If you register, you can do a lot more. And become an active part of our growing community. You'll have access to hidden forums, and enjoy the ability of replying and starting conversations.

West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by gwr4090, Nov 15, 2007.

  1. big.stu

    big.stu Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 5, 2008
    Messages:
    1,062
    Likes Received:
    1,751
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Software Engineer
    Location:
    Cambridge
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Not going to disagree, but trust and integrity are all part and parcel of delivering those too...feels like there are lots of areas where the rules are being stretched.
     
  2. 1472

    1472 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2008
    Messages:
    1,898
    Likes Received:
    2,517
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Andy - its high time you stopped posting here regarding your personal situation as only you perceive it. If your posts are to continue perhaps a A, Norman separate thread would be more suitable.

    Quite frankly whatever the outcome of your meeting today is I do not see it as relevant to a WSR Ops thread, more a matter between you & the chairman.
     
  3. RichardBrum

    RichardBrum Member

    Joined:
    Apr 16, 2019
    Messages:
    262
    Likes Received:
    335
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Birmingham
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer

    What favours?

    A mortgage is a loan...
    & the most recent ones, there are 2, are with Lloyds Bank plc. They won't be 'favours'.

    If JJP is the only game in town, what happens if...he finds a new hobby, he dies, he falls out with people, etc etc
     
    Forestpines likes this.
  4. RichardBrum

    RichardBrum Member

    Joined:
    Apr 16, 2019
    Messages:
    262
    Likes Received:
    335
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Birmingham
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer

    Certainly the shoulders of the season could operate on a shortened line, eg. Minehead-Watchet.
    You could run an equally frequent service with less locos & carriages out in use, & less volunteers.

    That at least gives more time, in hopefully better conditions, to do infrastructure works.
     
    Forestpines likes this.
  5. D1039

    D1039 Guest

    With talk on here of mortgages, and the reported offer to sell Thornbury Castle, I looked up Companies House records for KINLET HALL & THORNBURY CASTLE LTD (sic).

    As at Feb 2018 (last y/e) it had loaned £104k to its parent (JJP (Holdings) SW Ltd) and had little cash in hand or at bank. There are better bean counters on here than me but my interpretation is that the parent is repaying the loan which generates cash to pay for Kinlet's overhaul. Should that be insufficient it would have to raise capital or loans, or dispose of an asset.

    Since then it has notified charge code 0158 5117 0002 (created 27 June 2019) with Shawbrook Bank Ltd for up to £378k loan, secured against 9466 at the WSR.

    18/19 accounts are due at year end.
    Patrick
     
  6. RichardBrum

    RichardBrum Member

    Joined:
    Apr 16, 2019
    Messages:
    262
    Likes Received:
    335
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Birmingham
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Policy is policy, & you not only have to follow them all, but be seen to be doing so.

    There is a suggestion/statement that a specific policy has not, or is not, being followed.
     
    Forestpines and Chufferpuff like this.
  7. johnofwessex

    johnofwessex Resident of Nat Pres

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2015
    Messages:
    9,185
    Likes Received:
    7,226
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Thorn in my managers side
    Location:
    72
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Anyone want a nose clip?
     
  8. RichardBrum

    RichardBrum Member

    Joined:
    Apr 16, 2019
    Messages:
    262
    Likes Received:
    335
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Birmingham
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    However, you can't spend nothing on longer term maintenance & assume that a future grant will pay for it.

    If you know that bridge X will need major works in 10 years time at ~£250k, then you do your best to set aside £25k a year into reserves for those 10 years.
    Even if you can't meet that target every year, there will at least be something in the pot, which reduces the amount of fundraising to be done in a hurry, or/& the size of grant being applied for.

    Also, many many grants are match funding, & the funders ask questions that must be answered with evidence
    (the obvious ones in the above example being 'When did you know of the works required?' & 'What have you done in that time?')
     
    TseTT and The Dainton Banker like this.
  9. RichardBrum

    RichardBrum Member

    Joined:
    Apr 16, 2019
    Messages:
    262
    Likes Received:
    335
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Birmingham
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer

    The loan to the parent company was £198,095, & it's interest free.
     
  10. Snifter

    Snifter Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2014
    Messages:
    1,628
    Likes Received:
    4,210
    Gender:
    Male
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    D1039 likes this.
  11. marcus

    marcus New Member

    Joined:
    May 19, 2007
    Messages:
    47
    Likes Received:
    48
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    New Jersey USA (but originally from Minehead)
  12. RichardBrum

    RichardBrum Member

    Joined:
    Apr 16, 2019
    Messages:
    262
    Likes Received:
    335
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Birmingham
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer

    errrr....

