2026-01-31-accounts - Ellon and District Men's Shed

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

Appendix 1 Trustees’ Annual Report for the period

From OSC r

	Period start date	Period start date	Period start date		Period end date	Period end date	Period end date
	Day	Month	Year		Day	Month	Year
From	1st	February	2025	To	31st	January	2026

Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator

Charity name


	Ellon and District Men’s Shed

	SC044586
	Hospital Road
	Ellon

		PostcodeAB41 9AW

Other names charity is known by Registered charity number SC044586 Charity’s principal address

Names of the charity trustees on date of approval of Trustees’ Annual Report

Trustee name	Office (if any)	Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (if any)
Andrew Leonard	Chairman	AGM election
Colin Gibb	Vice Chairman	AGM election
Gillian Forrest	Secretary	AGM election
Andrew Leonard	Treasurer	AGM election
Ronnie Gair	Trustee	AGM election
Alexander Burnett	Trustee	AGM election
Ian Elder	Trustee	AGM election
Duncan Macrae	Trustee	AGM election
John Hardy	Trustee	AGM election
Mike Bruce	Trustee	AGM election
Niall Webster	Trustee	AGM election

Names of all other charity trustees during the period, if any, (for example, those who resigned part way through the financial period)

Name	Name	Dates acted if not for whole year



Structure, governance and management Type of governing document Constitution Trustee recruitment and appointment Nominations at AGM and co-options at other times.
	Constitution
	Nominations at AGM and co-options at other times.

Charitable purposes Summary of the main activities in relation to these objects	The purpose of the organisation is to provide recreational facilities and advance the social needs, health and wellbeing of men of all ages and backgrounds living in Ellon and surrounding area
	a) Creating, developing and maintaining a facility, namely a Men's Shed. b) Offering opportunities for men in the Ellon area to meet and undertake creative, physical, purposeful and recreational activities of their choice. c) Reducing isolation of men in the area thus contributing to their physical and mental wellbeing. d) Developing the capacity of men in the Ellon area to share their skills and knowledge with others in the community.

Charitable purposes
Summary of the main activities
in relation to these objects

The purpose of the organisation is to provide recreational facilities and
advance the social needs, health and wellbeing of men of all ages and
backgrounds living in Ellon and surrounding area

a) Creating, developing and maintaining a facility, namely a Men's Shed.
b) Offering opportunities for men in the Ellon area to meet and undertake
creative, physical, purposeful and recreational activities of their choice.
c) Reducing isolation of men in the area thus contributing to their physical
and mental wellbeing.
d) Developing the capacity of men in the Ellon area to share their skills
and knowledge with others in the community.

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the financial period

The year has been another busy one for the Shed with some significant changes,

We adopted a new constitution – a requirement for the Asset Transfer Request (see below) and to allow women to be members of the overall organisation (also a requirement for some funding bodies).

Early in 2025 we held exploratory meetings about establishing a women’s shed. In April we held the first sessions of the Women’s Shed – meeting on alternate Wednesdays. This is continuing with about 12 women attending regularly. We need to consider how we progress this in the future on a sustainable basis.

For the Men’s Shed we have about 60 men who attend regularly. In terms of visits to the Shed this has shown a progressive increase over the last 4 years – the average visits per week was 16 in 2020; 23 in 2021, 38 in 2022; 47 in 2023 and 2024; 55 in 2025.

Some highlights from the main workshops:

Following on from last year’s modifications to the main woodworking workshop we installed a new, more powerful and effective extraction system. The main workshop has had a busy time refurbishing items, making nest boxes, mink trackers, planters etc.
The bike / motorbike workshop has been a great success. With Jim Hardy leading the pushbike refurbishing. We’ve donated bikes to the Academy, repaired and refurbished lots of bikes – and passed some on to Stella’s Voice. Stuart Smith has been leading the motorbike work – now on the rebuild of the 6[th] bike (Norton Commando).
The laser engraving has been very successful – with great stuff produced by Ian, Duncan and Arthur. Arthur worked tremendously hard in the run up to Christmas.
Picture framing ticks along – generally undertaking bespoke repairs and new frames (including frames for a jigsaw and a tapestry)
3D printing has also been going well – Christmas gifts and repairs for equipment.
CNC has been used for plaques, house signs and other speciality items. A new training course will shortly kick off so that more people can use the machine.
Metal cold forming still needs to ‘get off the ground’ – but other metal working to help furniture refurbishing has gone well. Recently, Bill Higgins has been passing on welding skills to other members.

