Agenda item

 - Representation on certain Charitable Trusts, report of the Cabinet Member Corporate Services

The Mayor advised Members of an urgent item which required a decision. The urgent decision was necessary because the Trustees had only just been advised by their external solicitors that the Council must have passed the resolutions set out in this report before a planned meeting of the Trustees in January.

The Cabinet Member Corporate Services introduced the report, on the Appointment of Trustees to the Hay and Strickland and other Charitable Trusts, which had been circulated prior to the meeting.  The report explained that the Council nominates trustees to 4 Charitable Trusts (Hay Trust Fund and the Caroline Strickland Homes, which provide almshouses at NauntonPark and Hales Road respectively, and the Turner Long Fund and the Walker Memorial Trust, which both provide for the grant of small sums of money to the elderly).

The management of these four Trusts (who are separate legal entities, and whose accounts and records have to be maintained separately from the Council’s, and in accordance with Charity Commission requirements) was outside the course of the Council’s usual business, and imposed a substantial administrative burden both upon the nominated Members and upon Council staff.

Discussions had therefore been taking place with the Cheltenham Family Welfare Association (CFWA) with a view to the CFWA taking over the administrative role in respect of the four Charities. The CFWA also had the necessary expertise to ensure the almshouse trusts were managed according to the high standards required for Almshouse management. The CFWA had expressed a willingness to do so, but as a condition of so doing required the power of appointment of trustees to be consistent with the other charitable trusts the CFWA manages.

This requirement would mean that the Council would surrender its rights to nominate trustees in the future, and that the Mayor would no longer be an ex-officio Trustee on any of the above named charities.

The Cabinet Member Corporate Services updated members on the consultation that had taken place with residents via newsletters, a consultation meeting and various visits to residents in their homes.  The majority of residents were comfortable with the move to CFWA who were well regarded in this field and best placed to do a better job for the residents than the council was able to provide. Residents were generally looking forward to the planned refurbishment of the properties and acknowledged that there was a need to increase their maintenance contributions to bring them in line with other almshouse properties offering similar facilities.  

Councillor Garth Barnes, as chair of the Trusts, supported the move to CFWA who had been managing almshouses for a number of years and were clearly running a tight ship.  He hoped that the Council would be able to support the recommendations which would ensure that the almshouses could remain sustainable in the future and available to current and future residents.

A member questioned whether the Council should maintain a representative on the trustees to ensure that the Council could continue to have a role in ensuring that the charity was operating in the public good which had been the original intention of the benefactor. In response the Cabinet Member reassured members that the Board of Trustees for each one of the charities concerned would remain in place and it was the role of the Charity Commission to ensure that any charity was the fulfilling its aims and objectives.

Upon a vote it was

RESOLVED that

1. Council consents to the amendment of the Schemes to the Hay Trust Fund, the Caroline Strickland Homes, the Turner Long Fund and the Walker Memorial Trust whereby the Council will no longer have power to nominate Trustees to those charities; and
   
   
2. Council consents to the amendment of the Schemes to the Hay Trust Fund, the Caroline Strickland Homes, the Turner Long Fund and the Walker Memorial Trust whereby the Mayor of Cheltenham Borough Council will no longer be an ex-officio Trustee of those charities.
   
   

Voting: For; 26 with 5 abstentions