Council Accused of Holding 'Secret' Meeting on Victoria Hall
Friends group representative ejected by security guards
Victoria Trust Committee Chair Yvonne Johnson declares the 15 September meeting ‘secret’
Opponents of the sale of Victoria Hall are saying that a ‘secret’ meeting held last month demonstrates that Ealing Council is ‘hopelessly conflicted’ on the issue.
The council is both the Trustee of the publicly-owned Victoria Hall as well as the creator of the plan to sell it off.
The only agenda item at the 15 September meeting of Ealing Council’s ‘Victoria Trust Committee’ was ‘matters to be considered in private’. When a Friends of the Victoria Hall (FoVH) group representative attempted to gain access to the meeting she was led out of the Town Hall by security guards.
It turned out that the discussion was to consider legal advice about the FoVH taking the Charity Commission to court over its decision to support Ealing Council’s long-running efforts to take ownership of the Hall and sell it off to become part of a hotel development.
“There’s now no semblance at all of any proper governance in the Council’s cynical stewardship of this important publicly-owned asset,” said Roger Green, chair of FoVH.
He added, “After blowing over £2m so far on its efforts to sell Ealing Town Hall the Council has just spent another sizable sum of council tax payers’ money on expensive legal advice about a matter that’s none of its business.”
“If they’d done the right thing six years ago, they’d have saved a great deal of their time and our money.”
The Victoria Hall, the Princes Hall and a number of other rooms in Ealing’s Grade II listed Town Hall belong to a Charitable Trust whose beneficiaries are the people of Ealing.
Because of this, the Council needed the permission of the Charity Commission to alter the terms of the trust in order to dispose of its property as part of a deal with hotel developer Mastcraft.
A member of FoVH went along to gain access to the 15 September meeting in Ealing Town Hall. According to FoVH the Council trustee committee chair warned her that she would be ejected when the main agenda item was reached because the meeting was to be, the chair said, ‘secret’.
Before being escorted out of the Town Hall by two security men, the FoVH representative was there long enough to note that, according to the agenda, exclusion of the public and press would take place ‘on agreement of the Committee’. However, no vote was called before the FoVH representative was ejected and meeting's minutes were agreed without any discussion at all.
Mr Green noted, “The meeting was a travesty of proper process as you can see for yourself in this YouTube video. Conduct like this does nothing to inspire confidence that the Trust is working in the best interests of the people of Ealing, whom it is supposed to benefit, rather than the interests of Ealing Council and the developer.
“We say hands off! The Victoria Hall should be run by a properly independent trustee body, for the benefit of the people of Ealing, not the Council and its property-developer 'regeneration' partners.”
The Friends of the Victoria Hall appeal will be heard within the next nine months. They are holding a crowdfunding appeal to raise funds to meet legal costs.
An Ealing Council Council spokesperson said,“Ealing Council is the sole Trustee of the Victoria Hall Charitable Trust. The Victoria Hall Trust Committee (which includes 5 elected Councillors and 3 independent Trustees) has considered all options available to the Trust and have determined that the Trust should support the Council’s proposal to redevelop the Town Hall in partnership with Mastcraft, on the basis that this is the best option to secure a sustainable and long-term future for the Victoria Hall Trust and the local people it serves. Earlier this year, the Charity Commission took the decision to support the Trust’s position.
“The Friends of Victoria Hall have lodged a court challenge against the Charity Commission’s decision and a hearing date for the challenge is pending. The Trust met on 15 September to consider legally privileged advice in relation to this challenge. The main agenda item was held in private session, which was entirely appropriate given that the purpose was to consider the Trust’s position in relation to active court proceedings.”
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October 14, 2021