{"id":45,"date":"2023-10-05T13:00:07","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/?page_id=45"},"modified":"2023-10-06T08:22:28","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T07:22:28","slug":"saving-bridge-house-news-timeline-and-documents","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/saving-bridge-house-news-timeline-and-documents\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving Bridge House – news, timeline and documents"},"content":{"rendered":"

FAO Association Members of Alder Bridge Association for Steiner Waldorf Education, Friends of Alder Bridge Association<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 As we have no access to the list of members of ABASWE, we are going to communicate via these pages.<\/p>\n

We will add to this page as the situation develops.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With Alder Bridge Association for Steiner Waldorf Education (ABASWE) currently in Administration, there is an urgent need to<\/p>\n

a) get legal advice on some specific issues and<\/p>\n

b) raise a bridging loan of around \u00a3475k while St Luke’s Trust sells a property.<\/p>\n

With around \u00a3475k 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.\u00a0 The exact legal form of the land trust will be up for discussion following exit from administration.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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<\/a> in addition to the Facebook page recently created.\u00a0 This list will be emailed as and when.<\/p>\n

List of documents with some commentary:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Memorandum and Articles of Association is the legal document for the Company and its registration with the Charity Commission.\u00a0 This is referred to in some of the correspondence:\u00a0 1987 07 ABASWE Memorandum Articles – personal details pages removed<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/a> .\u00a0 After sending this, Marcus asked to meet with the Trustees to discuss our proposal with them.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 After this meeting the Trustees refused to engage with us further for many weeks, despite repeated requests for meetings.\u00a0 We tried to find out what the financial situation was but little information was given.\u00a0 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 \u00a3145k.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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 \u00a31.5m).\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We have a business plan that is perfectly feasible – much more feasible than when we initially bought Bridge House and fully paid it off.<\/p>\n

ABASWE should never have been put into Administration.<\/p>\n

At no time did the Trustees inform or involve the membership of the association of the possibility, or proposal, to go into administration.\u00a0 Trustees and others, we believe, were and still are involved in asset stripping ABASWE.<\/p>\n

Fran Russell, director of the ‘Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship’ told us that the Trustees were ‘doing the right thing’.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 ABASWE only own half of the school site and the loss of Bridge House will be very damaging to the whole site.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 However she also wanted ABASWE to go into Administration so the aim was not to keep the assets in the Reading area.\u00a0 She has never visited Christchurch Gardens or contacted St Luke’s Trust as owners of the newer School building at Alder Bridge.\u00a0 ABASWE is an independent Charity and not a subsidiary to the ‘Fellowship’.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

After ABASWE was put into Administration by the Trustees on the 25th November 2022, we wrote the following:\u00a0 2022 12 05 Letter to Gareth Roberts 051222 Final<\/a> .\u00a0 We have been told that Fran Russell wrote the Administrator asking for the funds remaining from the sale and after paying off the creditors.\u00a0 We have not been able to see this letter – the Administrator and the Trustees are refusing to tell us the contents.\u00a0 The cost of the Administration has so far added about \u00a3325k to the debts of ABASWE – completely unnecessary.<\/p>\n

2023 02 08 Response to KRE- Marcus + Stuart 8<\/a><\/p>\n

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:\u00a0\u00a02023 07 Alder Bridge Association for Steiner REPORT TO MEMBERS JULY 2023<\/a><\/p>\n

KRE initially proposed that Marcus and Stuart be made Trustees at the same time SLT lent funds to ABASWE.\u00a0 Our letter was included in the mailing.<\/p>\n

2023 08 06 – SLT Letter to Members amended 2023 08 06 – 41<\/a><\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

2023 08 08 ALDADV – Letter to Members re BH Proposals<\/a><\/p>\n

2023 08 23 – Letter from KRE S25C-0i23082312200<\/a><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 “At future AGMs we could look forward to hearing about the many good deeds that we have supported and the growth of our investment”.\u00a0 This is not the aim of ABASWE.\u00a0 \u00a0This 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.<\/p>\n

2023 09 15 – Re Alder Bridge Association for Steiner Waldorf Education legacy fund proposal<\/a><\/p>\n

Still recognising that our request for an EGM had validity, KRE’s lawyer asked us for our proposed motions.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 All motions at an EGM require a special resolution (75% majority).<\/p>\n

2023 09 18 Letter to KRE from Marcus and Stuart<\/a><\/p>\n

Bridge House is now being marketed for sale – a sign has gone up.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The plan we sent them is\u00a02023 09 20 – Bridge House only 01<\/a><\/p>\n

KRE responded to our letter proposing the motions.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 However the lawyer for KRE now say that KRE have now decided not to hold an EGM after all.\u00a0 That letter to us says it is confidential!\u00a0 We will post a summary of that shortly.\u00a0 It seems that KRE are not even informing the members of their change of mind.<\/p>\n

Further updates will be added here as soon as we can.<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

Stuart Brown & Marcus Webb,\u00a0 5th October 2023<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

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.\u00a0 We are founding members of the Reading Steiner School Project, later renamed Alder Bridge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"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-45","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151,"href":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45\/revisions\/151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlukestrust.org.uk\/SLT\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}