SCARBOROUGH THEATRE TRUST LIMITED

Registered charity 253606 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as STEPHEN JOSEPH THEATRE

To advance the education of the public in all aspects of dramatic art including , drama,opera,dance, music and film.The development of public appreciation of such art by the provision of a theatre and the presentation of public performancesTo further the social and cultural welfare of the community of scarborough , its neighbourhood and visitors.

Objects

TO PROMOTE, MAINTAIN, IMPROVE, AND ADVANCE EDUCATION PARTICULARLY BY THE PRODUCTION OF EDUCATIONAL PLAYS AND THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE ARTS. (FOR FULL DETAILS SEE CLAUSE 3 OF THE MEMORANDUM OF ASSOCIATION).

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

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

Causes: Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: North Yorkshire, Yorkshire and The Humber, England (from the postcode on the register)

Latest income

£3.1m

Latest spending

£2.9m

Registered

1967

Accounts read

FY2025

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity made a surplus on unrestricted funds of £6,962 for the year ended 31 March 2025, with total reserves carried forward of £1,434,737. However, the trustees report that free reserves were only £16,017, which is significantly below their stated policy target of holding reserves equivalent to 3-6 months of operating costs. The financial health narrative is further qualified by the trustees' admission that the charity is dependent on grant funding and banker support for its continuing existence.

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

What the accounts disclose

Reserves position: below the charity's own stated reserves policy

“It is the policy of Scarborough Theatre Trust to hold reserves equivalent to 3-6 months operating costs. At 31 March 2025 free reserves were £16,017 (2024 £132,723).” — page 5

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Going concern: noted by the trustees or auditor

“Because of the nature of its activities the Trust, in common with similar organisations, is dependent on grants for its continuing existence and there is no guarantee that such aid will continue indefinitely. The company is also dependent on its bankers for working capital at certain times. These accounts have been drawn up on a going concern basis on the assumption that grant funding and support from the Trust's bankers will continue.” — page 18

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Related-party transaction: Rent paid to Scarborough Theatre Development Trust, a related party where one director also sits on the Board.

“One director also sits on the Board of Scarborough Theatre Development Trust, who own the freehold property from which the group operates. During the year, rent of £27,500 (2024: £27,500) was paid to Scarborough Theatre Development Trust under the terms of the lease. A loan exists between the two companies as shown in note 17 to the accounts.” — page 32

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Trading subsidiary: Stephen Joseph Theatre Enterprises Limited

“The trust's wholly owned subsidiary, Stephen Joseph Theatre Enterprises Limited (Company Number 02481307), benefits from the receipt of theatre tax credits which it receives in relation to productions that are closely linked to the theatre's objects and activities.” — page 16

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts audited by Fortus Audit LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

Going concern: no going-concern doubt (FY2024) → going-concern doubt noted (FY2025).

Comparing this charity’s FY2024 and FY2025 accounts as analysed by this site.

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
Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
Complaints handling
Complaints policy and procedures
Conflicting interests
Engaging external speakers at charity events 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
Investment
Paying staff
Risk management
Safeguarding policy and procedures
Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
Social media policy and procedures
Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
Trustee expenses 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.

Self-declared on the annual return for the financial year ending 31/03/2025

Government income: £766,053 — grants £766,053 (2); 25% of the £3,101,197 total gross income on the same return
Employees paid over £60,000: 2 (£60,001–£70,000: 2)

Self-declared on the annual return for the financial year ending 31/03/2024

Volunteers: 1
Government income: £766,053 — grants £766,053 (2); 27% of the £2,826,319 total gross income on the same return

Self-declared on the annual return for the financial year ending 31/03/2023

Government income: £809,467 — grants £809,467 (2); 35% of the £2,329,855 total gross income on the same return

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

Corporate structure

Registered company of the charity Companies House 00815227
Trading subsidiary: STEPHEN JOSEPH THEATRE ENTERPRISES LIMITED Companies House 02481307

STEPHEN JOSEPH THEATRE ENTERPRISES LIMITED — per its own Companies House accounts

No specific intra-group transactions or balances are disclosed in the provided text; the accounts are prepared under the micro-entities regime with no audit required.

