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West Somerset Railway General Discussion

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

  1. simon

    simon Resident of Nat Pres

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    Pics have to publish accounts within 6 months of their year end, private companies have 9 months.

    however you would expect the directors to see the accounts with a couple of weeks of the year end.
     
  2. Jamessquared

    Jamessquared Nat Pres stalwart

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    There’s always going to be a delay, so it just depends where your year-end is. If you set that to 31 December, it is still too late by time you start operating again in the new year if you wait until the formal accounts are published.

    In practical terms, the managers and directors will have access to reports from the financial system, so ought to have a picture of the financial (and other) performance of the company on a very up-to-date basis. The accounts are just there to present a summary to shareholders, but clearly the board aren’t waiting until October before planning what to do from the previous March!

    Tom
     
  3. Paulthehitch

    Paulthehitch Well-Known Member

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    Indeed so but had the turnover been particularly good we would have heard from somebody or other PDQ.
     
  4. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

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    careful not to confuse statutory accounts which are filed with companies house on annual basis and subject to audit , and monthly management accounting information which will give the management a far faster snapshot of ongoing performance , forecast over the forthcoming months along with KPI's which can give almost a daily snapshot of the health of organisation . These are internal and no obligation to share with public or stakeholders
     
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  5. Paulthehitch

    Paulthehitch Well-Known Member

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    See post 42123. There is no dispute that detailed accounts will take (much) longer.
     
  6. gwilialan

    gwilialan Well-Known Member

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    Well it didn't take them long to crow about how well they had done with Santa's and train of lights (not sure that the figures were after the application of all costs though) so it's quite obvious they can do it - if they want to. Somehow I don't think they would be quite so keen to publicise any results they can't crow about or twist to their whims,
     
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  7. nanstallon

    nanstallon Part of the furniture

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    I managed to do a couple of trips last year, and the trains were well patronised, although not full and standing. It may have been a decent, if not spectacular, season.
     
  8. Bayard

    Bayard Well-Known Member

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    Anyone who has run a small company will know that a profit in the accounts just means a bill from the taxman, it doesn't equal money in the bank, often quite the reverse.
     
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  9. gwilialan

    gwilialan Well-Known Member

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    I think you've slightly missed the point there, I wasn't questioning how good or bad he season had been, I was simply remarking on how quickly and how willing they were to publicise financial performance figures - when it suited them...
     
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  10. MellishR

    MellishR Resident of Nat Pres Friend

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    Although there is confusion even there, with alternation between how well they are doing and how desperately they need donations.
     
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  11. D1039

    D1039 Guest

    Budget and actual profit figures to July '21 were reported to the pound in The Railway Magazine October 2021. @Steve Edge 's wsr.org reported in January a financial update to the Somerset County Gazette.

    Although the PLC's financial year end is March the January report talked of the 'year in 2021' and 'a loss for last season'. I'm a casual observer and the WSR PLC can report what and how it likes, but reporting from time-to-time a mix of financial year, calendar year and season isn't the clearest.
     
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  12. nanstallon

    nanstallon Part of the furniture

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    Planning a visit next Sunday, to get into Minehead by train after over two years! Does anyone know what is the likely motive power, please? Happy with anything, but preferably not a bus!
     
  13. Ian Monkton

    Ian Monkton Member

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    No official allocations yet, but pictures on wsr.org show 9351 and 5199 getting the attention of the cleaners on Saturday - could be a clue!
     
  14. Bayard

    Bayard Well-Known Member

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    I think lack of diversity is the least of the WSR's problems. Given that the sort of person who would be interested in working for the WSR, either as paid staff or as a volunteer, is overwhelmingly from that 45%, any attempt to deliberately try and recruit people from outside it is always going to look like tokenism.
    However, equality and inclusivity are not concepts that spring to mind when thinking of today's WSR plc. As has been made very clear on this forum, a limited company is not a democracy: the bosses do the bossing and everyone else is supposed to shut up and do as they are told. So much for equality. The recent history of the company's dealing with the other organisations on and off the railway very much comes across as "It's our railway, we will run it how we like, if you don't like it, you know where you can go", not exactly a beacon of inclusivity, either.
    As far as ED&I is concerned, the WSR plc seems to be faithfully recreating the 1950s, presumably to match the trains, uniforms and stations.
     
  15. Matt37401

    Matt37401 Nat Pres stalwart

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    I won’t like that but I will agree with it.
     
  16. Greenway

    Greenway Part of the furniture

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    The WSR seems ready for the off with the QB also running a Mothering Sunday train.
     
  17. ikcdab

    ikcdab Member Friend

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    To be honest, that's all a pretty daft remark. Someone raises the issue of equality and diversity in general on heritage railways and then someone else distorts that comments into a stick to beat the WSR with.
    It's a prime example of why this forum has such a poor reputation.
    Your remarks are way off-beam for the WSR. Just one example, the new GM is a woman and I see many others around the railway in key roles. Any business can only reflect the makeup of the population around it.
    The issue of the SDRT is completely irrelevant here.
    Ian Coleby
     
  18. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

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    Ian with the best will in the world the WSR has laid out stick after stick for people to hit it with the last few years and there has been enough discussion on how dissent is dealt with to at least raise the question on fair treatment . Look at how the WSRRT so called rebels were dealt with
     
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  19. Paulthehitch

    Paulthehitch Well-Known Member

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    A wee bit rich from a WSR source perhaps?
     
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  20. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    Fair comments, except that the external reputation of the WSR is of precisely the qualities that do not make for good inclusion.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
     
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