The Chairman fails to tell us why
The often declared intention to operate openly and transparently has fallen on deaf ears as far as Prue Whyte, Charman of Wimbledon and Putney Common Conservators is concerned. Does this matter? Is this just me having another so-called "rant"? No, this time the standard of governance has fallen to such a low level that all 60,000+ Council Tax payers need to be very worried indeed.A year ago the Charity Commission imposed a formal action plan. The most important element of that plan was to establish whether a loss had occurred through a 'Qualified Surveyors Report' (QSR) when they sold the access rights at Putney Hospital. A subject that has been discussed here for over three years.So what has changed? This time the board of Trustees have decided to spend over £60,000 on a second unnecessary QSR, without discussing the existing one they commissioned from Montagu Evans LLP. The one that ME offered to review in the light of any additional information the Conservators might provide. The one that their own lawyers said could be considered. Ignored? Completely. This means that the loss-making WPCC Trustees are quite happy to waste yet more money to avoid facing up to their earlier mistakes. Mistakes we as so-called "Levy-payers" have to accept.So, no explanation of why they are acting like this. No reaction to the 150+ people who have signed the FofPC petition, just pretence that everything is alright. Just refer everything to their lawyers. Call no 'Open Meetings' as they promised. Keep the governance of the charity under wraps. People will just get bored and drop the subject, after all what's another £60,000 for the lawyers and the advisers. The much-vaunted new governance processes have been suspended, and how the tax-funded charity is run goes from bad to worse. If they can make such a hash of this, what else is being hidden? Their procedures are now so bizarre that they issue a press statement about their special board meeting before the Trustees have seen the minutes.They lost over £1.5m. It's a year since they were told what action should be taken. The Charity Commission must appoint an interim manager now to sort this mess out. For all our sakes.Nick
Nicholas Evans ● 3021d0 Comments