Leadership, per the charity’s website

Caroline Routh — Director / Leadership (source)
Paul Robinson — Director / Leadership (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

RICHARDSON, Ellen Jane — director, appointed 18/12/2024on trustee list
CALCRAFT, Tracy Ann — director, appointed 14/06/2024on trustee list
SHEADER, Timothy — director, appointed 15/03/2024on trustee list
NICHOLSON, Sarah Louise Frances — director, appointed 15/03/2024on trustee list
DAVIES, Genevieve Rachel, Dr — director, appointed 08/12/2023on trustee list
WILSON, Antony Havelock — director, appointed 19/03/2021on trustee list
DONKOR, Amelia Jamfuah — director, appointed 09/10/2020on trustee list
WILKINSON, John Roger — director, appointed 09/10/2020on trustee list
WARNER, David Timothy — director, appointed 06/03/2020on trustee list
WRIGHT, Sophie Kate Sinclair — director, appointed 07/09/2018on trustee list
ROUTH, Caroline — secretary, appointed 01/06/2021

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

1 registered title in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

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

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

Total income

£3.1m

Total spending

£2.9m

Cost of raising funds

£101k

Reserves (reported)

£757k

Employees

Reported reserves equal ~3.1 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (77% 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: 3.3% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

Amelia jamfuah Donkor
Antony Havelock Wilson
DAVID CHANCE
David Timothy Warner · trustee of 1 other charity
Dr Genevieve Davies
Ellen Jane Richardson · trustee of 2 other charities
John Roger Wilkinson · trustee of 2 other charities
Sarah Louise Frances Nicholson
Sophie Kate Wright
Timothy Sheader · trustee of 2 other charities
Tracy Ann Calcraft

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

Operates in: North Yorkshire

Income and spending

Financial year end	Income	Spending
31/03/2025	£3.1m	£2.9m
31/03/2024	£2.8m	£2.7m
31/03/2023	£2.3m	£2.4m
31/03/2022	£2.0m	£2.3m
31/03/2021	£2.1m	£1.6m

Common questions

Is SCARBOROUGH THEATRE TRUST LIMITED financially healthy?

Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the charity made a surplus on unrestricted funds of £6,962 for the year ended 31 March 2025, with total reserves carried forward of £1,434,737. However, the trustees report that free reserves were only £16,017, which is significantly below their stated policy target of holding reserves equivalent to 3-6 months of operating costs. The financial health narrative is further qualified by the trustees' admission that the charity is dependent on grant funding and banker support for its continuing existence. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Fortus Audit LLP.

Who funds SCARBOROUGH THEATRE TRUST LIMITED?

Funders whose own accounts filings name SCARBOROUGH THEATRE TRUST LIMITED as a grant recipient include SCARBOROUGH THEATRE DEVELOPMENT TRUST, THE SAMUEL STOREY FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST.

Known funders

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

Funder	Year	Amount	Purpose (as stated by the funder)
SCARBOROUGH THEATRE DEVELOPMENT TRUST	FY2024	£54k	Charitable activities
THE SAMUEL STOREY FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2023	£500
THE SAMUEL STOREY FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2022	Unverified read£180

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.

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.

Funder	Similar charities funded	Amount to them
THE FOYLE FOUNDATION	1	£85k

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with SCARBOROUGH THEATRE DEVELOPMENT TRUST.

SCARBOROUGH THEATRE DEVELOPMENT TRUST income £489k
CARLTON LITTLE THEATRE TRUST income £54k
SHARNBROOK AMATEUR THEATRE TRUST LIMITED income £102k
GLADSTONE THEATRE TRUST income £386k
OCTAGON THEATRE TRUST LIMITED income £4.2m
THE LACE MARKET THEATRE TRUST LIMITED income £213k

Side by side with its peers

Charity	Income	Top pay band	Staff >£60k	Reserves vs policy	Fundraising cost	Going concern
SCARBOROUGH THEATRE TRUST LIMITED	£3.1m	—	—	below	—	noted
SCARBOROUGH THEATRE DEVELOPMENT TRUST FY2025	£489k	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt
CARLTON LITTLE THEATRE TRUST FY2025	£54k	—	0	below	—	no doubt
SHARNBROOK AMATEUR THEATRE TRUST LIMITED FY2025	£102k	—	—	above	—	no doubt
GLADSTONE THEATRE TRUST FY2025	£386k	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt
OCTAGON THEATRE TRUST LIMITED FY2025	£4.2m	—	—	unclear	—	no doubt

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