News Release
Secret Meeting Shows Council Conflicted
6 October 2021 -- A secret meeting held last month has shown how Ealing Council is hopelessly conflicted as both the Trustee of the publicly-owned Victoria Hall -- as well as the creator of the plan to sell it off.
“There’s now no semblance at all of any proper governance in the Council’s cynical stewardship of this important publicly-owned asset,” said Roger Green, chair of the Friends of the Victoria Hall (FoVH).
The only agenda item at the 15 September meeting of Ealing Council’s ‘Victoria Trust Committee’ was ‘matters to be considered in private’.
It turned out that the secret discussion was to consider legal advice about the Friends of the Victoria Hall taking the Charity Commission to court over its decision to support Ealing Council’s long-running efforts to seize ownership of the Hall and sell it off to become part of a luxury hotel.
Green said: “After blowing over £2m so far on its efforts to sell Ealing Town Hall the Council has just spent another sizable sum of council tax payers’ money on expensive legal advice about a matter that’s none of its business.”
“If they’d done the right thing six years ago, they’d have saved a great deal of their time and our money.”
The Victoria Hall, the Princes Hall and a number of other rooms in Ealing’s Grade II listed Town Hall belong to a Charitable Trust whose beneficiaries are the people of Ealing. Because of this, the Council needed the permission of the Charity Commission to alter the terms of the trust in order to dispose of its property as part of a deal with hotel developer Mastcraft.
The Victoria Hall is the only large indoor venue within easy reach of all parts of a fast-growing west London borough that's the size of a small country.
A member of FoVH went along to gain access to the the15 September meeting in Ealing Town Hall. The Council trustee committee chair warned her that she would be ejected when the main agenda item was reached because the meeting was to be, the chair said, ‘secret’.
Before being escorted out of the Town Hall by two security men, our representative was there long enough to note that, according to the agenda, exclusion of the public and press would take place ‘on agreement of the Committee’. However, no vote was called before the FoVH representative was ejected. Neither was there any review of whether or not a number of important things had been done since the previous meeting in May -- that meeting's minutes were agreed without any discussion at all.
Green noted: “The meeting was a travesty of proper process as you can see for yourself in this YouTube video (https://youtu.be/PfmpcaousGY). Conduct like this does nothing to inspire confidence that the Trust is working in the best interests of the people of Ealing, whom it is supposed to benefit, rather than the interests of Ealing Council and the developer.
“We say hands off! The Victoria Hall should be run by a properly independent trustee body, for the benefit of the people of Ealing, not the Council and its property-developer 'regeneration' partners.”
The Friends of the Victoria Hall appeal will be heard within the next nine months. Please help FoVH fund its legal costs by donating at https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-the-victoria-hall/
ENDS
PICTURE CAPTION: Ealing Council Victoria Trust Committee Chair Yvonne Johnson declares the 15 September meeting ‘secret’
Editors’ Notes
“There’s now no semblance at all of any proper governance in the Council’s cynical stewardship of this important publicly-owned asset,” said Roger Green, chair of the Friends of the Victoria Hall (FoVH).
The only agenda item at the 15 September meeting of Ealing Council’s ‘Victoria Trust Committee’ was ‘matters to be considered in private’.
It turned out that the secret discussion was to consider legal advice about the Friends of the Victoria Hall taking the Charity Commission to court over its decision to support Ealing Council’s long-running efforts to seize ownership of the Hall and sell it off to become part of a luxury hotel.
Green said: “After blowing over £2m so far on its efforts to sell Ealing Town Hall the Council has just spent another sizable sum of council tax payers’ money on expensive legal advice about a matter that’s none of its business.”
“If they’d done the right thing six years ago, they’d have saved a great deal of their time and our money.”
The Victoria Hall, the Princes Hall and a number of other rooms in Ealing’s Grade II listed Town Hall belong to a Charitable Trust whose beneficiaries are the people of Ealing. Because of this, the Council needed the permission of the Charity Commission to alter the terms of the trust in order to dispose of its property as part of a deal with hotel developer Mastcraft.
The Victoria Hall is the only large indoor venue within easy reach of all parts of a fast-growing west London borough that's the size of a small country.
A member of FoVH went along to gain access to the the15 September meeting in Ealing Town Hall. The Council trustee committee chair warned her that she would be ejected when the main agenda item was reached because the meeting was to be, the chair said, ‘secret’.
Before being escorted out of the Town Hall by two security men, our representative was there long enough to note that, according to the agenda, exclusion of the public and press would take place ‘on agreement of the Committee’. However, no vote was called before the FoVH representative was ejected. Neither was there any review of whether or not a number of important things had been done since the previous meeting in May -- that meeting's minutes were agreed without any discussion at all.
Green noted: “The meeting was a travesty of proper process as you can see for yourself in this YouTube video (https://youtu.be/PfmpcaousGY). Conduct like this does nothing to inspire confidence that the Trust is working in the best interests of the people of Ealing, whom it is supposed to benefit, rather than the interests of Ealing Council and the developer.
“We say hands off! The Victoria Hall should be run by a properly independent trustee body, for the benefit of the people of Ealing, not the Council and its property-developer 'regeneration' partners.”
The Friends of the Victoria Hall appeal will be heard within the next nine months. Please help FoVH fund its legal costs by donating at https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-the-victoria-hall/
ENDS
PICTURE CAPTION: Ealing Council Victoria Trust Committee Chair Yvonne Johnson declares the 15 September meeting ‘secret’
Editors’ Notes
- The Victoria Hall accounts for over one-fifth of Ealing’s Grade II listed Town Hall and is the largest and most accessible indoor space in the centre of a large multicultural borough with a population larger than that of Iceland. Together with the Prince’s Hall and a number of other rooms in the building, it was paid for by public subscription, the Victorian equivalent of crowdfunding, and has been serving the community for 126 years, hosting countless meetings, entertainments, protests, celebrations, examinations, exhibitions and more. It is administered by a Charitable Trust registered with the Charity Commission.
- Ealing Council spent £2 million between July 2016 and February 2021 in its efforts to dispose of the Victoria and Prince’s Halls to hotel developers Mastcraft, despite the fact that they are not the property of the Council. Since 1893, these and a number of other rooms have belonged to the Victoria Hall Trust and, as such, should not have been included in the 2016 hotel development deal. The Council was obliged to apply to the Charity Commission to be allowed to take control of the Trust and to expropriate its property.
- The Charity Commission has failed to engage with FoVH and, on 22 March 2021, published what it ruled would be the final draft ‘Scheme’ for the Victoria Hall Trust, which would allow the Council to sell the Trust’s property. This new ‘Scheme’ ignored most of the shortcomings of previous versions, including many identified in the Commission’s own detailed review of April 2020.
- The Friends of the Victoria Hall (HMRC charity reference number ZD04507) was set up in November 2019 to prevent Ealing Council from ‘gifting’ the Victoria Hall to Mastcraft. It disputes claims made by Ealing Council about the property and has lobbied the Charity Commission to reject the proposals. It is supported by 10 local community groups: Central Ealing Neighbourhood Forum, Campaign for an Ealing Performance & Arts Centre, Central Ealing Residents’ Association, Ealing Art Group, Ealing Arts & Leisure, Ealing Civic Society, Gordon Road and Surrounding Streets, Residents’ Association of Madeley and Westbury Roads, Save Ealing’s Centre, and West Ealing Neighbours.
- Here's a link to press coverage of the Victoria Hall story going back to 1887.
