Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

This trustee of another organisation would never wish to discourage anyone from doing what can be a really rewarding piece of work. However, it is a significant responsibility and, in the context of the L&B, would involve stepping up into a leadership position for an organisation that is in a difficult place.

As the Book of Common Prayer says, it "is not by any to be enterprised, nor taken in hand, unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly"...

 

Or, as my wife says, in the bit about " in sickness and in health" she had assumed those would be shared equally......

 

Of course anybody willing to stand as a trustee with a view to changing things apparently has to be approved by the existing lot.

In other news the Book of the Week on Radio 4 is Catch 22

 

My bad! It's on Radio 4 Extra.

 

Without comment on current issues in North Devon, it is sometimes easier to achieve change when not looking like that's the intent.

 

In a time far far away when I was much younger I used to be a trustee for the British Overseas Railway Historic Trust, it was a great time and I learned a lot from being there and a few contacts, it always amazed me where the UK had undertaken to built a railway. I don't think there was one country that we didn't try to built a railway at some point.

Would I want to be a Trustee again? If I could help then why not, while I would take the role seriously. As long as you do things to the best of your abilities, then you shouldn't have any problems, there will always be someone somewhere, who will know more than you.

One part of the role of being a trustee would be to find younger members willing to take on and over from yourself as a trustee. I am not sure if everyone does this.

One of the problems facing the heritage railway World is in fact the lack of people willing to become trustee's and there are already a few groups on the edge which may not survive. I read on one e group that both the Bluebell and the Seven Valley Railways are both having difficulties in recruiting new trustees, I also understand that the North Yorkshire Moors Railway is in the same boat.

So if those guys are having difficulties then what chance have some of the not so well known railway have?

 

In part it may be down to location, as - in absence of Zoom etc - people need to be able to travel to Board meetings.

Maybe you could canvass locally...starting at Parracombe perhaps... ?

 

I wouldn't want to be a trustee.

 

Presumably, the first person to be co-opted should be Anne Belsey.

I'd be happy to serve as a temporary stand in, pending free and fair elections - something that is a million miles away from the current dreadful sitation with Anne's nomination.

 

There are many issues, and you and others have touched on some of them. The reality is that, like many voluntary governance roles such as school governor, they can be demanding of time and energy, especially if the role requires not just attendance at meetings to help keep an eye on things, but that the trustee takes on a managerial role.

Trust me, this is far from unique to heritage railways.

 

And that is the mistake some people are making, without realising it. There was a recent lesson to be learned from another line that failed for a similar reason.

 

She'll get my vote at the AGM.

 

As soon as she's on the ballot.

Radio silence from the Trustees over this appalling situation makes it look like they're simply intending to ignore the rules - which should concern everyone who wishes the L&B well in future.

 

Legally ? No. Only illegally !

 

I dunno, we all want the same thing, we all want to see a railway back running. We are all part of the L&B family.

Would be wonderful if for once we could all get along.

I guess seeing my Dad once again in hospital, now with a high probability of having a heart attack this morning and facing an imminent bypass op at 78, so soon after we lost Mum in January, and me sat thinking for some time while he waits for a ward in a bed in the corridor, for me has pulled it all into a certain kind of perspective.

From the founders and members who began all that time ago, to the Lynbarn, to EA, L&B Trust, those at Woody Bay, Chelfham, Snapper, Bratton Fleming, all the groups, the staff and volunteers, and I note the new YVT, we all see this railway as our baby, a growing "child" in North Devon which will eventually benefit so many, the visitors, the locals, and Exmoor as a whole.

The arguing, the politics, the distrust, the point scoring, the criticism etc etc... Will and personally I think without doubt is effecting that child, the re-emerging L&B.

It pains me to see it. Most do not know that before I became involved with this railway I was housebound. I was ill for a number of years, this railway gave me my life back, and ever since I have given all I can back to it and will continue to do so as much as I can. (At some point I will write that story to go into the archives, but for now, I don't have time to do so).

Right now, the adults argue, and that hurts the child.

I ask myself what can I do to stop it? Don't others see what I do?

I absolutely hate politics, it destroys. We need togetherness, we need a round table discussion and counsel, without the sniping from the sidelines. Not about the direction of the L&B, but to heal wounds at the deeper level, the 'family' level. Not for one side to say it must come from the other first, or with conditions... But a meeting of adults, to bring harmony and peace before any talks further of the railway.

