{"id":114,"date":"2023-09-17T15:56:15","date_gmt":"2023-09-17T14:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/?page_id=114"},"modified":"2023-09-17T16:15:48","modified_gmt":"2023-09-17T15:15:48","slug":"saving-bridge-house","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/home\/saving-bridge-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving Bridge House"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On 24th November 2022 ABASWE went into administration. Since that time, St.Luke\u2019s Trust (SLT) have been discussing their proposal with administrators.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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If SLT\u2019s proposal is rejected by members, Bridge House will be sold. This will have significant implications for SLT, owner of the school building, the local community, tenants in Bridge House and the ability to provide Steiner Waldorf education in the locality in the future.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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St Luke’s Trust proposal in outline:<\/strong><\/div>\n
1. St. Luke\u2019s Trust are selling a property that they own to raise funds so that a loan can be made to ABASWE, secured on Bridge House. These funds will then be used by the Administrator to pay creditors of ABASWE and allow ABASWE to exit administration.<\/div>\n
2. When ABASWE is out of administration, our proposal is that Bridge House and the Woodland will be transferred to a new charity. We will call this a Land Trust, but the exact name and most suitable structure are yet to be researched and determined.<\/div>\n
3. SLT will gift the school building to the same new charity.<\/div>\n
4. The new charity will take responsibility for the repair, maintenance, and enhancement of the whole site over time.<\/div>\n
5. All rental income and associated costs will be transferred to the new charity.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Why transfer the land and buildings into a separate charity?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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1. Security<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Our aim is to hold the land and buildings securely in a Charity that does not run the activities. The facilities are then made available to Steiner-Waldorf initiatives using the model of St Anthony\u2019s Trust in Forest Row, Sussex. St Anthony\u2019s owns Tablehurst and Plawhatch Farms and makes these available to the farm businesses. This means that if the businesses fail, for whatever reason, the land and buildings are still available for others to use and would not be lost due to debts incurred by the activities.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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2. Ability to raise capital<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The proposed outline structure of the new charity will be familiar to lenders. The key here is that the charity will not be undertaking any other activities other than owning, maintaining, and managing the land and buildings. This means that in the longer term should investment be required in, for example, new educational facilities; it would be more straightforward for the charity to raise capital.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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3. Focus<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Given the proposed objectives of the new charity can result in greater focus on all of the land and buildings on the Mill Lane site. This includes access and planning consent arrangements in support of supporting Steiner-Waldorf education. These are important and significant tasks and require focus, time and attention in their own right.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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4. Retaining charitable status<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Current Labour Party policy is to change in some way the current benefits received by private educational charities.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It\u2019s not clear yet in what form this change will happen. Charitable status may be withdrawn and\/or VAT chargeable on tuition fees. By separating the land and buildings into a new charity could help shield some or all of the impact that might arise. For example, by retaining the benefit of gift aid on donations.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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5. Defensive strategy<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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If Bridge House and the Woodland are sold; SLT could be left with a stranded asset in the school building. Access<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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arrangements and planning permissions in place are long established for the site as a whole and are best managed in that context. Bridge House owned by a third party has contingent risks of uncertainty for the remainder of the site.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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6. A new gift<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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SLT are proposing to gift the school building and its land to the new charity. This is a valuable gift. The proposal being advocated is the ONLY proposal that results in this gift.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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7. Planning for growth and successful Steiner-Waldorf education in this locality<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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SLT needs to plan for the future. Our site at Christchurch gardens is growing. Our new garden (resulting from land purchased from a neighbour, greatly increasing the size of the garden) opens in September and enables a way for further site development and increased numbers. Some of these parents and their children will wish for Steiner-Waldorf education. The Mill Lane site is the best alternative to support this future development.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A proposal has been made to the Association members of Alder Bridge Association for Steiner Waldorf Education that Bridge House be sold and a legacy fund created.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has to be pointed out that many aspects of such a proposal, according to the Memorandum and Articles of Association of ABASWE, are not constitutional and therefore cannot happen without changes to the constitution by special resolution (>75% approval).\u00a0 It is unlikely that such approval would be achieved.<\/p>\n

The Memorandum and Articles of Association are at the bottom of this page.<\/p>\n

If ABASWE ceases running activities and Bridge House is sold:<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

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  1. Assets can only be given to a registered Charity or Trust with rules on giving away assets to members that are as strict as for ABASWE [Memorandum page 5, section 7]<\/u><\/u><\/li>\n
  2. It is the members who decide where assets should be given away to.\u00a0 By special resolution \u2013 ie 75% [Memorandum page 5, section 7]<\/u><\/u><\/li>\n
  3. Trustees can\u2019t give away assets, only the members can [Memorandum page 5, section 7]<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Memorandum and Articles of Association of ABASWE are designed for running activities and not as a Trust Fund.<\/p>\n

    No financial benefit can be received by members of the association, directly or indirectly.\u00a0 Memorandum page 4, section 4.\u00a0<\/u><\/u>\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

    From this proposal:<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

    \u201cAnyone involved with Steiner-Waldorf related activities could be invited to apply for funds and the ABASWE trustees would decide annually whether to award funds\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

    This is not true as only Charities with the same or similar aims can receive funds.<\/p>\n

    \u201cBeneficiaries could include Steiner-Waldorf Schools needing to stock their library, design a play area, build a classroom, buy new classroom furniture, refresh their costume cupboard, for example. Or individuals could apply for funding to enable their child to continue attending a Steiner-Waldorf School during a period of personal hardship perhaps. A teacher could apply for funding a sabbatical. Steiner-inspired home education initiatives could be eligible to apply for funding, including any such organisation using the current school site.\u201d<\/u><\/u>\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

    Steiner-Waldorf schools who are registered charities can be beneficiaries but individuals could not be.\u00a0 Home education initiatives could not be beneficiaries unless they were registered Charities.<\/p>\n

    Contrary to what the proposal suggests, Bridge House is perfectly viable and the debt would be perfectly manageable with good management.\u00a0 Bridge House has been providing free accommodation to the school, including all utilities, for the past 20+years.\u00a0 Rooms provided free included Early Years (Kindergarten and Parent and Child) rooms, a number of offices, workshop, special needs room and classrooms.<\/p>\n

    It would be much better, and of permanent value, to keep Bridge House for the benefit of all in perpetuity.\u00a0 This is expanded on elsewhere.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

    What can you do to help?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Come to our picnic or contact us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    On 24th November 2022 ABASWE went into administration. Since that time, St.Luke\u2019s Trust (SLT) have been discussing their proposal with administrators. If SLT\u2019s proposal is rejected by members, Bridge House will be sold. This will have significant implications for SLT, owner of the school building, the local community, tenants in Bridge House and the ability […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":6,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-114","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118,"href":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/114\/revisions\/118"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}