Trustees' Annual Report for the period:		
	From	Period start date	To	Period end date		
		Day
1	Month
4	Year
2015		Day
31	Month
3	Year
2016		
	
Section A                        Reference and administration details
	
Charity name 	PITSTONE RECREATION GROUND CHARITY	
	
Other names charity is known by	N/A	
	
Registered charity number (if any) 	1094867		
	
Charity's principal address 
	c/o The Parish Clerk, Pitstone Parish Council,	
	9 Warwick Road	
	Pitstone, Beds	
	Postcode	LU7 9FE	
	
	Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity  NB individuals are not trustees in their own right, the Parish Council as a corporate body is sole trustee.  There was a change to councillors in the May 2015 election.	
	Trustee name	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole year	Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (if any)	
1	Steve Mattey	Chair of the Charity Committee		Member of Parish Council	
2	Robert Saintey	Member of Charity Committee	Remains a member of the council but stepped down from Charity committee in May 2015	Member of Parish Council	
3	Klaus Ginda	Member of Charity Committee	Retired from the Council and charity committee in May 2015	Member of Parish Council	
4	Gill Arney			Member of Parish Council	
5	Annie Stack	Member of the Charity Committee	Remains on the council and became a member of the charity committee in May 2015	Member of Parish Council	
6	Dave Nicholls			Member of Parish Council	
7	Alison Hawkins		Retired from the Council and charity committee in May 2015	Member of Parish Council	
8	Brian Richardson		Retired from the Council and charity committee in May 2015	Member of Parish Council	
9	Ben Blunt			Member of Parish Council	
10	Brian Brooks		May 2014 to May 2015 when retired from the Council and charity committee	Member of Parish Council	
11	Margaret Crutchfield		Joined the Council in May 2015	Member of Parish Council	
12	Colin Starling	Member of the Charity Committee	Joined the Council and the Charity Committee in May 2015	Member of the Parish Council	
13	Kris Weber		Joined the Council in May 2015	Member of the Parish Council	
14	Joanne Groom		Joined the Council in May 2015	Member of the Parish Council	

	Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)	
	Name	Dates acted if not for whole year	
	Pitstone Parish Council, as Corporate Body, is the Sole Trustee.  Persuant to S101(1) of the 1972 Act Pitstone Parish Council resolved that the affairs of the Pitstone Recreation Ground Charity will be managed by a committee to ensure it is easier for members to fulfil their obligations to only consider what is in the best interests of the charity and not the local authority.   The members of this committee are listed above, along with other members of full council.	n/a	
	
Names and addresses of advisors:	

Type of Advisor	Name	Address	
Legal / solicitor	John Reddington Esq of
Horwood and James	7 Temples Square, Aylesbury, HP20 2QB	

	Section B              Structure, governance and management		
	
Description of the charity’s trusts	
Type of governing document    
(eg. trust deed, constitution) 	Charity Commission Sealed Scheme of 29/12/1922, and Sealed Scheme of 20/6/1973.	
How the charity is constituted 
(eg. trust, association, company)	Trust	
Trustee selection methods 
(eg. appointed by, elected by)	As the Parish Council, as Corporate Body, is Trustee, the trustees are selected via local government election every four years.  Where a casual vacancy occurs during the 4 years, a new member is co-opted.  Members of the Charity Committee are selected by lack of conflict of interest and competence/skills base.	
Additional governance issues (Optional information) 	
You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:
•	policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees; 
•	the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
•	relationship with any related parties;
•	trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them. 	Both the chair of the charity committee and the secretary/clerk undertood the SAVO Trustee E:Learning training course and are diseminating the information to other trustees.

The charity is working on a review of practices and is in the process of opening a dedicated bank account to improve accountability.	

Section C                    Objectives and activities	
	
Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document	The aim of the Recreation Ground Charity is to provide facilities and open space, on the appointed Recreation Ground land, for the inhabitants of the parish of Pitstone and the surrounding areas to freely enjoy for leisure, recreation and sport.
	
Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)	
Pursuant to Section 17(5) of the Charities Act and the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 the Charity Trustee has taken due regard of the guidance on public benefit issued by the Charity Commission when exercising its duties.

The charity:

•	Maintains and develops the recreation ground, and land it manages under licence, to ensure it provides a safe, pleasant and fit-for-purpose space.
•	Grants permission to local football and cricket clubs to use the recreation ground land for matches and training purposes.
•	Grants permission to other local bodies for occasional recreation/sporting activities to take place on the recreation ground, such as Aylesbury Vale District Council’s Play around the Parishes or the local community Party in the Park.
•	Works with local community groups to ensure that recreation and leisure provision and opportunities within the village are maximised.
•	Seeks to provide excellent facilities that encourage as many residents as possible to benefit from the village green space.
	
Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information) 
	
You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about: 
•	policy on grantmaking;
•	policy programme related investment; 
•	contribution made by  volunteers. 	All members of both the Charity Committee and the Full Parish Council are volunteers.  None claim an allowance or refund of any expenditure.

The Charity is extremely grateful to the groundkeeper, Mr J Groom, for the significant amount of voluntary hours contributed to the upkeep of both the football and cricket pitches on the Charity site.	

