News Release
Open Letter Calls for Independent Members of the Victoria Hall Trust (VHT) to Honour the Objects of The Trust
29 July 2024 -- The Friends of the Victoria Hall (FoVH) has this week publishes an open letter to the Victoria Hall Trust (VHT) demanding to know what the Trust is doing to reopen the Victoria Hall.
Ealing Council, as one of the Trustees of VHT, unilaterally, and without open discussion, closed the hall, along with Ealing Town Hall itself, in September 2023. The Council cited unspecified health and safety issues as a rationale for doing this.
The move by FoVH follows the publication on 3 July 2024 of the Charity Commission’s own review of its latest ‘Scheme’ for VHT. The Scheme would pave the way for Ealing Council to take over the Trust’s property and allow it to be part of the 250 year Ealing Town Hall lease to convert the buildings into a luxury hotel.
A trustee Committee with a majority of independent members will manage the trust. Three independent members are already in place and two more are to be appointed. We want these to be selected by the Committee itself, rather than by Council officers as happened before.
FoVH are keen to discuss our ideas for the best accessibility and use of the Hall with the independent trustees. This is why we are writing to them now.
Roger Green, Chair of FoVH said, “The Victoria Hall along with Prince’s Hall below it were built by the people of Ealing, for the people of Ealing, during the 1880s. Victoria Hall Trust was set up in 1893 by Ealing residents for both halls to be used by all the citizens of the town.
“For 10 months now the Victoria Hall and Prince’s Hall have been unavailable for use. VHT’S primary function is to enable the local community to use both halls, and associated facilities. VHT is clearly unfit for purpose and we are appalled that the Charity Commission is condoning this failure by the charity”.
The open letter to the chair of the Victoria Hall Trust calls for a newly constituted executive committee, with a majority of independent (non-Council) members; costed plans to address the supposed health and safety issues raised by the Council and fix them; clarification of the extent of the charitable property; and a strategy for reviving the Hall’s role for the community.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
OPEN LETTER FROM THE FRIENDS OF THE VICTORIA HALL
Dear Cllr Mahmood
The Future of Ealing’s Victoria Hall
I am writing to you in your capacity as chair of the Victoria Hall Trustee executive committee
The community of Ealing, beneficiaries of the Victoria Hall Trust, wants to know what the Trust is doing to expedite the reopening of the Victoria Hall.
The community, as represented by the charity Friends of the Victoria Hall (FoVH), notes that on 3 July 2024 the Trust was directed by the Charity Commission on to carry out the objects of the Charity, which are to provide facilities for recreation and leisure-time occupation in the interests of social welfare and to improve the beneficiaries’ condition of life.
In 1888 the Victoria Hall was declared by the then Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, to be 'a handsome building, lofty and well-proportioned and admirably adapted for all the purposes of a public hall’, and as such it is Grade II listed. This building, which is the property of the Victoria Hall Trust and the only public meeting place of any size in central Ealing, was closed without warning by Ealing Council in September 2023.
We now ask:
1. Has the Trust been informed about the Charity Commission’s decision that the Victoria Hall’s interests are from now on to be represented by an Executive Committee which makes decisions on the local authority’s behalf and whose membership must comprise five independent members and three elected councillors? What is the timetable for constituting the Executive Committee?
2. Has the Trust examined the Council’s report of the health and safety issues that led to the closure of the Victoria Hall and considered how they could be rectified so that the Hall can be returned to use and generate income for the charity?
3. What assurances can the Trust provide that work to ‘clearly define the boundaries of the Victoria Hall, Queen’s Hall and Prince’s Hall’ is now happening and that the clarified rights of access will be ‘in the best interests of the Charity’, as the Charity Commission’s ruling requires?
4. Given that the Charity Commission ruling stipulates that the Hall may not be used for any purpose other than those in accordance with the Trust’s charitable objects (apart from the ten days reserved for Council use annually), what plans does the Trust have for reviving the Hall’s role as a key community asset once the issues referred to by the Council have been rectified?
The community eagerly awaits the Trust’s response.
Yours sincerely
Roger Green
Chair, Friend of the Victoria Hall
29 July 2024 -- The Friends of the Victoria Hall (FoVH) has this week publishes an open letter to the Victoria Hall Trust (VHT) demanding to know what the Trust is doing to reopen the Victoria Hall.
Ealing Council, as one of the Trustees of VHT, unilaterally, and without open discussion, closed the hall, along with Ealing Town Hall itself, in September 2023. The Council cited unspecified health and safety issues as a rationale for doing this.
The move by FoVH follows the publication on 3 July 2024 of the Charity Commission’s own review of its latest ‘Scheme’ for VHT. The Scheme would pave the way for Ealing Council to take over the Trust’s property and allow it to be part of the 250 year Ealing Town Hall lease to convert the buildings into a luxury hotel.
A trustee Committee with a majority of independent members will manage the trust. Three independent members are already in place and two more are to be appointed. We want these to be selected by the Committee itself, rather than by Council officers as happened before.
FoVH are keen to discuss our ideas for the best accessibility and use of the Hall with the independent trustees. This is why we are writing to them now.
