How to Object
To save the Victoria Hall from being lost to the community, we need to persuade the Charity Commission that its draft ‘Scheme’ for the Victoria Hall Trust and Ealing Council’s unsatisfactory ‘Community Use Protocol’ are unacceptable to the local residents who are the beneficiaries of that Trust.
The community had until Tuesday, 7 January 2020 to submit its views to the Charity Commission.
HERE’S WHAT WE SUGGESTED PEOPLE SAY
Simply saying that you don't like the Scheme won't prevent it from happening. The Charity Commission needs to be shown that there are various things wrong with it. There follow some comments you may want to make about the Charity Commission’s draft Scheme. We suggest you don't include all of them in your submission to the Commission. Focus on those that you care about most and phrase the comments in your own words. If you have used the Victoria Hall as an event organiser or regular attendee, please say so.
IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY DONE SO, PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION, WHICH IS STILL OPEN
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-victoria-hall-1?
The community had until Tuesday, 7 January 2020 to submit its views to the Charity Commission.
HERE’S WHAT WE SUGGESTED PEOPLE SAY
Simply saying that you don't like the Scheme won't prevent it from happening. The Charity Commission needs to be shown that there are various things wrong with it. There follow some comments you may want to make about the Charity Commission’s draft Scheme. We suggest you don't include all of them in your submission to the Commission. Focus on those that you care about most and phrase the comments in your own words. If you have used the Victoria Hall as an event organiser or regular attendee, please say so.
- The Scheme aims to meet the needs of Ealing Council and not the objectives of the original donors, which was to provide a Hall for benefit of the people of Ealing
- Victoria Hall is to be disposed of on a 250 year lease to a private hotel operator and will not be preserved for community use.
- The Trust’s property is not correctly identified in the Scheme. This means the value of its property has been badly underestimated and the Council’s arguments about its ability to operate independently are based on wrong information.
- The Council has failed for decades to pay for its use of the Trust properties and to prepare and publish annual accounts for the Trust.
- There is no legitimacy for the draft Scheme, as the case for a cy-pres occasion has not been made. [‘cy-pres’ is an English law doctrine dealing with charitable Trusts. It provides that when a Trust has failed because its purposes are either impossible or cannot be fulfilled, the Charity Commission can make an order redirecting the Trust’s fund to the nearest possible purpose.]
- The proposed swap of the Trust’s Prince’s Hall with the smaller, less valuable Queen’s Hall is unacceptable. The Scheme offers no requirement for Queen’s Hall to be retained for use by the Trust’s beneficiaries.
- In view of the incompetence of the Trust for decades, new independent Trustees must be appointed. The Scheme has no requirement for this.
- The current rights of the Trust’s beneficiaries are not preserved in the Scheme, but are the subject of a ’Community Use Protocol’, which is outside the Scheme and set by the Council and the private hotel operator.
- The Scheme contains no mechanism for good governance or management of the Council’s and the hotel operator’s conflicts of interest.
- The original Scheme application and consultation were carried out on a flawed basis and cannot be remedied retrospectively.
IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY DONE SO, PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION, WHICH IS STILL OPEN
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-victoria-hall-1?