Excellent show of support at our AGM
12/06/2024
Over 60 people attended our AGM on Tuesday, thanks to all of you for your support and KLB for hosting! A few key points were:
Chair of Wotton Community Land Trust Dom Driver and our newly elected Treasurer Steven MacKay explained our current position and confirmed that Brown’s Piece/Hack Hill is still on the market.
We are now a charity in law, so we are better placed for accessing grants, which we are actively pursuing.
Our membership is now in excess of 200 and we have over £61,500 pledged, more with Gift Aid which we can now claim.
Please become a member – a large and diverse membership helps massively with fundraising applications – thank you to all of you who have signed up since the AGM.
Membership of WCLT does not incur any further commitment, or imply any liability, but gives you a say and a vote on decisions made by the Trust and helps us form the vision for Brown’s Piece when we purchase it.
Please pledge to help us purchase Brown’s Piece/Hack Hill to save this vital land in Wotton for nature and wildlife.
Upcoming AGM
We are holding our AGM on Tuesday 11 June at 6:30pm at Katherine Lady Berkeley’s School. Doors open at 6:00pm.
Everyone is welcome and members are entitled to vote at the meeting.
We’re looking forward to seeing as many of you there as possible so that we can update you all on our progress!
23/05/2024
We now have charitable status!
Great news, we are now a charity in law and registered as a Charitable Community Benefit Society. This is a huge step forward and a really positive thing in relation to funding applications as well as allowing us to claim Gift Aid.
It has been a long time coming but we have done it!
What is a Charitable Community Benefit Society (CBS)?
• It is a society registered with the Financial Conduct Authority and owned by its members. It is established for the benefit of the community and not of its members (who do not need to be, though they can be, consumers or workers).
• Each member has one vote at the AGM, even if they have more than one share. Unlike a company, the shares are not transferable and can only ever be refunded at par and can never be worth more than was paid for them. A CBS must be established with a social or environmental objective, and have a non-profit constitution and an asset lock and as a charitable CBS has a stronger asset lock than a non-charitable CBS.
• A charitable CBS has asked HMRC to recognise it as charitable and HMRC has agreed. HMRC will agree to charitable recognition and the related tax advantages if the objects are charitable, the asset lock is correct and any interest paid to members is low and not dependent on the surplus generated.
• A charitable community benefit society must only undertake activities that further its exclusively charitable objects. This means that a charitable community benefit society that intends to engage in trading activities that are neither in pursuit of its primary purpose nor ancillary to that purpose, may have to establish a trading subsidiary to carry out this trade.
• A charitable CBS is not registered with the Charity Commission as it is exempt from registration.
23/05/2024
Brown’s Piece Walk, 21st April 2024
Come and explore Brown’s Piece with us on 21st April at 2pm.
Places are limited so to book, please email us at info@wclt.org.uk.
14/04/2024
April update
Things are picking up a pace with spring in the air!
We held a very successful (if muddy) walk around Brown’s Piece in March and are planning another for Sunday 21 April and more throughout the year. If you would like to join the walk on the 21st please let us know by email - info@wclt.org.uk - so you can be added to the list as numbers are limited.
We’re also taking part in the Wotton Walking Festival in June and it would be great to see you at any of these events.
We should have our charity number shortly and this will boost our efforts to get funding. We already have over £61,000 pledged (more with Gift Aid) and 186 members. We are blown away by the support this shows for our campaign to Save Brown’s Piece.
We are applying to the Governments Communities Ownership Fund and GCC's Build Back Better Fund and are we making good progress with both applications. We are very grateful to Renishaw and Wotton Lions for their financial contributions.
In addition we will be holding our AGM on 11 June. More details on the AGM, walks and ways in which you can support us will follow!
14/04/2024
WCLT Ltd is real!
As of today, we are registered by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 as a Community Benefit Society, registration number 9148.
This means that the entity that can own the land now officially exists, we are Wotton Community Land Trust (WCLT) Ltd. Next steps are to send out the membership share certificates to all those who have applied to be members, open a bank account for WCLT Ltd, and keep on with the fund-raising.
18/09/2023
WCLT Ltd inaugural AGM and WCLT group Extraordinary General Meeting
07/09/2023
Another very well attended meeting with strong support from everyone.
We voted to form WCLT Ltd, the incorporated body that can own the land and to make an amendment to change the constitution of the WCLT unincorporated group to make the quorum possible to achieve. Most of all we reaffirmed the community’s commitment to the cause, including explaining why the real and present danger of development for a large private home has made us move to “Save Brown’s Piece”. And our fantastic supporters started signing up as members of WCLT Ltd and pay their membership for life fee of £1 per member.
WCLT Ltd Inaugural AGM
08/06/2023
The first WCLT AGM was held on 6th June - thank you to everyone who joined us.
With the support of those present, the WCLT committee has been formed and attendees were also invited to become WCLT members.
We are now in the process of securing a bank account, which will enable us to apply for other funding alongside our efforts to seek pledges from our amazing community.
More details on our membership will be available soon.
WLCT Inaugural AGM
31/05/2023
We would love you all to join us at our inaugural AGM at 7.45 pm on Thursday 8th June at the Civic Centre, Coombe Suite.
You'll have the opportunity to:
Receive an update of activities so far.
Vote on the constitution for WCLT.
Give us your input on the management board.
We look forward to seeing you.
Leys and Haw Park farms on sale
23/04/2023
Hope the weather’s treating you better than it's treating our roads.
Don't know about you but it's felt like it's taken me a while to come out of hibernation this year (and still plenty of reasons to duck back under the covers!).
Like buses, suddenly THREE reasons to wake-up come all at once:
Firstly we have the sad prospect of losing swathes of green space as Leys and Haw Park farms both come to market.
The map below shows just what's at stake, and also how vital Brown's Piece and Hack Hill will be as a green corridor for Wotton as the urban landscape might develop.
Please (please please please) help us by spreading the word, we need to act: www.wclt.org.uk/pledge