~~4~~

The IT training initiative with Aberdeenshire, Community Learning and Development (CLD) is continuing and proving to be very popular. The drop-in sessions on Mondays are well attended.

On the gardening front the polytunnel was well used last summer – with lots of tomatoes and other veg. David Stark used one of the greenhouses last summer.

In March 2026 we had a new 12.5m Polycrub installed to replace the old polytunnel. This was funded by a grant from the MacAskill Family Trust. This will be a great addition to the garden – giving more opportunities for propagation and growing fruit and veg.

The pétanque club (affiliated with the Scottish Pétanque Association) continues to meet on a Thursday afternoon. The playing surface needs to be re-laid as it is too soft and variable for competitions.

We have started a cribbage group with Ian McDonald taking the lead – it meets on a Tuesday morning c 10.30am. Come along if you want to join in.

Harry Emslie has continued with his terrific gardening work at Ythanvale and has been largely responsible for maintaining their gardens.

We’d like to attract more men who are in full or part time employment. We have significant capability at the Shed (3D printing, laser engraving, CNC router, picture framing, bike maintenance…) that more men could use. We need ideas on how to attract them. We have been very successful with our fund raising in the last year.

In May we received a grant of £700 from the Rotary. On 1[st] January 2026 we received £7066 from the Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund to fund our running costs for the year (and we will receive a second payment of £7343 in 2027 to cover next year’s running costs.

On the 20[th] January we received £12274 for the Polycrub from the MacAskill Family Trust. This paid for both purchase of the kit and installation. The installation was very efficiently done by North to South services, St Fergus.

In terms of ‘external’ events. We held open-days on 17[th] May and 15[th] November giving visitors a chance to have a look round, see what we are doing buy items made in the Shed and spare tools, and of course, have tea, cake and burgers. A big thank you to Shed members who made items to sell at both these events and for members of the men’s and women’s sheds who helped out on the day.

New member Andy Cruickshank helped Hybrid Gaming with guidance on soldering techniques.

In August, in collaboration with Aberdeenshire Council’s Community & Learning team, we held a Family Learning Workshop at the Shed. Several families with young children came along and had a good time undertaking some craft and model building activities and watched a demonstration of the Shed’s 3D printer.

We get a kick out of supporting young people’s activities: e.g. donating bikes to the academy, supporting Arnage Primary School in their pre-Christmas project, family activity days, visits from the Brownies, nest-box building with a carer and ‘her’ children. In October we held a fund-raising quiz at McDonald Golf Club.

We again opened the Shed as a ‘Winter Café’ for adults to come for warmth, company, board -games refreshment and food. We opened every Wednesday through November until end February. The sessions were run by members of both the men’s and women’s shed – thank you to those who helped out.

In January we had our Annual Meal Out, this year at McDonald Club, where 38 of our members and partners enjoyed a lovely lunch by Cuthberts catering.

To conclude, I look forward to the rest of 2026.

In March 2025 we submitted an Expression of Interest to Aberdeenshire Council for a Community Asset Transfer of the Shed. This is because our lease runs out in 2030 and we have run out of internal and external space at the Shed. We wish to:

Secure long-term control of the Shed and it’s site by purchase or, long term lease
Expand the site area
Ensure long term adequate electrical supply

We will continue to try and increase membership, expand into new activities, and provide a safe and enjoyable space for members to socialise and progress their hobbies. We will also look at other ways we can support the members – e.g. more health talks. If you have other ideas, please let us know.

We will continue to progress the women’s shed and have some important decisions to make on how we do this. We will need to consult widely with the membership to make sure we do this well.

