West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Quite right, too, as it was intended to be a job retention scheme.

 

I've not seen anything, and am wary of the law of unintended consequences. Furlough works like bridging finance for firms that use it, and may not be enough to help them through the dip. It won't help anyone if firms that have furloughed employees based on what was offered back in March and amended a few weeks ago now find that they can't make the decisions they need to for the sake of their businesses, as there may not be a firm left to repay the money.

Even in the cases where firms are closing down during furlough - Debenhams got a mention a few weeks ago when they closed some stores - it may be that furlough kept those jobs alive when the company would otherwise have had to lay those employees off back in March.

I'm more concerned personally about the firms that have furloughed people and then powered ahead, not needing that money. Some firms - Games Workshop are one I've heard of - have done the right thing and offered to pay back the money; I'd like to see effective enforcement action on those firms that have abused the intent of the scheme provided that the government, HMRC and especially the press remember that the scheme was put into place with extreme haste to prevent mass redundancies, and therefore had to be "quick and dirty". People I know who were close to it suggest that in normal times a project like that would have taken 6-8 months, not been done in 3 weeks flat.

 

Many companies will have used the furlough option because it hoped there would be sufficient business to keep the employees post-furlough, and because they understood the govt was picking up the bill. If employers had known that they could be liable for the bill if they subsequently found that business did not return to hoped-for levels, then there would have been many redundancies earlier.

If the re-wording applies retrospectively, where does that leave a heritage railway that is not in a position to keep an employee on their books post-furlough , and also lands a bill for that employee's wages since March?

Jon

 

Which, and reverting to the topic of this thread, would be highly applicable to the WSR if the rumours reported by @Sidmouth are correct.

 

Is it merely unenterprising or plain suicidal to eschew the possibility of earning income during the remainder of 2020? Of course it might not prove possible but plenty of places have been acting on the basis that it will be happening and have run practice sessions. Financial assistance has been gained from the National Lottery in some cases.

Potential customers need to be reminded that you exist and staff morale, both paid and voluntary, has to be maintained. I worry about places which have given up on 2020.

 

Thanks. The final sentence is important though - that HMRC consider employees under provisional notice of redundancy can be paid through the furlough scheme.


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Where there's a will, there's a way. Where there's a will to see a different outcome.......

 

The relay is not complete at Alcombe just out of Minehead. Not sure about the Doniford relay that was also happening. All the operational locomotives and most of the rolling stock is at Minehead.

 

Quite so. Looking at the rusty rails on the WSR must be making some people think that the line has permanently shut down, and quite honestly I have been starting to wonder.

 

It would seem that there are a few days worth of work required to reinstate the section outside Minehead such as fitting fishplates. All of this can be achieved easily while maintaining the requisite distance between volunteers however nobody has thought to finish the job. In the meantime, the individual who could have signed off the work has departed.

Now that an "advisor to the board" has been anointed, perhaps he could call out the bleedin' obvious.

 

Yet the plc issued 2 leases of 50 years, one in 2017 & one in 2018.

So, either the plc has the powers to issue 50 year leases
or
those that issued them are not competent & should not be anywhere near a Board of Directors


Which is it?

 

That indicates a collapse of morale and/or poor management. Rather pathetic, in fact.

 

A 50 agreement was also signed with WSSRT in mid-February 2017.

The business plan and presentation to shareholders and stakeholders were both unambiguous. Sub-leases, MoUs, etc, can match expiry of the head lease.

 

Or rather who on the PLC didn't want the obvious called out, regardless of how obvious it was. The WSR: SNAFU, FUBAR and FUBB all apply.

 

Possibly, they simply don't understand the 7 Ps concept...... (the military version).