WEAR RIVERS TRUST

Registered charity 1094613 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q61931100 · also known as THE WEARDALE ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST

The Objects of the Company are to conserve, protect, rehabilitate and improve the landscape, rivers, streams, watercourses and water impoundments of the Wear catchment To advance the education in:- (1) The understanding of rivers and river catchment management. (2) The need for, and benefits of, conservation, protection, rehabilitation and improvement of aquatic environments.

Objects

A) TO CONSERVE, PROTECT, REHABILITATE, AND IMPROVE THE LANDSCAPE, RIVERS, STREAMS, WATERCOURSES AND WATER IMPOUNDMENTS OF THE WEAR CATCHMENT, COUNTY DURHAM, INCLUDING WEARDALE, THE LOWER WEAR AND ADJACENT ESTUARINE AND COASTAL AREAS.B) TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC, OR ANY ASSOCIATION, COMPANY, LOCAL AUTHORITY, ADMINISTRATIVE OR GOVERNMENT AGENCY OR PUBLIC BODY OR REPRESENTATIVE BODY IN - (1) THE UNDERSTANDING OF RIVERS, RIVER CORRIDORS AND CATCHMENTS, INCLUDING THEIR FAUNA, FLORA AND ECONOMIC OR SOCIAL ACTIVITY, AND RIVER CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT.(2) THE NEED FOR, AND BENEFITS OF, CONSERVATION, PROTECTION, REHABILITATION AND IMPROVEMENT OF AQUATIC ENVIRONMENTS

Area of benefit: THE WEAR CATCHMENT, COUNTY DURHAM, INCLUDING WEARDALE, THE LOWER WEAR AND ADJACENT ESTUARINE AND COASTAL AREAS.

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: County Durham, North East, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that total incoming resources were £832,160 against total expenditure of £838,987, resulting in a net decrease in funds. The trustees report that unrestricted reserves have fallen below the stated policy target of six months' average expenditure, though they are confident the target will be met in 2026/2027.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts independently examined (not a full audit). Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

In the news

Recent coverage mentioning this charity by name (automated match; headlines belong to their publishers).

• Wear Rivers Trust director calls for redesign of sewer system to combat pollution chroniclelive.co.uk · 06/11/2021

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~0.7 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 5.2 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (99% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (4.9%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Dan Britton
• James Tague
• Jason Alan Kennedy
• John David Hutchinson
• KIMM LAWSON · trustee of 1 other charity
• Michael Thomas Siddle
• Neil Embry Wilson ASHFORTH
• Terence Featherstone

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Durham · Sunderland

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Grants marked “Unverified read” were flagged by automated checks as possibly misread from the funder’s filed accounts. They are listed, but left out of the totals, counts and funder relationships this site computes.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE RIVERS TRUST.

• THE RIVERS TRUST income £10.5m
• THAMES RIVERS TRUST income £135k
• THE LUNE RIVERS TRUST income £490k
• RIVER THAME CONSERVATION TRUST income £600k
• NORFOLK RIVERS TRUST income £2.8m
• WESTCOUNTRY RIVERS TRUST income £4.6m

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.