As the treasurer will tell you, we remain in a healthy financial position which gives us a solid basis to work from.

There are some areas we need more help with – two are particularly important: wood workshop supervision and webmaster to manage our social media presence. Please let us know if you could help.

It’s been a very active and progressive year. This doesn’t happen without hard work. I’m not going to highlight everyone’s contribution – just to say a big thanks to all of them for support they’ve given the Shed. It takes time and hard work.

But there has been an extra effort this year to get the women’s shed off the ground. Several trustees helped with this but Allan Forrest, Colin Gibb and Duncan Macrae put in significant extra time and effort to supporting this.

Please remember this is your Shed and we welcome your ideas and feedback on better ways to support you and the community. We also would welcome members to step up and become trustees to help run the Shed – the effort needs to be shared about.

So, I’ll hang around a bit longer yet. But, September will mark 5 years as Chairman and 8 years as Treasurer.

Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves

We aim to maintain reserves amounting to c 3 months’ running costs.

Details of any deficit

No deficits

Donated facilities and services (if any)

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above .

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s) Full name(s) Andrew Leonard

Position (e.g. Chair) Chairman

Date 13/04/2026

ELLON & DISTRICT MEN'S SHED	ELLON & DISTRICT MEN'S SHED
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES					-
(INCLUDING RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT)
FOR YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2026
					Total	Total
			Restricted	Unrestricted	Funds	Funds
			Funds	Funds	2026	2025

RECEIPTS		Notes	£	£	£	£
Grants		1	26,040	1,500	27,540	29,403
Donations			-	1,225	1,225	2,903
Receipts from FundraisingActivities			-	4,552.88	4,553	3,657
Receipts from Charitable Activities			-	12,748	12,748	7,548
Investment Income			-	143	143	108

Total IncomingResources			26,040	20,168	46,208	43,618

PAYMENTS
Resources Expended for Fundraising			- 676 25,294 15,982 - 240		676	393
Resources Expended for Charitable Activities					41,276	29,424
Governance Costs - Independent Examination					240	180
			25,294 16,898
Total Resources Expended					42,192	29,997
			746 3,270 18,594 13,379
Net Incoming/(Outgoing)resources for Year					4,017	13,622

Total Funds at 1 February2025					31,973	18,351
			19,340 16,649
Total Funds at 31 January2026					35,989	31,973


	The statement of financial activities includes allgains		and losses in theyear.
	The above receipts andpayments are split between restricted and unrestricted funds.

ELLON & DISTRICT MEN'S SHED		SC044586
STATEMENT OF BALANCES
AS AT 31 JANUARY 2026

					Total	Total
			Restricted	Unrestricted	Funds	Funds
			Funds	Funds	2025	2024
			£	£	£	£
Cash and Bank Balances at 1 February2025			18593.77	13379.27	31,973	18,351
Surplus/(deficit)for theyear		746 3,271			4,017	13,622

Cash and Bank Balances at 31 January 2025			19,340	16,650	35,990	31,973

Cash & Bank Balances as at 31 January 2026:
Account -1(Treasurers Account)	1,550.77
Instant Access Account(interest bearing)	34,011.79
Account 2	200.00
PettyCash in Hand	226.59
	£35,989.15

Fixed Assets
CNC Machine(Year 4/7)	£7,000.00

The financial statements were approved bythe Board of Trustees on 13/4/20206
and were signed on its behalf by:



……………………………………………………….
Trustee
Andrew Leonard

ELLON & DISTRICT MEN'S SHED	ELLON & DISTRICT MEN'S SHED	ELLON & DISTRICT MEN'S SHED	ELLON & DISTRICT MEN'S SHED	SC044586
NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS
FOR YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2026


Nature & Purpose of Funds

The organisation successfully applied for funding for various projects and equipment with funding held as restricted and spent under the terms of the relevant funding agreements. Unrestricted funds consist of donations, fundraising and sales of new and refurbished items.

