News Release
Secret Meeting Shows Council Conflicted
3 November 2021 -- Ealing Council has been accepted as a party to the Charity Tribunal court case that will decide the fate of the Victoria Hall, the Prince’s Hall and other rooms in the Town Hall that belong to the Victoria Hall Charitable Trust.
In April 2021, the Friends of the Victoria Hall appealed to the Charity Tribunal to prevent the Charity Commission from allowing the Council to change the rules of the Trust so that it can take over its property.
The Council intervention in the court case is the latest development in a story that started in July 2016 when Ealing Council entered into an agreement with a developer to sell off the Town Hall on a 250-year lease to turn it into a luxury hotel. The would-be deal included the Victoria Hall which accounts for over 20% of the property and which belongs to the charitable Victoria Hall Trust, not the Council. The Trust was set up in 1893 to run the venue for the benefit of the local community that had paid for it.
Roger Green, the Chair of FoVH: ‘The Council’s very late request to oppose the appeal looks likely to drag out further a farrago of a process that’s already been going on for five years.
‘Not only will this be at considerable expense in legal fees to Council Tax payers but it will inevitably delay even longer the time when the people of Ealing will once more be able to use the facilities that the Victoria Hall benefactors bestowed on them.‘
FoVH initiated its court action in April. It was only in October that the Director of Legal Services at the Council wrote on 1 October to ask whether the appellants had any objection to their application to join the Tribunal.
Green said: ‘We had an idea that something was going on as the Charity Commission had failed to submit their case to the Tribunal by the due date, and then there was that ‘secret’ meeting of the Victoria Hall Charitable Trust in mid-September. Now we know what they were up to and there’s a clear conflict of interest.’
As well as their role within Ealing Council, the Director of Legal Services also advises the Council’s Victoria Hall ‘Trust’ on legal matters. It is unclear whether the Council will be appearing as the local authority trying to sell Trust property it doesn’t own, as well as the Trustee of the Victoria Hall Charitable Trust.
ENDS
Editors’ Notes
In April 2021, the Friends of the Victoria Hall appealed to the Charity Tribunal to prevent the Charity Commission from allowing the Council to change the rules of the Trust so that it can take over its property.
The Council intervention in the court case is the latest development in a story that started in July 2016 when Ealing Council entered into an agreement with a developer to sell off the Town Hall on a 250-year lease to turn it into a luxury hotel. The would-be deal included the Victoria Hall which accounts for over 20% of the property and which belongs to the charitable Victoria Hall Trust, not the Council. The Trust was set up in 1893 to run the venue for the benefit of the local community that had paid for it.
Roger Green, the Chair of FoVH: ‘The Council’s very late request to oppose the appeal looks likely to drag out further a farrago of a process that’s already been going on for five years.
‘Not only will this be at considerable expense in legal fees to Council Tax payers but it will inevitably delay even longer the time when the people of Ealing will once more be able to use the facilities that the Victoria Hall benefactors bestowed on them.‘
FoVH initiated its court action in April. It was only in October that the Director of Legal Services at the Council wrote on 1 October to ask whether the appellants had any objection to their application to join the Tribunal.
Green said: ‘We had an idea that something was going on as the Charity Commission had failed to submit their case to the Tribunal by the due date, and then there was that ‘secret’ meeting of the Victoria Hall Charitable Trust in mid-September. Now we know what they were up to and there’s a clear conflict of interest.’
As well as their role within Ealing Council, the Director of Legal Services also advises the Council’s Victoria Hall ‘Trust’ on legal matters. It is unclear whether the Council will be appearing as the local authority trying to sell Trust property it doesn’t own, as well as the Trustee of the Victoria Hall Charitable Trust.
ENDS
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.