    So KH&TC Ltd has taken out a loan, & secured it on a loco that it doesn't own (?)
     
    D1039 likes this.
  13. Forestpines

    Forestpines Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 5, 2009
    Messages:
    1,681
    Likes Received:
    2,438
    Gender:
    Female
    Location:
    Somewhere in the UK
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    I presume they do own it, even though it's hired out to a different railway at the moment.
     
  14. RichardBrum

    RichardBrum Member

    Joined:
    Apr 16, 2019
    Messages:
    262
    Likes Received:
    335
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Birmingham
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    https://www.crosvillevintage.co.uk/...owells-former-gwr-0-6-0-pannier-tank-no-9466/


    Nothing on the websites for
    http://www.thornburycastle7027.co.uk/
    http://www.kinlethall.co.uk/


    This is Crosville Vintage Ltd
    https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/09795686
     
  15. Forestpines

    Forestpines Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 5, 2009
    Messages:
    1,681
    Likes Received:
    2,438
    Gender:
    Female
    Location:
    Somewhere in the UK
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
  16. RichardBrum

    RichardBrum Member

    Joined:
    Apr 16, 2019
    Messages:
    262
    Likes Received:
    335
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Birmingham
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    https://www.clarkewillmott.com/news/getting-west-somerset-railway-back-on-track/

     
    Jim O'Brien likes this.
  17. jma1009

    jma1009 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 16, 2013
    Messages:
    1,381
    Likes Received:
    1,637
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    ynysddu south wales
    Of concern to me is that via Bob Meanley's post 22030 0n Monday, he appears to be keeping detailed notes of conversations he has had and recording them in respect of at least one volunteer, then making them public or at the very least alluding to these records in his post 22030.

    None of that detail is required by him ordinarily to add to an official file. I have had some experience of this as an RMT union official dealing with disciplinary hearings and disputes.

    If Bob Meanley is keeping private notes of what volunteers say to him and when, then that is to my mind very concerning. (I also encountered this on one occasion with a manager when I was a RMT union official. That manager was subsequently dismissed).

    There was much criticism of the previous (and previous) WSR PLC boards, yet I cannot see how since JJP has been appointed as Chairman of the WSR PLC board that it is in a healthy state of affairs. A very small board, seriously delayed accounts, and as Andy Norman has pointed out, a complete failure to institute HR policy and delete it so far as volunteers are concerned at exactly the time he had need to make use of it.

    Bob Meanley's own interventions and posts on here earlier this week frankly dismay me!

    Cheers,

    Julian Atkins
     
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2019
    47708, jnc, joe_issitt and 2 others like this.
  18. aldfort

    aldfort Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 4, 2009
    Messages:
    1,923
    Likes Received:
    4,237
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    Cardiff
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    NCVO in their comprehensive guidance documentation make it very clear that volunteers are not employees and that totally separate policies and arrangements need to exist. They give a stark warning of the danger of using employee policies and processes to cover volunteers and HR concerns of volunteers.
    Note - that does not mean that an organisation cannot be rules based and that volunteers are required to follow the rules while they are volunteering.
     
  19. MellishR

    MellishR Resident of Nat Pres Friend

    Joined:
    Apr 16, 2009
    Messages:
    8,066
    Likes Received:
    5,160
    I know nothing of clarke wilmott's competence or otherwise as a business, but that page of theirs leaves a lot to be desired. Take this statement: "changes were needed to deliver a modern railway industry including heritage lines". What does it mean? Are some words missing?

    There seem be some missing words from the fourth paragraph as well:
    "A new board was formed having appointed Jonathan Jones-Pratt in September 2018 as Interim Chairman who soon became elected as permanent Chairman, decided to close the railway in January 2019, not over safety concerns as had been reported but to focus on delivering on the improvements that were required to make the railway fit for purpose."

    Here's my putative reading:
    "A new board was formed having appointed Jonathan Jones-Pratt in September 2018 as Interim Chairman who soon became elected as permanent Chairman. The board then decided to close the railway in January 2019, not over safety concerns as had been reported but to focus on delivering on the improvements that were required to make the railway fit for purpose."
     
  20. The Dainton Banker

    The Dainton Banker Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 20, 2014
    Messages:
    1,720
    Likes Received:
    3,186
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Over the hills and far away
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    I agree with your interpretation (the original seems to be another "bullshit baffles brains" effort) but what is the distinction between "safety concerns" and "fit for purpose" as used in the report ? If there were not safety concerns then why was the railway closed and what was the panic ? The implication is that the track condition was poor but could continue to be used over a period of time (i.e. not safety critical, yet ) allowing for the gradual fixing of the problems.
     

Share This Page