Roger Green, Chair of FoVH said, “The Victoria Hall along with Prince’s Hall below it were built by the people of Ealing, for the people of Ealing, during the 1880s. Victoria Hall Trust was set up in 1893 by Ealing residents for both halls to be used by all the citizens of the town.
“For 10 months now the Victoria Hall and Prince’s Hall have been unavailable for use. VHT’S primary function is to enable the local community to use both halls, and associated facilities. VHT is clearly unfit for purpose and we are appalled that the Charity Commission is condoning this failure by the charity”.
The open letter to the chair of the Victoria Hall Trust calls for a newly constituted executive committee, with a majority of independent (non-Council) members; costed plans to address the supposed health and safety issues raised by the Council and fix them; clarification of the extent of the charitable property; and a strategy for reviving the Hall’s role for the community.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
- The text of the Open Letter follows this press release.
- The member organisations of the Friends of the Victoria Hall are: Central Ealing Neighbourhood Forum, Campaign for an Ealing Performance & Arts Centre, Central Ealing Residents’ Association, Ealing Art Group, Ealing Arts & Leisure, Ealing Civic Society, Save Ealing’s Centre, Gordon Road and Surrounding Streets Residents’ Association, Residents’ Association of Madeley and Westbury Roads, Warwick Road Residents Association, West Ealing Neighbours.
- The Victoria Hall is a public hall belonging to the west London community of Ealing, opened for their recreational use in 1888. Ealing is a large multicultural Borough in west London whose population of 344,000 is that of a small country. The Victoria Hall and the Prince's Hall below it provide the only large venue that’s easy for everyone to get to, from any part of the Borough whether they live in Acton, Ealing, Greenford, Hanwell, Northolt, Perivale or Southall.
- In July 2016 Ealing Council entered into an agreement with the developer Mastcraft to sell off the Town Hall on a 250-year lease to turn it into a luxury hotel. They included in the deal the Victoria Hall adjacent to the Town Hall, built by public subscription and since 1893 the property of a charitable trust set up to run the venue for the benefit of the local community that had originally paid for it. In March 2021, despite fierce local opposition and evidence that a charitable trust owned it, the Charity Commission agreed to let Ealing Council take over the property of the Trust so that it could be included in the Town Hall sale. In April 2021 a legal challenge to the Charity Commission decision was launched on behalf of the Friends of the Victoria Hall (FoVH).
- The challenge was heard in a three-day Charity Tribunal court hearing during 20-22 February 2023. The decision of the court was released on 21 September 2023. In March 2024 The Charity Commission published the second draft of its revised Scheme which would allow the Council to take over the Trust property. Despite nearly 100 objections to the Scheme a ‘decision review’ decided to ignore them and to pave the way for the Council takeover. There is a complete chronology to be found here https://savethevictoriahall.weebly.com/chronology.html.
- Here's a link to press coverage of the Victoria Hall story going back to 1887.
OPEN LETTER FROM THE FRIENDS OF THE VICTORIA HALL
Dear Cllr Mahmood
The Future of Ealing’s Victoria Hall
I am writing to you in your capacity as chair of the Victoria Hall Trustee executive committee
The community of Ealing, beneficiaries of the Victoria Hall Trust, wants to know what the Trust is doing to expedite the reopening of the Victoria Hall.
The community, as represented by the charity Friends of the Victoria Hall (FoVH), notes that on 3 July 2024 the Trust was directed by the Charity Commission on to carry out the objects of the Charity, which are to provide facilities for recreation and leisure-time occupation in the interests of social welfare and to improve the beneficiaries’ condition of life.
In 1888 the Victoria Hall was declared by the then Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, to be 'a handsome building, lofty and well-proportioned and admirably adapted for all the purposes of a public hall’, and as such it is Grade II listed. This building, which is the property of the Victoria Hall Trust and the only public meeting place of any size in central Ealing, was closed without warning by Ealing Council in September 2023.
We now ask:
1. Has the Trust been informed about the Charity Commission’s decision that the Victoria Hall’s interests are from now on to be represented by an Executive Committee which makes decisions on the local authority’s behalf and whose membership must comprise five independent members and three elected councillors? What is the timetable for constituting the Executive Committee?
2. Has the Trust examined the Council’s report of the health and safety issues that led to the closure of the Victoria Hall and considered how they could be rectified so that the Hall can be returned to use and generate income for the charity?
3. What assurances can the Trust provide that work to ‘clearly define the boundaries of the Victoria Hall, Queen’s Hall and Prince’s Hall’ is now happening and that the clarified rights of access will be ‘in the best interests of the Charity’, as the Charity Commission’s ruling requires?
4. Given that the Charity Commission ruling stipulates that the Hall may not be used for any purpose other than those in accordance with the Trust’s charitable objects (apart from the ten days reserved for Council use annually), what plans does the Trust have for reviving the Hall’s role as a key community asset once the issues referred to by the Council have been rectified?
The community eagerly awaits the Trust’s response.
Yours sincerely
Roger Green
Chair, Friend of the Victoria Hall
