About us
Run for the people, by the people
Sawbridgeworth Land Trust is a charity in the making. We were set up by residents who wanted a practical answer to the steady loss of open land around the town – not another campaign, but ownership.
Who we are
We are a group of Sawbridgeworth residents – not developers, not a political party, and not a branch of the council. Everyone involved lives locally and gives their time voluntarily.
We are constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation – a charity that is a legal body in its own right, able to own land in its own name. Our application to the Charity Commission is with them now. It is a democratic structure: members join, members elect the trustees, and the charity exists for the public benefit rather than for anyone’s private gain.
That structure matters. Our constitution requires every penny of income and property to be applied to our objects, and it is what lets us tell a donor, honestly, that a field bought with their money will still be a field long after all of us are gone.
Where we are
Honestly: right at the beginning
We would rather tell you exactly where the trust stands than publish a figure that flatters it. This is the position today.
- Constitution
- Adopted 4 September 2026 – the Charity Commission’s model constitution for a Charitable Incorporated Organisation with voting members.
- Charity status
- Applied for in September 2026. We will publish our registered number here as soon as it is granted.
- Trustees
- Eight founding trustees, all local, all unpaid. The board can be between three and ten people.
- Land owned
- None yet. Building the fund comes first; we will report every purchase here and in our annual accounts.
- Membership
- Opening once registration is granted. Register your interest and we will write to you when it does.
Our story
How the trust came about
A conversation in the town
A handful of residents began asking what would happen to the fields around Sawbridgeworth over the next twenty years – and what could actually be done about it. The answer kept coming back the same: own the land.
The constitution is adopted
Eight trustees adopted the Charity Commission’s model constitution for a Charitable Incorporated Organisation with voting members, fixing our objects and our area of benefit in writing.
Registration applied for
Our application went to the Charity Commission. Until it is granted we cannot call ourselves a registered charity, take memberships, or claim Gift Aid – so we are not pretending otherwise.
Membership opens, and the fund starts
As soon as registration comes through we will open membership, open the bank account to donations, and start building the standing fund that lets us move when land comes to market.
Governance
Who runs the trust
The charity is run by its trustees, who are unpaid and who answer to the membership.
Three to ten trustees
Eight local residents founded the trust and are its first trustees. Every one of them is a volunteer. We will list the board, and its officers, here once registration is granted.
Members choose them
A third of the board retires at every AGM and members fill the vacancies. Members can also remove a trustee, by a two-thirds majority at a general meeting called for the purpose.
No private benefit
No trustee may be paid for goods or services, or take any financial benefit from the charity, beyond out-of-pocket expenses – and a trustee with an interest in a decision must declare it and leave the room.
Members hold us to it. Every year the trustees must put the accounts and a written report to the AGM, and members elect the board that presents them. Register your interest in membership to take part.
Questions
Frequently asked
Are you a registered charity?
Not yet. Sawbridgeworth Land Trust is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. We adopted our constitution on 4 September 2026 and applied to register with the Charity Commission for England and Wales in September 2026. That application is still being considered, so we do not have a charity number to quote yet. A CIO is a charity that is also a legal body in its own right, which means it can own land and enter contracts in its own name. We will publish the number here the moment we have it.
What happens to the land if the trust folds?
Our constitution requires that if the charity is ever wound up, whatever remains after its debts must be applied for charitable purposes the same as or similar to our own. It cannot be distributed to members or trustees.
Do you oppose all development?
No. We take no position on individual planning applications. We buy land, care for it, and keep it safe and protected; that is the whole of what we do.
Can I visit the land you own?
Where access is safe and compatible with the wildlife on site, yes. Ask us about a particular parcel and we will tell you what access it has.
How is my donation spent?
Donations go into our land fund. Where costs such as legal fees or surveys are unavoidable, we report them in our annual accounts. No trustee is paid, and the constitution forbids any of our income or property being paid out to members or trustees as profit.
Where exactly do you work?
Our constitution fixes an area of benefit: the civil parish of Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire, the parishes adjoining it, and any other area within five miles of that parish boundary. We can only act within it.
Can you sell land you have bought?
Only within tight limits. Any disposal has to satisfy the Charities Act – written advice from a qualified surveyor, and the best terms reasonably obtainable – the proceeds stay inside the charity, and a sale to a trustee or anyone connected to one needs the Charity Commission’s prior written consent. Our objects themselves can only be changed by a 75% majority of the votes cast at a general meeting, and that too needs the Commission’s written consent.