Charlbury's Charities and Community Facilities

Tue 12 Mar 2013, 09:46

Having seen the thread "Memorial Hall and Corner House up for Sale?", as a Thomas Gifford trustee I would like to highlight some facts about Thomas Gifford's Charity and other Charlbury community charities. While Charlbury's current and future needs are a prime concern of the trustees of these charities, as this earlier thread demonstrates this is subject to a wide range of opinion. What is just as important though is what the town's charities are allowed and obliged to do, as well as obviously what they can afford, both to invest and to operate. This is less subjective: their assets and funds were not gifted for their trustees to do with as they wish, but for specific purposes which we need to be aware of and respect.

Thomas Gifford's Charity's object is principally the provision and maintenance of the Playing Close for use as a "recreation ground", but to the extent there are surplus assets, for other charitable purposes in the town. In 1997 the Town Council, as trustee of Thomas Gifford's Charity at the time, purchased the site at Spendlove with the intention that the whole site would be used to provide additional facilities for the town, but the charity has never had the funds itself to do this. For the last 18 months the trustees have been trying to progress a scheme which includes a large hall suitable for indoor sport and certain other community uses and which will occupy approximately half the site. This is based on an assessment of what Charlbury could make best use of, given its existing facilities, and what is affordable and viable. Oxfordshire County Council, as a condition of its £350k contribution to the scheme, has also requested that the library be relocated within a shared community space in the new building. Funding for this scheme relies in large part on the sale of the remaining half of the site, so the trustees need to identify and solicit the best purchaser for that, having regard to the broader interests of the town, and keep options open until the charity is committed. There will be more information on this at our public meeting on 21st March.

Similarly the Town Council is the trustee of the Charlbury Corner House and Memorial Hall Charity, runs these buildings with a management committee, and is responsible for all decisions about the running of its buildings and about their future. As various contributors to the earlier thread observed, Thomas Gifford's Charity has absolutely nothing to do with this. The Corner House and Memorial Hall Charity was set up for the benefit of all inhabitants, whether or not they are current users of the buildings, and its purpose is the provision of facilities in the first instance for "meetings, lectures and classes" and, subject to that, for recreation and leisure. As trustee, the Town Council, in an identical way to the trustees of Thomas Gifford's Charity, has an obligation to use its charity's endowment in the best way it can to meet these objects, and an important part of that is to consider if its current facilities best serve that purpose.

There are other charities in the town with similar objectives and obligations, most significant of which, by endowment, is the Charlbury Motor Fire Brigade Fund, with a fund of, I believe, £250k. At present there is no formal coordination of the activities of these charities. If there was an overall vision of what Charlbury needs and full coordination of these charities' activities, with each fund targeted to providing the services it was intended for, it is difficult to argue that the town would not do better at delivering that vision.

I look forward to a well attended public meeting on the 21st.