West Somerset Railway - Removal of the PLC Chairman and related matters

........ and it has been!

Stef.

 

.....chocks away !!

 

The coin operated ack ack gun at Minehead reports record takings !



Only joking, I hope it was a cracking flight.

 

That is a picture of happiness .

 

It was

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=TwNddJBvrus

Robin

 

As someone who served in the RAF for almost a quarter of its existence I'm not at all jealous of Robin's flight. Just totally green with envy. Although no Spitfires were originally built as 2-seaters, they were all conversions from single seat airframes, I'm told that the handling characteristics and general performance of a TR Spitfire is very similar to the single seater, as evinced by the superb performance in the video clip. Every so often, someone designs something that does its job wonderfully and with added grace. I'm sure we can think of some steam locos which fit this description. No, not envious at all! It is also Battle of Britain week.

 

Frank and Rodney you have my sympathy. I resigned my WSRA membership following the 3 EGM's as I was really aggrieved that the memberships wishes were not accepted after the first meeting, going on and on until you get your way is not the way to do things no matter what your views are. I have not been on the railway much this year but I have a lot of friends who are regular volunteers and all I hear from them is moans about the Politics between the PLC, staff and the WSRA. 1 of them has given up and moved to the SDR where he tells me the atmosphere is totally different and I know he is advising friends to do the same thing. This is not what the WSR needs at all. On the 4160 front I was worried that the money the WSRA received for their shares was not enough but it was pointed out to me at the time that the engines value was not what some thought it was due to the huge amount of money needing to be spent on it for it's 10 year overhaul. It would be nice to know some actual figures on that one.

 

It appears that an announcement will shortly be made about the co-option of Jonathan Jones-Pratt, owner of 4936 Kinlet Hall and 7017 Thornbury Castle, to the PLC board.

It will be interesting to see what he will bring to the party in terms of skills and experience.

Business leadership?

Safety management?

Fundraising?

Interesting that yet another person has been co-opted to the board without any positions being formally advertised.

 

As in most appointments regardless of what industry its not what you know but who you know.

 

What the board most needs is yet another chairman with tact and diplomacy.

 

But they don’t have a Chairman....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I sometimes wonder if it might be better to have a Chairman who says it how it is and is willing to bang heads together

 

a
You need a chairman with a proven track record in railway preservation and is given powers to govern and not answear to anyone but the plc.

 

I hope due note has been taken of this post by both the plc and particularly the Trustees of the WSRA. I doubt whether any further interference in the running of the plc will be tolerated and will have dire consequences for all of us and particularly the WSRA if they are foolish enough do anything.

Whether we like it or not it is up to the plc to run the Railway and to appoint Paid Employees. If we want to do anything about it, as Shareholders we must wait for the appropriate meeting which I am sure will be held shortly

 

Yet!!

 

I am not going to comment on current events.

But misrepresentation of past events is not helpful.

At EGM1 a motion of no confidence was passed and it seems likely the other votes were gerrymandered by the Ex6. When Trustee Ian Coleby asked to examine the voting papers he was suspended and denied access by the Ex6... so the wishes of the membership were indeed ignored until they got together at EGM3 - but perhaps not in the way you suggest.

You also plainly do not understand the value of the 4160 shares when they were improperly sold and seem to have been sold a line by someone about that.

There are no shortage of opportunities to improve the WSR at the moment. But it did look good from 500 feet!

Robin

 

While not trying to play down the very real problems that do exist, sometimes on this forum I wonder if everybody is discussing the same railway. My experience, as a current volunteer, seems very different; from the people I work with every week you would hardly know there are any problems - volunteers are still turning up (admittedly sometimes not enough of us), the trains are still running (S160 permitting!), and there are more passengers than last year. I think some people on this site think much too much of their own importance - I'd venture that probably 95% of our passengers (and a fair proportion of staff) have never heard of NatPres, and would dismiss all our ramblings as "politics'.

 

Mr 92413 sir,

IIRC, the shares were a 30% holding in a company that had £250k in the bank, a class 09 shunter and an out of ticket large prairie tank. If anyone really thinks that the shares were worth £14k then I have a handful of magic beans that they can have for £20.

Regarding the EGM(s), consider that it was not until EGM3 that the HRA independently administered the ballot and the result was something like 1,600 for and 63 against. The precise numbers are not important but you get my drift. There can be little doubt over the wishes of the membership.

 

1674 to 67

Robin

 

Like you I volunteer on the WSR one day most weeks. Like you I sometimes wonder if this thread is actually discussing the same railway!
There are folk posting regularly on this site who have no connection with the railway. The voyeuristic audience which built up at the time of the very real WSRA toxic problems appears to have difficulty moving on to a new topic.