S&D Railway Trust

Yes, be careful, we mustn't be seen to be critical of those that float to the top.

 

Just to be clear, my comment was not about the current Board, which objectively seems to be made up of people with the right experience and qualification in the right areas. It was more about those who seem to think it would be a simple task to appoint a new one....

 

Without wishing to comment on the personalities involved, I think the glaring inadequacy of the current board is that it is too small for a railway of the size and complexity of the WSR. Which firstly puts a high burden on those board members who do exist, since they need to cover between them a very wide portfolio; secondly it means there is a relative lack of diversity and scrutiny of ideas.

Tom

 

Which is what was written. I don't see how that changes my comment.

As for 'current' Board, if he joins now then do you consider that to be a 'new' Board, and if so then where does it say that he will step down from the 'new' Board when he becomes GM? If it does not become a 'new' Board, then it will remain as the 'current' Board even when he becomes GM. Same result really.

 

I stand corrected as I was unaware of the newsletter dated 16 February.

 

The current board (as defined by WSR) is the present board from which he will be required to resign or be removed on taking up the post of GM when the Covid19 lockdown is removed. A new board will be sometime in the future .....

 

I am thinking of sending a FoI request to the ORR about

1. Issues at Washford over the last 5 years (if any!)
2. Moving the PW yard at Dunster. Have they made a recommendation about moving it, if so to where

Any suggestions on wording/what should be included/should not be included?

 

There’s enough legal eagles on this thread to correct me but:

Appointed director – registered at companies house
Officer – usually a (general) manager or company secretary. Not on the board.
Shadow director - not appointed. “a person in accordance with whose directions or instructions the directors of a company are accustomed to act”. The circumstances will determine if someone's acting as a shadow, if they are they have similar liabilities as directors.

It’s quite possible and proper for someone to act as a shadow for a while, then be appointed to the board, and later resign from the board to become an officer (should that be happening here).

Patrick

 

To save unnecessary effort, first check to see if there are any exemptions that allows the OOR to reject the request.

I submitted a FOI request to the BBC asking for the cost of sending a reporter and camera team to cover the Australian fires when there were already reporters on-site and the request was rejected because of their exemption under that act. The Information Commissioner upheld their rejection.

 

Surely you mean subjectively?

 

They may well be aware of the WSR/Washford saga and who has said what and when. In the other thread it was suggested that those in positions of power/influence do read NP.

 

In the years we worked as volunteers at BL station we never heard a single word of complaint about 88 or 53808 as she now is. In fact when 53809 came for the S&D 50th. anniversary most people were delighted to see both locos especially when double heading a train. As for the S&DRT at Washford again no one seemed to want to see them gone!
Keith & Joyce Sims

 

Might I suggest @Maverick who used FOI to find out about the recent discussions the trackbed may be able to advise.

 

I'm not sure about the classification of "officer", as I'm otherwise not sure how a plc could have a board member who is also a manager - and we know that it is absolutely normal for a role like Managing Director to be both a manager and a director.

 

That was not my experience. It depends very much on the circles that you move in and people shift the balance of their conversation depending on the perceived nature of of the listener or listeners.

 

Railways may be able to look in the longer term, but the people complaining about the eyesore won't be so happy to do so. I suppose the solution would be, given the space, to plant a double hedge of native species on one side and Leylandii on the other. The Leylandii can them be felled when the native species hedge is tall enough and used as fence posts.

 

I would say discussing operating vehicles as relevant to the locked thread as it was about the WSR's operations, but the business activities of individuals as not. Which would be the opposite to this thread.

 

A shadow director is someone not on the board but who holds sway over the board. Ie the board is accustom to do what hey say. Its a legal catch all to stop, say, a disbarred director, appointing people in his place who are effectively just there to do what he tells them. I don't think that this applies to the GM., by any stretch of the imagination.

 

Planting any species of hedge to grow a significant height at Washford will just be out of keeping with the existing landscape. Currently its an open plan yard which flows into the surrounding fields. Planting a hedge breaks that flow and will no doubt draw in complaints from locals and passing traffic.

 

I think we need to be quite careful here as these terms are often used for quite varying descriptions.

From a historical perspective, Directors were drawn from the shareholders and served on the Board to steer the company for the benefit of the whole shareholder body. In old railway company days they would often be minor aristocracy, retired military or prominent businessmen. The Chairman of the Board was also a Director but might have had a casting vote in the event of a tie. A Managing Director (in the historical sense) was a person who was part of the Board, but covered the senior management role as well (such as James Staats Forbes on the District Railway). This is different to today when the term is often used for the senior director (ie the boss!)

An Officer was then one of the senior managers, usually head of a function like finance or operations - hence Officer being used in the sense of Army or Naval Officers as senior positions and hence terms like Chief Executive Officer or Chief Finance Officer. In the modern sense though the word officer might be an entry level job - like 'manager' it has become very generic!

A shadow director is something different as @simon has explained.

((this is just my reading of history - not a legal definition))