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West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by gwr4090, Nov 15, 2007.

  1. johnofwessex

    johnofwessex Resident of Nat Pres

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    Were the worst come to the worst, clearly the PLC owns locomotives, rolling stock, etc, SCC owns the land & buildings, but who owns the track & signalling? Is it the PLC or SCC?
     
  2. 32110

    32110 Member

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    30 bookings so far.
     
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  3. AnthonyTrains2017

    AnthonyTrains2017 Well-Known Member

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    Anyone on here connected to organise WSRA steam rally. Heard there may be a possible road run Aug 1st. Would like to speak to someone. Have an idea
     
  4. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    On the Gift Aid, that does sit well with me where the attraction is genuinely a charity. It used to be abused (I remember feeling as you do at Chatsworth once), but now that there has either to be a premium paid (as the NT do) or extra provided by the charity (annual admission at the Eden Project) in return for the extra, I feel that’s fair exchange when the charity’s way of working means that visitors are unlikely to donate having paid admission.


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  5. Jamessquared

    Jamessquared Nat Pres stalwart

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    I might just be more hardline than you about what constitutes altruism. The premium seems to be generally 10%, in exchange for which the charity can reclaim Gift Aid on the whole amount. So hypothetically, if a full ticket is £20 but I agree to pay £22, the charity can reclaim £5.50 in Gift Aid - but I would feel that my "donation" has only been £2, not £22 - the rest of what I paid was for something with a known value, i.e. the ticket.

    Good luck to those attractions who get it to work, and I must admit that when asked, I tend to pay. But it still doesn't feel technically correct to me, even though I am sure that those attractions that do operate like that are doing so on the basis of a clear understanding of the law.

    Tom
     
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  6. jma1009

    jma1009 Well-Known Member

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    That is rather academic, as the WSR PLC board are going to charge £5 on 2 weekends basically to have free bus rides and see a loco in steam shunt about and get spun about on a turntable. That appears to be all the WSR PLC board can manage currently.
     
  7. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    I administer Gift Aid and believe that where a charity is entitled to benefit from Gift Aid on donations, it shouldn’t be disadvantaged by the fact it charges admission.

    But we digress


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  8. ghost

    ghost Part of the furniture

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    But in Tom's scenario, his donation is £2 not £22, so the charity should be only claiming the GA on the £2. They are not being disadvantaged in any way by doing this - the donation remains £2, the admission is £20 and should be regarded as a separate element of funds. This would seem to me to be the more 'honest' interpretation of the rules.

    Keith
     
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  9. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    The rules are explicit, no loopholes involved. But I accept it’s an ethical choice


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  10. ghost

    ghost Part of the furniture

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    As I understand it, at least one of the locos is mortgaged, so effectively belongs to the bank and I think several of the carriages belong to the WSRA. There are charges listed on Companies House against the PLC for all its freehold and leasehold property and all its 'machinery and plant' - I'm not sure if the term machinery and plant could be viewed as covering locos, carriages, DMUs etc. It's quite possible that it's all mortgaged.

    Keith
     
  11. ghost

    ghost Part of the furniture

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    I don't see how your comment is in anyway related to a discussion on possible future structures and the application of GA?

    While you may be annoyed about the PLCs offering, it has nothing to do with the current topic of the thread.

    Keith
     
  12. aldfort

    aldfort Well-Known Member

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  13. Greenway

    Greenway Part of the furniture

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    All in hock. Is there where that 'magic' profit came from? Presently it seems that it will take some years to pay it off.
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2020
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  14. Forestpines

    Forestpines Well-Known Member

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    But it does relate rather more directly to the title of the thread than most of the content on here

    I'm not sure you can call them free if you've had to pay admission
     
  15. nine elms fan

    nine elms fan Part of the furniture

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    I wonder if the free bus ride comes courtesy of Crossville motor services!
     
  16. free2grice

    free2grice Part of the furniture Friend

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  17. 242A1

    242A1 Well-Known Member

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    Crosville Vintage maybe. Look them up on the internet, they advertise a steam experience too. And the company director is? No prizes offered for either guessing or knowing the answer.
     
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  18. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

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    Is this the first example of a preserved railway bustitution ?

    I hope the event goes well and clearly the need to complete the track works rather hampers anything more adventurous . Hopefully at some point we will see activity restart there . For WSR supporters it must be galling to see so many other lines returning to operation. the posts from the East Somerset Railway shared earlier , what a wonderful positive message . I was on LinkedIn reviewing my news feed . The SVR GM is on there and again the postings were wonderfully positive. Reading them makes you want to visit
     
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  19. Downline

    Downline New Member

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    Someone who is not a director of the WSR Plc! Is there a prize for that answer? :)

    I understand from sources one of the reasons the WSR are not going to run trains at this living museum event is due to social distancing issues in the carriages and the lack of available compartment stock. If they cant offer social distancing inside a open coach, how can they offer this inside a bus? A railway coach is much larger and therefore social distancing should be much easier to offer.

    And I assume they have considered that facemasks will be required for all people travelling on the bus, just like if I was to pay First group for the privilege of travelling on one of there buses around Minehead?
     
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  20. Alan Kebby

    Alan Kebby Well-Known Member

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    Swanage ran a replacement bus service once between Wareham and Norden. This was during a diesel gala where it wasn’t possible to run a train service between the stations as had been hoped.
     

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