Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

It would be good if we, mere L & B supporters, could have Latin and Welsh translations it would appear.....

 

Dulce est desipere in loco ...

 

Is this related to "In loco parentis" ?....

 

fortassis hoc primum NatPres filum latine totum perduci posset?

 

The primary aim of the lost souls of NatPres is to have posset on the menu?

(I admit that at school I didn’t concentrate through the Latin syllabub - I mean syllabus).

Tom

 

All I can say is that standards have declined since my grandfather went up to New College!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Sorry if my Welsh is not up to standard but thanks to google translator I can just about get by

 

I thought that meant "My Old Man's an engine driver".
Ray.

 

Try this Latin lesson: ROMANES EUNT DOMUS

 

I'm pretty common, don't know any Latin as such and never had need to use it except for one pseudo Latin sentence which I pretty much live by..
Nil desperandum carburundum illegitami

 

This thread was getting darn interesting until someone threw a Sciurus through the door….

 

But if the attendees at the AGM, having heard the introduction by the Trustees, agree with you and want to do something, what can be done within the rules ? As I understand those rules, five of them will remain in post regardless of the voting.

 

Thank goodness our generation learnt Latin as a core subject (O-Level required to get to Cambridge, not that I aspired to do so), so useful for reading medicine bottles, and not something useless like French or German. After all these years I can still remember the monica for one of the two parameters: 'Down in a deep dark dell sat an old cow munching a beanstork'. That has been of inestimable help since but it is the only thing I remember except something about Elephants, a bridge and a chap called Hannibal.

 

Close study of the M&As sounds essential. But I'd also suggest looking at the WSRA threads as a cautionary tale about the time taken to go down that road, and the harm that it can do.

 

Anne Belsey has confirmed that she would like her post from yesterday on Exmoor-NG copied here:


I was accused of failing to respect the confidentiality of board meetings,
although no actual evidence was presented. The nearest to any such
'evidence' came from Martin Swainson in which he stated in an email: 'I'm
finding it doubtful as to whether I will be able to join the Op's meetings
in future, as I will be aware that AB could be feeding back 'mis-truths' to
social media, a fellow CIC director and a trustee.'

The Ops Group (short for Operations Group) was a zoom meeting held most
Monday evenings to discuss the day-to-day operations of the railway. It was
set up in 2020 to create the protocols needed to get the railway back up
and running following the first lock-down. It was never an official body
and over the years its membership has changed. Latterly it included the
railway's paid managers, the three local CIC Directors who were
operationally qualified - Malcolm Smith, Clive Robey and myself - and, for
reasons best known to themselves, two Trustees who had no involvement in
the railway's day-to-day operations, Pete Snashall and Martin Swainson. (I
suppose that as both lived in Kent, it was their way of feeling involved
with the railway.)

Nothing of a confidential nature was ever discussed at these meetings,
ideas were kicked around and agreed upon, such as the decision early in the
2022 season to allow all under 14-year olds to travel free, and the
contemporary thinking as to how the catering team could cope without either
a marquee or tearoom. (Magnificently, as it transpired. All hail Jo and
Dawn!) There was no formal agenda and no minutes taken, but in many
respects it was a more useful and constructive body than the CIC board.
(Which is not saying much.)

Essentially therefore, I was going to be removed as a CIC Director because
I might say something on social media that other CIC Directors or Trustees
might find objectionable (the truth?). To be charged with possibly sometime
in the future disclosing Ops Group matters to 'a fellow CIC director and
trustee' (both of whom could easily have joined the group had they been so
minded) is frankly bizarre, but entirely in keeping with the somewhat
Kafkaesque culture that dominates the leadership of the L&B.

As I knew that the result of the Board's 'review' of my possible future
conduct was a foregone conclusion, I jumped before I was pushed.

I did not mind leaving the CIC board. With an entirely competent General
Manager in Stuart Nelhams, it really has little to do except organise
things like the CIC AGM, which it has somehow mismanaged again. Like the
L&B Trust, the L&B CIC is required to give 21 days' clear notice of an
AGM, with an allowance of 48 hours for the posting. As its papers were
posted on the same day as those of the Trust, they too were two days late
in being sent off to avoid the CIC AGM being invalid.

I decided to stand as a Trustee for a number of reasons. Some people said
that I should 'put up or shut up'. Others were more supportive in
suggesting that I stand, and I was aware that if we want to replace the
existing politburo then new people will be required to take over the
reigns, albeit for a short period until better qualified people can be
found.

Now I find that I am facing another 'disciplinary hearing'. The intention
of this one is to remove my Trust membership (Life membership as it so
happens. Should I be fearful for my very existence?), and is the stated
reason for removing me as a candidate for the Trust election. Curiously
enough, one does not have to be a member of the L&B Trust. Nowhere is there
any reference to a Trustee being a Trust member and Article 11 states that
'A trustee shall, notwithstanding that he is not a member, be entitled to
attend and speak at any general meeting'. So no longer being a Trust member
would not disqualify me from being a Trustee.

I am charged with breaching the GDPR, with overt suggestions that my
actions were criminal. This is nonsense of course, as the GDPRs themselves
clearly exonerate the use of data to report malfeasance on the part of the
controlling body.