Will that ever happen? If it doesn't, this will continue for years to come and the L&B will suffer immensely.

Stop the fighting, and now please.

The reconstruction of the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway to it's former glory as near as we possibly can, that's the target we are all aiming for and have been since the start.

Begin from there, heal the wounds, and let's all get along, will make things so much easier. Please.

Peace and blessings to all

 

Dave Old Chap,
The way to 'stop the fighting' as you put it, is for the Trustees (Chris Duffell excepted) to get down from their high horse, to accept responsibility for the state they have now reached with the L&BR, to ask for forgiveness for their often hubristic decision making, and to resign en bloc.

They could. in time, offer themselves for re-election at an AGM but one where they should be required individually to reply to questioning from the floor.
Furthermore, the membership and beyond should be canvassed far and wide for new applications for Trustee positions, obviously requesting Anne Belsey put her name forward. Clearly this cannot happen in less than two weeks time.

Meanwhile the existing Trustees should set up an ethics committee which would produce a statement of integrity which all new and prospective Trustees would be required to sign. Undoubtedly there would be existing templates from other organisations (Charity Commission?) which could be used to generate such a statement quite quickly. This would be a good starting point for them to accept, with humility, that there have been shortcomings concerning their collective behaviour and actions.

I live in Australia and have still not received my AGM voting papers (whether this remains a live issue or not). Accordingly, I would strongly suggest that papers could be sent and replied to by email. Otherwise I, and others too, not just overseas apparently, will effectively be dis-enfranchised.

Trust is a precious commodity which the Trustees have carelessly lost. It can be regained but it will take time and careful decision making.

 

Well said.

 

I agree. But with one massive caveat.

For people to get round the table and talk, there must be trust, there must be clarity, and there must be good faith.

Right now, that is clearly the quality most lacking. Whether it’s the approach to a trustee nomination, or the competing priorities of the different groups, or whatever else, that trust is clearly missing.

I’m not going to say why that is - I neither know the full story, nor wish to provoke a discussion of “but it’s xyz factor/person/whatever…”. But I will observe that more is required than demanding that people talk, and that gestures will be needed from across the various factions.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

A very good idea IMHO about a (temporary) ethics committee, except that I do not think that this should be created by the current Board nor do I see it necessary for it to be done by them - surely here must be some other independent body (eg the HRA or similar) who could provide a suitable service to create a suitable 'integrity statement' ?

Your experience in not receiving the voting papers and apparently having no other means of voting highlights one very good example of where the current Board is continuing to fail the membership.

 

Like I have said on other forums electronic voting and changes to the M&A to allow all to happen can only be done after this AGM the trusts have know for years that the M&A's are no long fit for purpose and they don't include the use of Zoom or electronic voting, while many may use this technically, you cannot use either of them for trust business as it is not legal to do so and you could be opening your self up to all sorts of problems.

I have suggested that any changes to be made to the M&As we should be looking at the CIO model constitution as that it the most up to-date version of a legal body document and there are some good things in there that I feel we could use.

That said, in my opinion it would not suite the L&BR to convert over to a full CIO since we would lose many of the safe guards when it comes to the land we already own. As I understand it, if we where a CIO and it went bust you would have to sell all the trackbed to clear the debt, but with the current trust set up and I need to be sure on this, it was set up so that any trackbed that is owned by the trust could never be sold to anyone else except another charitable trust, thus making the rebuilding of the railway that much more easy to do, if anything went wrong.

Its the little details like this than could be lose if the current M&A are not read fully. For what it is worth, I am coming around to the idea of suggesting we set up a sister land and trackbed owning trust. This we can make sure will never sell any trackbed or adjacent land to anyone, it would have say five trustee, that would be re-elected every five years but they would be answerable only to the membership, so they need to report on back on progress they have made each year at an AGM.

They would have the usual powers to raise the funds required to purchase land and trackbed, but there sole aim is to keep the land and trackbed safe for the future. I know that we have Exmoor Associates, but that is a share based company and it has one floor what happens once all the shareholders die off? Don't get me wrong I support EA to the full, and it is doing a great job (one I wish the trust had been doing at the same time north of Wistlandpound) but times have changed and we need to be looking towards what type of legacy we are going to leave behind regarding the trackbed, hopefully a much stronger one than we have right now.

Hopefully in the long term we can all get around the table to thrash these details out and become stronger in the process, but this will only happen once trust has been restored to and by all the parties involved.