West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Thank you Patrick,

A very significant and important post.

 

Where did all that money go between then and when the PLC started selling the family silver (in the shape of one loco), mortgaged other stuff to the bank and declared that it can't overhaul 53808 at all; and the WSRA had to pay for finishing 9351?

So their apologists claim. But from all the information available to us they seem to be going about it in a very strange way.

 

Oh, right you are. It's confusing, because her original complaint was IIRC over something the WSR family (PLC, IIR the details correctly) was not doing. So it's bit confusing how something could be a response to that, but be a wholly private activity.

What he's paying attention to (to be a little more concrete).

Noel

 

See what I mean? How does this post provide anything useful in way of proving the poster "cares" about the WSR?

Steve

 

yes i have. i'd be more than happy to meet you for a pint and show you the info

 

I have always been of the view that the last WSR PLC accounts deserved very close scrutiny. We know the accounting period was extended as otherwise they would not have been 'signed off'...

We also know that the provision for the overhaul of S&D loco 88 was removed from the accounts; it was a concern to many of us at the time... I had numerous telephone calls and emails privately with people earlier this year when I implored those on the receiving end to examine the latest accounts!

Then, some considerable time after the latest accounts were lodged with Companies House we had the statement from the WSR PLC of 4th May (?) (this is from memory without checking) it's 'position statement' indicating a clear intention to renege on the legal agreement to pay for the overhaul of this loco.

All the dots then joined up, and all my fears and concerns were confirmed.

Cheers,
Julian

 

There's a lot of people you're going to have to have a pint with who'll want convincing! Out of interest which specific accusations against the WSR are you refuting? Any of the ones I listed earlier this evening?

 

good job i'm not paying, and its Kevins problem/question about not running trains now. But get the feeling Kevin Steen doesn't want to know.

 

Any chance you could answer the question please? I'd like to know which of the areas of concern I listed above (or other concerns) you have information pertaining to which presumably casts a different light on the matter? I appreciate you obviously want to keep the information itself private, but I'm curious as to what it actually pertains to. There's so many things it could be, as there's so many things currently wrong on the WSR!

 

To engage, in an adult way

The ELR has announced a start date. It has raised £145k towards its £200k target. Swanage were £120k shy of target when I last looked (see the Appeals thread for the spreadsheet). The WSR can make its own decisions, but meeting a COVID-19 appeal target is not a prerequisite for some other railways to run services.

Whether the 60-odd opening railways will make a loss during the operating season 2020 is a moot point. I don't think they plan to.

Patrick

 

I wonder what this info is? I hope its not the PLC statements to the local press which have often found the be 'economical with the truth'.

 

Steve I do actually care about what happens I just find that there are so many parallels in this sketch with what's going on in Somerset.
I've spent a lot of my childhood down in Somerset in the early 1990's so maybe there a bit of tough love coming out?

 

Meanwhile, not many leagues from Minehead.....the L&BR re-opened yesterday and plans to run 7 days a week. It does have a COVID-related appeal, but that is ongoing and AFAIK no pre-determined target was set as a condition of reopening. Maybe the circumstances are very different from the WSR, but the inescapable fact is that the line is open, steam trains are running and passengers are travelling hopefully throughout the summer holiday season.

And while all that is going on, in a parallel activity the Friends of Bratton Station - formed only a few weeks ago - in a very short timescale have raised the money to buy that station in readiness for future expansion. Clearly there is at least one heritage railway where the supporters are only too happy to 'dig deep'

Just saying...

 

Very true, but which ones to trust? All of the ones I've mentioned are rather reliable.

 

Bold words.

Unless you can substantiate such claims, probably best not make them if you want your views to be respected.

Robin

 

I've often typed this as a reply on here but then not hit the 'reply ' thingy, but years ago I was for awhile Basil Williams' Solicitor of 'Hants and Sussex' empire.

As Basil is long since dead, I can perhaps now state a distinct distrust and low opinion of independent bus operators.

I could write volumes on all this and it would probably make an amusing and entertaining book.

And a sequel would be perhaps equally entertaining if someone got run over by one of his own buses to allow me to publish, as you can't libel the dead!

I just don't know what caused Frank Courtney to do what he did in the Autumn of 2018, with the ongoing court case over someone's operators licence that he must have known about? We all knew the facts at the time as they were widely reported in the press, and certain bus geek sites!

 

I know it's going back 10 days now which is an eternity in NatPres terms, but having just caught up, I just wanted to thank @Lineisclear for this detailed explanation which is what I was thinking but you've said it better than I ever could!

The key phrase in my view is, "The duties of Charity Trustees are also prescribed by charity legislation. They have to run the Charity to deliver public benefit within the specified objects for which the Charity exists. Railway heritage per se is not one of the recognised charitable purposes which is why education of the public and museum status are frequently adopted as heritage railway charity's primary purposes. Their Trustees are responsible for achieving them and accountable for that to the general public and the Charity Commission."

If and when the WSR finally 'morphs' into the kind of charitable entity which is now being tentatively discussed, this is the bit, I believe, which many people are going to struggle to get their head around. Being a charity doesn't automatically entitle you to receive money to run your railway. As you say, you have to understand that the charity is primarily there to deliver 'public benefit' in accordance with the specified objects of the charity which, I might add, are going to have to be very carefully crafted when it gets to that point.

But of course to raise the funds required to keep the railway going in future years, which as widely acknowledged is never going to come exclusively from revenue, you really have no choice but to engage with this way of doing things. That is why it is so depressing to have witnessed the nascent attempts to engage with the community via the Hinkley Point funding (much discussed 'upthread') being so carelessly and idiotically trashed by the actions of a certain individual, worse still descending of late into an embarrassing legal farce with an attack on a local primary school headteacher and MP who dared to question what happened to the funds. This little episode does not bode well for the WSR becoming a charity under its present management. Was it not the case that delivering the outcomes originally conceived for the HPC funding would have been an excellent example of the WSR providing 'public benefit'?

Anyway, all the above has been discussed to death and no doubt it will be seen by many as yet another example of 'negativity' in the 'cess pit' of NatPres! We should all just get behind the management etc etc etc they're the only game in town etc etc they know what they're doing blah blah blah.

There is one final point to make though. Anybody involved in becoming the Trustee of a charity has to pass the 'fit and proper person' test: https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...t/guidance-on-the-fit-and-proper-persons-test. It is well worth a read as to what a 'fit and proper person' is. I shall just leave that there for people to reflect upon!

 

Independent bus operators tend to sit in the same trustworthiness league as heavy hauliers, developers and insurance brokers.

 

Well if you of all contributors don't know, Julian, then probably best keep it a secret. Otherwise we'll disappoint all those who enjoy the colourful conjecture on this thread...

 

Miaow

Patrick
Chartered Insurance Broker