West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Just to be clear, are you saying this has happened, was at some stage planned to happen, or just merely pointing out that something was technically possible as an intellectual exercise?

 

Wasn’t there talk many years ago about moving the Minehead station from its present site towards Seaward Way. The vacated seafront site would have great potential for redevelopment.

 

I am not sure I would trust Jones Pratt as far as I could throw him. (let's not humanize him by using initials). It does seem that there is more intent than incompetence behind the decisions being made by the WSR.

 

I think we’ve been this way before.

You are required to file a form at Companies House within one month of any allotment of shares. The last form was as 17 May 2019 so, were due process to have been followed, there has been no shares allotted since then. By my reckoning £1m would be enough to get a 29.9% share (maximum without having the make an offer for all the shares, and possibly enough for effective control).

Maximum authorised allotment 35,000,000

Allotted at 17 May 2019: 23,270,843

The directors can therefore allot up to 11,729,157 more shares, being 34% of maximum allotment, without a General Meeting to increase the maximum.

Patrick

 

Happy to clarify. To my knowledge this has not happened, yet (share acquisition).

It was explained to me as the plan for the WSR PLC in detail, from two people who could not be closer. It was explained to me in late 2018 after the new chairman took over. One person was clearly recruiting me as a part of 'the new team' for a privately owned WSR, it seemed they were impressed with my money generating and organisational skills and wanted me to continue.

The plan as explained at the time was something that would take some time to implement.

Given the PLC is perhaps near the financial end yet still actively trying to buy the freehold tells you something is not right here ?

I've always felt, it is for the people of the WSR, (WSRA, WSSRT, DEPG, PDG, S&DRT) & The Community to decide what they want for their railway. Nobody has done anything so far to stop this, yet they have also not agreed publicly with it either. So they must be happy with whats happening due to the silence. Many Trustees knew of this plan because I and others have told them during the last year a number of times, perhaps many thought it would never happen and perhaps some think they want it to be a private railway. If they are happy for it to become that then so be it.

Currently the decision about the future of the WSR is still in their hands as shareholders, stakeholders & volunteers, but maybe, perhaps not for much longer one way or another ?

 

Thank you. Very clear, and very, very worrying.

I await the character assassinations all round in lieu of actual defence of these aims and actions...

 

Straight question : Who are the major shareholders in the PLC and who elects, or appoints, the Directors ?

 

The major shareholders are WSRA (9%); WSSRT (a smidgeon under 9%); SCC (2.5%); thousands of other individual and corporate shareholders but no-one else individually has more than 0.5%. Data correct as at mid 2018 which is the last publicly accessible share register, but the number of allotted shares hasn't changed dramatically since then.

Tom

 

It's deja vu all over again as they say. Last time around, the money was understood to be coming from an individual who had access to significant private wealth. The land at Washford was to be used for holiday chalets etc. etc. etc.

Well done Maverick.​

Well here we are again. The plc profess to being broke so they can't be planning to spend money on a non essential purchase. The references made to "my business" and "my railway" made over a year ago in a stakeholders meeting were perhaps a little unguarded but we can all draw own conclusions. Well done too SCC for standing their ground.

 

The PLC also doesn't have the money for 88's overhaul either apparently...

 

They were worrying enough at the time, I don't think anyone imagined quite how "My railway" he intended it to be.

 

All approx figures. 23,000,000 PLC Shares.

1.WSRA: 2,000,000 (9%)
2.WSSRT: 1,900,000 (9%)
3. SCC: 600,000 (I maybe 100k out here so very approx).
4. Balance: held in penny packs from 1,000 to 50,000 by individuals.

Its believed that approx 50% of shares are unaccounted for (people passed away, forgotten, etc.)

Directors should be voted in by standing before an AGM (between 60 & 30 days I think without checking). However the current PLC Chairman during 2019 stated in public that due to the situation no Directors would be accepted for the PLC unless they applied to him directly and served a 3 month 'probation' period before being accepted by him. The 2019 AGM was an invitation only affair with no new people standing.

The previous PLC AGM under the last Chairman was called late and within the period where anybody standing had to gain permission of an existing Director as a 'late' application (inside 30 days of the AGM). One person to my knowledge asked to do so but was refused by the then Chairman.

The way people join the PLC Board in the past few years has been mainly by co-option as invitation from other PLC Directors. In effect its currently and has been a closed shop with unopposed voting in, meaning 1 vote and you are elected once you are in.

 

This is probably a stupid question but can either the WSRA or WSSRT block a new share issue/allotment if they were so inclined as it stands? I ask because it seems if there is a new share issue up to the maximum and someone unscrupulous were to purchase the whole shebang, it would essentially be all over.

 

Ok, so purely conjecture...
SCC gives WSR the freehold of the railway but keeps the station and all land west of the level crossing to sell for redevelopment. No need then to replace the expensive level crossing either. Some arrangement made for a basic station east of Seaward Way. Loco works etc moves to a nicely-cleared piece of spare railway land in Washford.

 

If JJP gets his way then I trust he has the means to employ the staff to run the railway, the finance to repair its infrastructure and the finance to repair the rolling stock and locos. None of that is cheap and I can't see volunteers rushing to volunteer their time/money to help someone else make money.

Keith

 

Except for the guilt trip that already seems to be being employed, "oh if you don't help out then the railway will go bankrupt and be torn down" etc. There are always kind souls to be manipulated alas.

 

Yet when I made the observation that he might be planning to go along the Dartmouth Route, Some people said I was far wide of the mark, I would say, the WSR does indeed have a Cuckoo in its midst, and its not the S&D trust.

 

One other question occurs to me arising from the plan revealed by @Andy Norman today; if the plan involved buying WSR Plc shares at a knockdown price when the Plc went into administration, then err, why hasn't it happened yet? We have been told (and how accurate this was was never really resolved on here) that the difficult decisions made by Mr Jones-Pratt successfully avoided the Plc going into administration. Has the "opportunity" for want of a better word, for this plan to be enacted now passed?

Presumably if there's nothing to this, there would be absolutely no problem with the WSSRT and WSRA publicly stating that, purely generally, and surely just re-iterating what ought to be obvious to everyone, that they support the WSR as an entity owned and run for and by its volunteers and members, not a small controlling board. What would be controversial about stating that, either here as an individual trustee (as surely it is already policy, even if not explicitly written down)?

 

In these circumstances an MPD at Dunster would make more sense.

 

I rather suspect they genuinely expected the WSR to continue to be able to be operated by a largely volunteer workforce rather than any desire to go down the paid staff for everything route, although the difference between their desire and reality may be one of many routes to their (and the WSR's if it goes through) downfall.