Trustee Remuneration & Expenses

No remuneration was paid during the period to any charity trustee or person connected to a trustee in this period. Direct reimbursement of purchases on behalf of the organisation were paid to 9 trustees on submission of receipts. These payments amounted to £1016 for routine Shed activies. In addition specific expenditure due to tool purchase funded by the Poverty Allevation Fund. £530 was paid to Jim Hardy and £899 to Duncan Macrae.


*Grants*
	PovertyAlleviation	Fund	£6,000	(restricted)
	Rotary		£700	(restricted)
	CMHWF		£7,066	(restricted)
	MacAskill FamilyTrust		£12,274	(restricted)
	George Crombie Trust		£1,500	(unrestricted)
			£27,540

	EDMS RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2026	EDMS RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2026	EDMS RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2026	EDMS RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2026	EDMS RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JANUARY 2026

		TOTAL			TOTAL
		25/26			25/26
		£			£
Receipts			Payments
	3Dprinter	149.00		3Dprinter	1,224.02
	Cards	21.00		Cards	0.00
	CNC	660.19		CNC	634.92
	Donations - miscellaneous	1,225.15		Event catering	624.79
	Event catering	711.64		Garden	343.02
	Garden	25.00		Kitchen & social	1,463.65
	Grants	27,540.00		Laser engraver	1,056.34
	Kitchen & social	2,051.73		Major Eqpt	1,845.06
	Laser engraver	862.84		Metal work	27.07
	Major Eqpt	0.00		Miscellaneous	1,271.08
	Metal work	0.00		Motorbikes	801.62
	Miscellaneous	948.31		Picture Framing	523.81
	Motorbikes	2,160.00		Push bikes	777.51
	Picture Framing	125.00		Quiz	50.91
	Push bikes	882.94		Refurbishing misc	3.98
	Quiz	763.20		Room hire	0.00
	Refurbishing misc	780.00		Running costs	8,809.52
	Room hire	0.00		Site Maintenance	0.00
	Site Maintenance	0.00		Site work - capex	17,229.52
	Site work - capex	54.91		Tools - woodworking	1,286.96
	Tools - woodworking	49.80		Trailer	0.00
	Trailer	78.00		Training	0.00
	Wooden workshop	6,977.12		Wooden workshop	4218.17
	TOTAL RECEIPTS	46,065.83
	Bank Interest	142.64
	TOTAL INCOME	46,208.47		TOTAL PAYMENTS	42,191.95

			Surplus/(Deficit)	for the year	4,016.52

APPENDIX 3 Independent examiner’s report on the accounts

Report to the Charity name trustees/members of Ellon and District Men’s Shed

	Independent examiner’s report on the accounts	Independent examiner’s report on the accounts	Independent examiner’s report on the accounts	Independent examiner’s report on the accounts	Independent examiner’s report on the accounts	Independent examiner’s report on the accounts	Independent examiner’s report on the accounts	Independent examiner’s report on the accounts	Independent examiner’s report on the accounts
	Charity name Ellon and District Men’s Shed
Registered charity number On the accounts of the charity for the period Set out on pages Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner Basis of independent examiner’s statement Independent examiner’s statement Signed: Name: Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): Address:	SC044586
	Period start date					Period end date
	Day	Month	Year			Day		Month	Year
	01	February	2025	to		31		January	2026
	Receipts & Payments accounts on pages 8–11 attached							(remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)

	The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the terms of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) 2005 Act and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. The charity trustees consider that the audit requirement of Regulation 10(1) (d) of the Accounts Regulations does not apply. It is my responsibility to examine the accounts as required under section 44(1) (c) of the Act and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
	My examination is carried out in accordance with Regulation 11 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeks explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and, consequently, I do not express an audit opinion on the accounts.
	In the course of my examination, no matter has come to my attention 1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements: • to keep accounting records in accordance with section 44(1) (a) of the 2005 Act and Regulation 4 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations, and • to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with Regulation 9 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations have not been met.
					Date:		15 April 2026
	Ian Gourlay

	43 Gordon Place
	Bridge of Don
	Aberdeen
	AB23 8RB

*Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply. If the words do apply, set out those matters which have come to your attention on the following page.