AGMs

Woodford Green Amenity Group Trustee Report for the year ended 30 April 2023.

Legal and Administrative Information

Woodford Green Amenity Group is registered with the Charity Commission with the reference no 273343.  Its official address is c/o 13 Kings Avenue, Woodford Green, Essex, IG8 0JD.  The Group’s website address is www.woodfordgreenamenitygroup.org

The trustees of the charity during the year ended 30 April 2023 were

Michael Brook – Vice Chairman, Sue Brown, and Jean Wyber – Treasurer.

The trustees are assisted by an Executive Committee –

June Brook, Joan Brown, George Buchanan, Ian Haines, Joel Herga, Linda Huggett, Noreen Madison, Neal Manners, Matthew Parker, Alice Pastides and David Smith.

Structure, Governance and Management

The Group’s constitution was agreed in 1974 and registered with the Charity Commission in 1978.  Officers and other members of the Executive Committee are elected annually at the Annual General Meeting.

When new Trustees are appointed, they are required to read the Charity Commission guidance on the responsibilities of their role.

Decisions are made at Committee meetings but if it is necessary to make a decision between scheduled meetings, the Officers will consult by email and the decision will be recorded in the next committee minutes.  Committee meetings are usually held every two months.

Members of the Executive Committee are also members of other committees concerned with local amenities and report on matters of mutual interest.

Objectives and Activities

The Group’s original constitution is available on the website but in recent years we have concentrated on improving the amenity of the local area (providing hanging baskets and seasonal lighting, maintaining certain open areas and litter picking) and advocacy.

Achievements and Performance

During the year ended 30 April 2023 the Celebration Tree was well used.  It was lit for all the major religious festivals and it, plus the surrounding fencing, was decorated for Remembrance Day; Christmas; The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee; The Queen’s passing and the King’s Coronation.

The lawn around the Celebration Tree is solely maintained by WGAG.

Pankhurst Green has been a great disappointment. Redbridge Council spent a considerable amount of money on clearing the established shrubs and carrying out a re-planting programme of new small shrubs. However, the Council failed to maintain or water the area and the beds are now overgrown with weeds and many of the new plants have died. We have recently been told by Redbridge Council that there is no money in their budget to maintain Pankhurst Green.

3,500 Newsletters, which included our subscription form, were distributed in Woodford last year but sadly these did not generate the renewals and new members that we had hoped.

A very successful Quiz Evening was held in October 2022

The annual hanging flowering baskets in The Broadway costs around £5,000 and, due to lack of income, the Group are unable to fund the baskets for the summer.

Financial Review

The Group does not have a Reserves Policy.  It has no ongoing commitments and has provided amenities when it had the funds available.  These have been depleted by deficits which reached a level where we were unable to order hanging baskets for the summer of 2023.

The subscription income dropped again this year.  We received more from households (£5) but four fewer from businesses (£25).  Due to Gift Aided donations from individuals, we were able to make a bigger claim than last year.

We were very grateful to the members and friends who supported the Quiz Night which raised nearly £1,400.  The balance of fund raising income came from sales of cards and tea towels etc.

Early in 2023 LB Redbridge (LBR) paid over a small Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) grant which we requested for the cost of watering the Celebration Tree.  We are told that the cost of including this in LBR’s watering schedule will cost £121.50 so the unapplied part of the grant will need to be carried over or repaid at the end of the season.

Because the gross income of the charity is less than £25,000 an independent examination of the accounts is not  required under the provisions of the Charities Act 2011.  The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Charities Act 2011 Section 133, using the Receipts and Payments basis available to small charities.

Future Plans

Members of the Committee are preparing an application for a larger CIL grant to enable us to re-instate the Hanging Baskets (and add some railing trough baskets) in the Broadway in the summer of 2024.  This will require crowd funding from the Group and its supporters to match funding from LBR.

We have set up a sub committee to review the Group’s constitution.

We are continuing to organise Litter Picks and bulb planting to continue the enhancement of our locality.  We comment on planning development proposals where appropriate.