I am also charged with libelling Trustees in my 'No confidence' email.
Presumably they refer to my suggestion that they were 'lacking in integrity
and respectfulness'. Again this is nonsense. For any statement or
implication to be libellous, it has to be false. Time and again, we are
being presented with evidence of the truth of my assertion.

When I wrote my 'No confidence' email back in February, I had had in
mind the conduct of the then Board of Trustees during the 2021 AGM when
blatant lies were told about the necessity of certain Trustees being
members of the Board in order to carry out their roles, such as Membership
Secretary or Company Secretary. This was the most demonstrable and
egregious exhibition of the culture of the Board of Trustees, but other
matters could have been used as evidence, such as the lack of information
about the purchase of the Old Station House Inn and the extent to which
Trust funds would be used, as a loan or to buy shares, and the amount paid
for the property, and what, exactly are Trust members and Blackmoor
shareholders getting for their money.

Since then, of course, we have learnt that three (at least) Trustees misled
the membership for six months over the ENPA's legal constraint with the
Section 73, and we have read their ongoing vilification of the ENPA in
Newsletters 79 and 80. Now we have another almighty cock-up over the
mishandling of an AGM and a Trust election (again!). To describe the
character of the L&B's leadership as lacking integrity and showing
disrespect for the membership hardly comes close to its true nature.

The third charge against me is perhaps the most revealing, that I
'encouraged Trust members to not support theTrust but to make donations
to Exmoor Associates and the Yeo Valley Trust'. I am not in the habit of
telling people how to spend their money. Nor do I assume them to be stupid.
The responsibility for causing people to divert funds away from the L&B
Trust and towards other bodies is entirely that of the L&B Trust
leadership. It is certainly better for the future of the 'L&B Project' that
funds should go to EA or the YVT rather than to, say, a canal trust.
(Should I expand upon this? Maybe now is not the time.)

The official position of the L&B Trust towards EA, as stated by Peter Miles
in the Aug/Sept 2021 edition of Trackside magazine is that there is "a good
working relationship between the two organisations". Having spent nearly
four years on the CIC Board and nearly three on the Ops group, I am aware
of the real attitude of the L&B's 'old guard'.

If you wonder as to the mentality of people who can commit serious
malfeasances themselves and then think it perfectly acceptable to lay
charges against someone else on little or no evidence, I should say that it
is not a new phenomenon. As an example, I herewith provide the synopsis of
a novel called 'The Trial' by Franz Kafka, published in 1925: *The Trial is
the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly
and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about
which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a
parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the
madness of totalitarianism, The Trial has resonated with chilling truth for
generations of readers.*

Regardless of what might transpire, I shall continue my usual activities on
the railway (one does not have to be a member of the Trust to be a
volunteer). It is rare that I spend less than four days a week doing
something somewhere. I usually hold myself ready to cover vacant
operational turns (guard or controller) or commercial turns (shop or
tearoom) that no one else is able to fill. Otherwise I join the Tuesday
gang for whatever maintenance jobs that need doing. Wednesdays and Sundays
usually find me working at Chelfham as we have much to do in order to
secure some planning permission and we have already lost over two years of
its three-year allowance due to the railway's legendary
bureaucratic inertia. Recently, when I have been free on Saturdays, I have
also joined the EA working party clearing the trackbed south of Bratton
Fleming.

Regards,
Anne

 

I hope Anne has a friendly lawyer on call!

 

Whilst I agree with you that the CIC's trading may warrant some examination, although without access to the accounts it is hard to tell, I will hold to my earlier response to your complaints about the employment of a fitter. The railway relies on its engines in particular to generate income. If one fails and is unavailable for several days there could well be a serious loss of earnings. It is doubtful if there are sufficient (any ?) volunteers qualified to the required standard to repair a steam locomotive and who are available at all times and, as North Devon is not noted for heavy industry, the nearest qualified fitter may be a long way away and not readily available. So it makes a certain amount of sense to employ someone rather than risk a large loss of revenue. This, of course, is over and above the basic maintenance of the fleet.
With regard to the other employees I have no knowledge, but I do wonder if the somewhat isolated position of the railway and the lack of any large centre of population nearby impacts on the availability of volunteers ? Perhaps somebody can enlighten us ?

 

Hi Michael.

You have hit one nail on the head in the lack of a centre of population it has been said on here and else where that we need to look at having our own volunteer accommodation. Yes it is going to cost but then that comes with a project like this.

As far as I know we do have a part time fitter so it won't be days we wouldn't be without a steam loco, what is more worrying is the lack of a back up to LYN and without wishing to add coals to the fire, but the trust has not explains the reason why we lost 'ISSAC' to Statfold, news like that gets around and has done more harm than good.

At one time we also had good relations with both Exmoor Steam Railway and a company known as Roanoke from Bratton Fleming both have steam fitters that I believe we have called on in the past, but I am not sure on the current status of either of these relationships at present.

Yes we do need to make sure we have someone who can fix a steam loco, but failing that we also need someone who can fix a diesel loco as well.

May be we do need a driver / fitter on the books, as you can only go so far with volunteer labour we have and some days so it would appear we don't have enough of those either and this project is certainly growing out of that league.

 

If anybody is thinking of standing, but is unsure of the duties of a trustee, this link from the NCVO might help.

 

I do wonder if at this time anyone would be willing to stand as a trustee, knowing what the membership will be asking for and what needs to happen, it would not surprise me if there were a shortage of people willing to take on that role just now.