Section D                      Achievements and performance	
	
Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year 
	•	Pitstone and Ivinghoe United Football Club and the Pitstone, Ivinghoe & Cheddington United Football Club plus the Ivinghoe & Pitstone United Cricket Club (both seniors and colts) were granted permission to use the recreation ground as their home site.    
•	Pitstone Parish Council funded several Play around the Parish and sessions that were held on the Recreation Ground.   These sessions are primarily aimed at attracting families with children under 11 years of age and are provided free to the residents, with dozens of local families attending.
•	Party in the Park 2015 was held at the Recreation Ground in the summer attracting a few thousand local residents to enjoy the music and activities.   A similar event is scheduled for 2016, raising money for the adjacent Pitstone Memorial Hall Charity and other local charities.
•	The area has been suitably maintained with remedial works carried out as necessary.    
•	During the previous year the Recreation Ground charity noted that the Parish Charity intended to revoke the licence to manage a parcel of land under licence.   This revocation has not yet occurred.  The charity continue to work closely with the Parish Council and the Parish Charity to seek no loss of leisure space within the community.  
•	The Recreation Ground charity is delighted to be working with the Parish Council and District Council on the plans to replace the outdated playground equipment (over 25 years old) with an exciting and challenging new play space.   The specification has been determined.  Planning permission has been granted and planning conditions discharged.  The plans can be progressed as soon as the land issues regarding the parcel of land managed under licence are resolved.
•	In March 2014, the Ivinghoe & Pitstone United Cricket Club advised that they wished to continue to use the Recreation Ground as their home site.   The cricket club would like to see several improvements to the cricket square, and the Recreation Ground Charity is working with the cricket club to ensure the ground is developed in line with requirements, to achieve improved playability and safety for the cricket club without limiting access to the general public.   The first phase of these works to expand the cricket wickets has now taken place.

Section E                    Financial review 	
	
Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves  	The Charity does not have a reserves policy as it has no reserves.  The Charity is heavily reliant upon grant funding from Pitstone Parish Council to meet its necessary expenditure.	
Details of any funds materially in deficit	The Charity is not in deficit.	
Further financial review details (Optional information)	
You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:
•	the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising); 
•	how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity; 
•	investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted. 	Financial Affairs, Assets and Liabilities

The recreation ground is maintained as public open space, free for everyone to use.   Pitstone Parish Council meets the costs associated with grounds maintenance (via grant to the charity) and maintains the children’s play equipment (which it owns).   During 2015/16 the football clubs paid a nominal donation/fee to use the site.  The fees will be reviewed annually.  The fees are collected by Pitstone Parish Council on behalf of the Charity, and the Charity passed resolution that the Parish Council could retain the funds collected to partially offset the expense incurred.  This will change with the introduction during 2016 of the dedicated bank account which will enable the charity to manage its own financial affairs.

Following advice from DCK Beavers Ltd, Parish Council finance specialists, the expenses incurred on behalf of the Charity are shown within the Parish Council accounts as grants to the Recreation Ground Charity to cover the necessary costs until the dedicated account is operational.

During the 2014/15 financial year ending 31/3/15 this amounted to::

Payments
Legal Fees                                                                            £120.00
Ground keeping                                                                 £3,430.00
Replacement tree                                                                   £80.83
Hedge cutting                                                                         £82.00
Works to cricket square                                                     £3,544.34
Total                                                                                   £7,257.17

Receipts
Receipts from football clubs                                                 £825.00
Remainder of costs met by Pitstone Parish Council         £6,432.17
Total                                                                                  £7,257.17

The parish council insurance specifies the trustees of this charity and their work as part of its policy.  The recreation ground, along with the children’s play equipment and sports equipment (with the exception of the cricket nets which are owned and maintained by I&PUCC), are listed on the parish council’s asset register.

The charity has no debtors or creditors and no outstanding loans.	

Section F                     Other optional information	
	
History

As part of the 1856 Enclosure Award, the land that the recreation ground sits upon was vested in Wibraham Egerton & James, Earl of Powis as recreation ground.     The area in question relates to the grassed surface you can see at present and doesn’t include the Memorial Hall land/car park or the land at the far end which houses the cricket nets and play equipment.   In 1922, the Charity Commission vested the land in the Parish Council and in 1973 it was officially registered as a Village Green in the “Registrar of Common Land or Village Greens”.  The Recreation Ground was officially registered with Land Registry in 2010.

Children’s Playground and Future Leisure Development

In the 1970’s the Charity Commission granted permission for the Recreation Ground Charity to manage an additional neighbouring strip of land belonging to the Pitstone Allotments for the Labouring Poor under licence.    This additional land enabled the recreation and leisure facilities to be extended, including the provision of children’s play equipment.   Pitstone Parish Charity has not charged rental to the Recreation Ground charity but receives the benefit-in-kind of all expenditure related to the land being borne by another body.

In April 2013 Pitstone Recreation Ground Charity received notice from Pitstone Parish Charity that they intended to revoke the licence to manage this parcel of land.   The Parish Charity were following advice from the Charity Commission that the entirety of the land owned should be disposed to maximise the benefit to the Parish Charity.  

Pitstone Recreation Ground Charity is aware of, and supports, the aspirations of the Parish Council to upgrade the current provision to a Neighbourhood Equipped Area of Play (NEAP) from a Local Equipped Area of Play (LEAP) with an exciting new play space, skate park and multi-use games area to improve the asset for the community and attract more usage of the Recreation Ground.  Some of this development will take place on the land currently managed under licence, and some on the surrounding land.   

The Pitstone Recreation Ground Charity continues to work closely with members of both the Pitstone Parish Charity and Pitstone Parish Council to try and identify the most advantageous solutions going forward to protect leisure provision within the community.

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

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees	
Signature(s)			Full name(s)			Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc)			Date