West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Oh boy.

 

That is awful - how could he !!!!

 

Excuse my french but what a **** company the WSR PLC has become. The management must realise that when traditional supporters learn of this donations will further diminish. <BJ>

 

One can't help but think of Robert Maxwell who threw writs about, like confetti, at people/organisations just because they had said/written something he didn't like. All part of 'Robbin' Bob's plan to develop a culture of fear amongst his opponents in order to deflect attention away from his pillaging of pension funds.

 

It seems to me that JJP can no longer be regarded as an individual with a future in the WSR family, the question must be how to remove him.

I suggest that in light of this news that the current PLC directors need to consider carefully what to do next and the WSRA, WSSRT & SCC need to meet.

 

A prosecution would only be successful if her comments were proved to be untrue.

 

Well if there's one sure-fire way of dragging all the potential wrong-doing of the HPC-funding up again, that's the way to do it! Everyone had largely forgotten about that, rightly or wrongly. *If* Mrs Norman isn't frightened by this action (and being threatened with court action is scary) then I suspect she might be rather pleased that this is being brought back into the spotlight again. What a moronic thing to do. (Note - that is describing the *action*, not the individual, with an eye on the rules...)

 

So soon it may end up in the plc versus Somerset council if the employer backs their employee unless this is person to person not company to company. Tell me again who owns the freehold of the line .

The more I read about all this the more i think it is a stark reminder to railway preservation of how not to run a steam railway in the 21st century

 

I think it was said that JJP is doing this through one of his other companies. Or would be *even worse*if he dragged the Plc into this as directly as that.

 

More to the point perhaps does this mean that there are further issues that The Bailey Report needs to address?

 

If he is doing it through his other Companies, does this 'bring into the open' that he sees the WSR PLC as part of his business empire rather than as a separate company he is chair of?

 

That is what was said, but it was also said that matters are only at the legal letters stage, not that they've gone any further. My own hunch is that they won't go further than that and are intended to curtail reporting and discussion of that letter and it's contents.

Nor was Captain Bob the only person to use legal action as an instrument to deflect unwelcome attention, and intimidate opponents. Although I seem to remember it was he that both gave rise to Private Eye's "Curse of Gnome" and was the most spectacular victim of it.

Defamation law is not straightforward, and a defence of truth to what is a civil, not criminal, action can be hard (and expensive) to defend against.

Talking of Private Eye, I very much hope that we will see a further outing for that most potent of responses to such a legal letter, "Arkell v Pressdram".

 

That may depend on what is said in the letter, and who is alleged to have been defamed. However, it does bring another question into the open - one of ethics.

Even if the letter being objected to were wholly false, and the contents were such as to allow him or his company to show that they caused "serious harm to the reputation of the claimant", I find the use of legal proceedings like these wholly unacceptable. There are reasonable ways to resolve issues such as those raised in the letter under dispute, and the threat or use of law is not among them. Unfortunately, this news, if correct, reinforces strongly my view of the ethical compass under which the WSR plc is currently being run, and my utter inability to contribute in any way to that organisation while it operates in this fashion.

 

I am not a volunteer and have never been directly involved with the WSR, but I am a shareholder and do make regular financial contributions. In view of recent actions taken by the Plc board of directors, I have lost all confidence in their ability to manage and operate the West Somerset Railway. My regular donations will now be directed towards other railways. I'm sad and bitterly disappointed.

 

As you are a shareholder, and if there are other shareholders on this forum, might it be worth making it known to the 'Big Three' shareholders in the PLC, the WSRA, WSSRT & The County Council that you may be willing to appoint them as proxy's were they to seek to take action to remove the PLC chair/board?

 

Is he not on record as referring to the WSR as being His Company, His Railway ?
If this does end up in Court SCC will of course have to defend one of it's own employees, and i would imagine that may very well have repercussions on the future attitude of the council towards the PLC, As regards who the letters were sent on behalf of, wasn't the complaint actually directed at the PLC, and its actions, Not at any other company ?