Statement Provided to Staveley with Ings Parish Council - SVA Constitution

Thank you for inviting me to address Councillors regarding the updating of the SVA constitution. I am aware of Cllr Deb Michel’s views. Ruth Walton (Secretary) and I have invited Deb (and anyone else who wishes) to attend one of the regular SVA community meetings that are advertised on the SVA website to raise any concerns with the trustees.

Cllr Michel and I have been colleagues for two years, initially working together in the Community Planning Group, later as members of the Abbey Development Group and for the last 12 months as fellow trustees of Staveley Community Trust. I have the highest regard for Deb’s work ethic, intellect and her commitment to our community. 

Deb and I often see the world through different lenses, which can be a real strength, particularly as trustees, where we need to ensure rigour in our decision-making, compliance and strategic focus.

We all share the common goal of improving our village community and facilities. The SVA is a century old charity that needs its trustees to have a wide range of experience, be resilient, resourceful and fully committed to addressing the huge backlog of maintenance required across its £3m of facility assets and to ensuring the highest standards of compliance with the wide range of modern regulations. There is a lot of work to do!

In 2018 and 2019, the SVA suffered from a chronic shortage of trustees with just Clive Johnson, Julie Johnson and treasurer Alan Webster being active. In 2020 Alan Webster announced his intention to relocate and the SVA faced a crisis of governance, made much worse by the Covid pandemic.

I was approached by Clive in early 2021 to see if I would support him and Julie in transforming the SVA. We met and discussed the scale of the challenges facing the SVA. I agreed to join as a trustee, conditional on Clive and Julie agreeing to a fundamental modernisation of the SVA including the very highest standards of governance (given my wider responsibilities) and an ambitious commitment to tackling the huge backlog of property maintenance. I was appointed as a trustee and Deputy Chair in July 2021. We now have seven trustees and are seeking to appoint two more.

Alongside the urgent need to renew the playground, respond to the challenges of Covid and build a stronger Trustee body, we had to ensure compliance with Charity law. This required us to restart the modernisation of the 1968 constitution and merger of the two SVA charities that had been started by Jonathan Parkinson, a previous SVA Secretary but abandoned due to the work and cost involved.

The trustees agreed to delegate Ruth Walton (Secretary) and Robert Perkins (Deputy Chair) to progress the task. Robert had 30+ years of experience as a trustee and director of non profit organisations and Ruth has excellent administrative credentials.

The SVA appointed John Cooke, a director of Thomson, Hayton, Winkley to advise on the change of constitution, merger of the two charities and transfer of property ownership from the legacy “holding” trustees.

Robert, Ruth & John have progressed this work since September 2021, with regular updates to trustees and committee members as minuted and authorised by signed resolutions. The proposed and final versions of the new constitutions have been approved by both the trustees and committee members and published on the website since the beginning of the process.

A lengthy consultation with the Charities Commission through John Cooke resulted in us adopting the recommended Charitable Incorporation Organisation type and the Foundation model template. The Charity Commission have stressed the need for trustees to ensure they remain focussed on the remit and goals of the charity.

The SVA has taken advice from both the Charities Commission and its legal advisors throughout the process. The trustees and committee members have signed resolutions approving the changes on two occasions.  No objections have been made on this updating of the constitution apart from Deb Michel, who has not yet attended any SVA meeting.

I hope this reassures Councillors.

 Robert Perkins

Deputy Chair, Staveley Village Association.