Saving Bridge House – news, timeline and documents

FAO Association Members of Alder Bridge Association for Steiner Waldorf Education, Friends of Alder Bridge Association

Please find below an outline of the efforts that we, Marcus Webb and Stuart Brown, have been making to save Bridge House since October 2022.  We are founding members of the Reading Steiner School Project, later renamed Alder Bridge Association for Steiner Waldorf Education and also more recently Trustees of St Luke’s Trust (Berkshire).  As we have no access to the list of members of ABASWE, we are going to communicate via these pages.

We will add to this page as the situation develops.

 

With Alder Bridge Association for Steiner Waldorf Education (ABASWE) currently in Administration, there is an urgent need to

a) get legal advice on some specific issues and

b) raise a bridging loan of around £475k while St Luke’s Trust sells a property.

With around £475k we will be able to bring ABASWE out of administration, prevent Bridge House from being sold and then move towards securing the whole Alder Bridge site, including the school building, in a land trust.  The exact legal form of the land trust will be up for discussion following exit from administration.

We have been told by the Administrators lawyer that the ABASWE member list can’t be used to communicate with everyone interested in saving Bridge House.  At the first ‘Saving Bridge House’ meeting held at Rose Garden Early Years Centre in Reading on the 11th September 2023 it was agreed to create an email newsletter list in addition to the Facebook page recently created.  This list will be emailed as and when.

List of documents with some commentary:

The Memorandum and Articles of Association is the legal document for the Company and its registration with the Charity Commission.  This is referred to in some of the correspondence:  1987 07 ABASWE Memorandum Articles – personal details pages removed

Before the Trustees (five at the time) put ABASWE into administration, we wrote this to the Trustees: 2022 10 30 Letter to ABA trustees 301022 re closure .  After sending this, Marcus asked to meet with the Trustees to discuss our proposal with them.  A Zoom meeting was arranged but only two of the then three trustees were present, plus two ex-trustees, plus Fran Russell, the director of the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship – Marcus did not understand why.  After this meeting the Trustees refused to engage with us further for many weeks, despite repeated requests for meetings.  We tried to find out what the financial situation was but little information was given.  We have since had confirmation that the actual projected debt, the basis on which the Trustees decided to go into administration amounted to just 10% of the value of the property at around £145k.  St Luke’s, as a registered charity with similar aims as ABASWE, could have arranged for this to be covered relatively easily at the time.  However it appears that various parties, including some of the five Trustees, were and are wanting to get hold of the assets for themselves or their own projects elsewhere.  It appears that the closure of the school was and is being conflated with giving away all the assets (Bridge House is apparently worth about £1.5m).  Only past parents are Trustees now and they are not letting go and enabling those who want to take Bridge House on be elected as Trustees.  We have a business plan that is perfectly feasible – much more feasible than when we initially bought Bridge House and fully paid it off.

ABASWE should never have been put into Administration.

At no time did the Trustees inform or involve the membership of the association of the possibility, or proposal, to go into administration.  Trustees and others, we believe, were and still are involved in asset stripping ABASWE.

Fran Russell, director of the ‘Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship’ told us that the Trustees were ‘doing the right thing’.  Fran Russell did not want a parent home-schooling initiative to happen and wanted the assets from our site for her own purposes – without telling us, or the Association members, what these purposes are.  ABASWE only own half of the school site and the loss of Bridge House will be very damaging to the whole site.  Fran Russell, in a telephone conversation, would not support a local land trust to take ownership of the whole combined site, rather she wanted a national land trust.  However she also wanted ABASWE to go into Administration so the aim was not to keep the assets in the Reading area.  She has never visited Christchurch Gardens or contacted St Luke’s Trust as owners of the newer School building at Alder Bridge.  ABASWE is an independent Charity and not a subsidiary to the ‘Fellowship’.  Fran Russell, and ex-solicitor, insists that it is the Trustees that decide what should happen to the assets but it is clear in the Memorandum and Articles that if the Association ceases activities it is the Members who decide.

After ABASWE was put into Administration by the Trustees on the 25th November 2022, we wrote the following:  2022 12 05 Letter to Gareth Roberts 051222 Final .  We have been told that Fran Russell wrote the Administrator asking for the funds remaining from the sale and after paying off the creditors.  We have not been able to see this letter – the Administrator and the Trustees are refusing to tell us the contents.  The cost of the Administration has so far added about £325k to the debts of ABASWE – completely unnecessary.

2023 02 08 Response to KRE- Marcus + Stuart 8

After a lot of lobbying, based on the Memorandum and Articles of ABASWE, the Trustees and the Administrators agreed to hold an EGM at our request:  2023 07 Alder Bridge Association for Steiner REPORT TO MEMBERS JULY 2023

KRE initially proposed that Marcus and Stuart be made Trustees at the same time SLT lent funds to ABASWE.  Our letter was included in the mailing.

2023 08 06 – SLT Letter to Members amended 2023 08 06 – 41

A second letter was sent out by KRE – with in our view many inaccuracies – most obviously saying that a funding agreement had not been reached despite this having been spelt out in the first letter to members!

2023 08 08 ALDADV – Letter to Members re BH Proposals

2023 08 23 – Letter from KRE S25C-0i23082312200

Following our initial proposal, ex-parents made another proposal which in our view is incredibly destructive; rather than let go and allow others take on Bridge House.  “At future AGMs we could look forward to hearing about the many good deeds that we have supported and the growth of our investment”.  This is not the aim of ABASWE.   This proposal has many flaws but the Administrator has leapt on this to justify him selling Bridge House – by which they will make even more money from the demise of a local charity.

2023 09 15 – Re Alder Bridge Association for Steiner Waldorf Education legacy fund proposal

Still recognising that our request for an EGM had validity, KRE’s lawyer asked us for our proposed motions.  As KRE is refusing to organise an AGM and claims that the Memorandum and Articles say that a Special motion (requiring 75% of the vote to pass) is required for the election of Trustees (even though the M&A only allows for election of Trustees at an AGM and not an EGM except under one special circumstance).  All motions at an EGM require a special resolution (75% majority).

2023 09 18 Letter to KRE from Marcus and Stuart

Bridge House is now being marketed for sale – a sign has gone up.  We wrote the Trustees saying that there is no need to sell the whole building as the value far exceeds the amount required to pay off creditors.  We chased up asking if they are using their position and influence with the Administrators in order to sell only part of the building, but none of the three of them have bothered to answer.  The plan we sent them is 2023 09 20 – Bridge House only 01

KRE responded to our letter proposing the motions.  Our motions were designed to make it clear what the members want – even though a 75% majority was not achieved and it allowed for the appointment of Trustees to replace the inactive ones in accordance with the Memorandum and articles.  However the lawyer for KRE now say that KRE have now decided not to hold an EGM after all.  That letter to us says it is confidential!  We will post a summary of that shortly.  It seems that KRE are not even informing the members of their change of mind.

Further updates will be added here as soon as we can.

In the meantime all are welcome to come to the picnic on Saturday https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551095967994

 

Stuart Brown & Marcus Webb,  5th October 2023