West Somerset Railway General Discussion

The very reason for the line being axed in the first place as I understand it.

 

Indeed the WSR was one of the only preserved lines that I rode in BR days to Minehead Butlins. On a summer Saturday in July 1968 the DMU had about a dozen passengers nearly all had arrived from afar at Taunton. There was next to no local traffic at any of the intermediate stations. I think that all bar a couple of the passengers were heading for Butlins. I think the location of the station in Taunton meant that the bus was more convenient. The railway felt very remote and desserted.

 

The trustee departing from platform 3…

A little over a week ago I wrote to the WSRA Trustees to express my concern that the £183,000 of WSR winter work authorised from WSRA funds was outwith the charity’s objects.

The WSRA Chairman replied to say my letter had been considered at a special meeting.

On checking the WSRA website and Companies House it appears that Trustees Will Foster (the finance Trustee) and Andrew Horner have resigned.

Perhaps the WSRA members are due an update?

Robin White
WSRA Life Member 2221

 

Out of curiosity I looked up the WSRA's charitable objectives:

Charitable objects
The objects of the Association are to promote education in the heritage of the railway from Taunton to Minehead by: 1. Restoring, preserving and displaying railway locomotives, carriages, wagons and other artefacts (including documents, drawings, photographs, recordings and films) of historical interest and the buildings connected therewith. 2. Promoting the cultural, environmental and social heritage of the railway, and delivering related events and activities for the public benefit. 3. Encouraging recreation, well-being or other leisure-time occupation connected with the railway, including voluntary work on the restoration and maintenance of the railway from Taunton to Minehead and enabling opportunities for social cohesion and inclusion 4. Promoting individual learning and training in the skills required to maintain the heritage of the railway from Taunton to Minehead.

If I were a WSRA trustee, I'd be looking at the amount of civil engineering projects the railway is likely to have to spend money on in the coming years, and those charitable objectives (which, civil engineering aside, cover everything else quite well in my view) and pondering an update. It is of course down to the trustees how they interpret their articles, and they may be quite satisfied that they can justify the grant under their existing objectives.

 

A charity cannot financially support a plc. This should not be news to the trustees or the plc directors. Has the plc paid for the BL shop yet or is the WSRA still holding the rake of coaches as payment in lieu ?

 

Maybe while you were writing to them you could have asked how their DMU appeal is going.
Instead of continually asking on here.

 

Continually?

OK, I promise not to ask again until next year.

 

All of which makes the question of how charitable donations are applied critically important. I note, as an aside, that where charitable grants are provided, it is normal for them to be paid to the organisation that will actually engage in the work, rather than pay the bills on behalf of the organisation.

On much smaller numbers, my experience is that this is an area where the boundary fences are more rather than less important.

 

I don't think these posts on here are really intended to get an answer from the WSR. Whatever may have gone on in the past, these constant digs and criticisms get a bit boring after a while.

 

You may be right.

If the point is to illustrate that appeals require more effort than a rapidly-assembled web page with no updates and no breakdown of the sums said to be required, that purpose may have been served.

 

Speaking of which, Robin, would it be possible to get updates posted on our own site about the four appeals we have running?

 

IANAL, but surely the bit I have highlighted would allow the WSRA to donate money to the PLC to fulfil that objective?

 

I've advanced some creative arguments in my time, but think it may be a stretch to extend that to paying for £183k of relaying work falls within "encouraging recreation, well-being or other leisure occupation".

This, and it's predecessor threads, have had many discussions about the relationship between support charities and the operating company; which on the WSR is unusually challenging because of the plc's apex position.

If I were a member, and assuming that this decision did not come at the expense of other priorities, such infrastructure funding would not particularly concern me despite being outside the letter of the charitable objects - it is hard to deliver them without an operational railway in place.

Putting the reaction of @Robin Moira White together with the reported trustee changes, and considering recent discussions about WSR finances, makes me wonder if this is actually a matter of funding the railway's required routine expenditure, and a sign that resources are running towards zero.

 

I don't want to labour the point and I'm no expert in the area, but if one of the aims of the charity is to encourage recreation, well-being etc including voluntary work (restoration and maintenance) on the WSR, then surely encouraging volunteers to replace a section of track between X and Y on the WSR does fall within the remit? The objectives do not specify values, so the actual amount is not relevant, as long as it can be properly accounted for? Or am I being incredibly naïve?

 

The only purpose I see to your posts is to somehow gather a like-minded group of people on a forum, who have no actual interest in finding out or accepting the reasons behind the fundraising, station signs or whatever. You just want to continue a grudge. I think you know that nothing is actually going to change as a result of your posts. You're not doing a public service or anything similar.

If you want to comment on certain projects, then surely you can find out the true situation through your network of WSR contacts as a long-standing member. Then report back the details to us rather than just post regular criticisms.

I think you know that your questions won't be answered on here. As I've said before, perhaps it is time to move on?

Or maybe you'll just continue to think that you are somehow doing good by posting grumbles on here?

 

There is reason to suppose that the various organisations in the WSR family are not doing very well at finding the money needed to keep the railway running. If that is the case, then posts on here reminding interested parties of that situation seem worthwhile even if they don't help to change it.

 

I would agree if the person posting has done some actual research or contacted the railway in advance to find what is happening. It's easy to find things which people may react to, but this tabloid approach doesn't really change anything.

 

It's the idea that "encouraging" involves purchasing £183k of track relaying that I'm struggling with. Maybe that's why I manage contracts, and let other people sell!

Noting - and to some extent agreeing with the observations of @richards about the purpose of the posting - I do think the justification is in the round of the objects, and the issue is likely to lie in the finer details of how it is that the WSRA have been persuaded to contribute as they have.

 

Actually, yes it can, you just have to have the correct structures in place to make it work i.e. the charity has to have the controlling interest over the Company in question. As is well documented, despite this structure being recommended, the Plc have made it very obvious that they will not contenance such a structure, so the WSR will never benefit from it.