6201, her new lease of life.

Best of luck, I hope the Society is able to get her out in the shortest timeframe possible. Though if I've read the website correct, they aren't a registered Charity currently so are unable to claim Gift Aid - surely an obvious fix that would help swell the coffers almost immediately?

 

Gaining charity status isn't a "quick fix" nowadays, with many more restrictions than there were maybe 25 years ago. Two groups that I am involved with have started to investigate becoming charities and decided it wasn't worth the effort.
One example, the charity trustees should not be committee or board members of the organisation. For a small group that is a big request when there is enough of a struggle to fill committee posts with willing and competent volunteers.

Cheers, Neil

 

Charitable status has its pros and cons, not least of the latter being that you no longer have full control of your own property. Nor is gift aid all it's cracked up to be: the donor has to be a UK tax payer, and paying enough tax to cover the gift aid. If most of your contributors are retired on a pension and pay little tax, you don't get anything.

 

Registering a charity (and continuing to meet the ongoing requirements of the Charities SORP with associated costs, e.g., reduced threshold for requirement for audit) is indeed a time consuming process. However, there is nothing that prevents Trustees from being committee or Board members of their Charity; one of the most common charitable structures is a Charitable Company limited by Guarantee, under which for the purposes of the Companies Act 2006 the trustees are also Company Directors (Board Members).

 

I am a trustee for an organisation that converted last year to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (from its previously charitable but unincorporated status). The commitee consists of the trustees. Since it is our job to run the organisation I can't see how there would be a place for an independent committee, though subcommittees can be set up to deal with particular aspects.

 

Likewise, I have just signed papers to become both trustee and director of a body set up in the last 5 years, where my fellow trustees and directors include both people such as myself who might be classed as “non executives” and others, on the payroll and with managerial responsibilities, who might be considered “executive”.


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Might be an idea to get your Legacy/Gift in wills forms off to HRMTQ...

 

Thanks to all for the clarifications.

Neil

 

R&D tax credit possibility????

 

That would be an interesting stretch - and I've been involved in preparing submissions.

 

Any update from this "publicity" shoot? The appeal page shows £2,621 raised so far, so still a way off their £165k target/
A National Treasure Needs your Help! - 6201 Princess Elizabeth Society

 

Currently £3,706. What happened during 2018 when work was carried out, was their fundraising then?

 

The unfortunate truth to the matter is a lot of people won't donate to the locomotive due to the unpopular chairman. This is such a shame as the locomotive looses out. When the locomotive was at Tyseley it was said/reported that it needed a lot of repairs, however the owning group couldn't afford them so chose to try to do the minimal amount and hope it eeks it out, the loco then moved to the west shed where again it was a case of them being told that the loco needed major work, so it then left, went to Carnforth where it was said that an agreement was in place for it to work but clearly they will find the same issues and the owning group simply dont have the funds to pay for its repairs, nor the ability to fundraise quickly.

 

I'm surprised that they can't get HLF support for the loco, the chairman should be the better man and resign

 

It's academic at this stage in proceedings but I can't help thinking it's a shame that the wealthy family of the her majesty that 6201 was named after (and reason 6201 wasn't scrapped) could undoubtedly have afforded a special gift for their monarch and to their nation for jubilee year in getting this locomotive touring for all to savour and enjoy.

I'm not posting this as a knock against monarchy as such but if we need wealthy benefactors to fund heritage then I'm confident helping 6201 back to the mainline wouldn't I hope, dent their collective bank balance too much.

 

Perhaps if Prince Charles, a known advocate of steam on the Royal Train, was made aware it could be his personal gift to Her Majesty to become associated with the locomotive's future.

 

...or perhaps, even if the Windsors are aware of 6201's situation, they might wish to avoid getting drawn in too close to a cause that has a coincidence of name?

 

Or perhaps considering the state of the reputation of many of the Windsors at the moment, perhaps the 6201 group would rather not be associated with them....

 

If West Coast could afford to restore locos from Barry condition to add to their running fleet, as they have, they surely could afford the smaller amount of work to get 6201 fit for operation again, if only the owners could agree a suitable "restore and operate" deal.