlcn are set out in spreadsheet MKAAAccounts Nov23-Oct 24.xlsx, PDF of bankstatements ioownioads and approx. 30% of rac8ipts and invoices. Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner The Char￿￿S trust88s ar8 responsible forthe preparation of the accounts in accord8ncewith the terms of the Charities 2nd Trustee Investment {Scottandl Act 2005 and tha Charitiès Account3 Regulations 2006 las amended) - The charffytrustees considerthat the audrt requirements of Regu18tion 10I1IIUI oy the 2(K)6 Accounts Regulations ¢Joes noi apply. It is my responsibiltyto examine the accounts as required under section 4411 Ilcl of the Act and to state whether particular matters have corr£ to my artention. Basls of Independent examiner's statement My examTnation is Garried out in acci¥rdance wilh ReguLatTon 11" of the 2006 Accounts Reguletions. An examinHtiorE inctudes a review of the accounting records kept bythe charity and a comparison of the accounis presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual ttems or disclosurtss in the accounts. and seeks explanations fromthe trustees concefning8ny such matters. The procedures undg.rt8ken dr) not provide all the evidenc8 that would be required in an audtt, and consequentiyl do not express an audtt opinion on theview given by the accounts. Indapondertt oxamingr's statement During my ex2min2tion. no matter hag comato my attention 1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respectlhe requirements." - to keep accounLing records accordan￿ wrth Section 4411)la) of the 2005 Actand Regulation 4 ofthe 2006Accounts Regulations - to prepare accountswhich eccoru wr(h the accounting records and cornp￿ with ReguLation 9 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations hav8 not been met, or 2. tO￿leh. in my opinion. attention should be drawn in orderto enable a prowrunderstanding of the accounts to be reached.