Sark trustees cleared of having ‘pub’ in hall
Thursday 29th January 2009, 2:29PM GMT.
THE Barclay brothers and their charitable foundation have lost their legal action against the trustees of Sark School and Hall.
The ruling given yesterday by Lt-Seneschal Patrick Talbot QC clears the trustees of any misrepresentation.
The Barclays had applied for either an injunction to stop a public house being run at the premises or for the return of two £100,000 donations they had made to the project.
One of the main points of their argument was that their charitable foundation did not donate money to causes where a commercial interest was involved.
Had they known that the premises were to have a public licence they would not have given the money, it had been argued.
In giving his judgment, Mr Talbot said that no evidence was presented during the case to indicate that the Barclays had made this fact known to the trustees.
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So – the Barclay brothers lost their case. Good. The Island Hall is the hub of the community and performs a crucial role in the life of the island. ‘Community’ isn’t something the Barclays do terribly well – as recent history shows – so I guess it’s only a matter of time before they throw their toys out of the pram. Again.
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Congratulations! A great result for Sark. The island hall is the Sark community centre. It should be the peoples hall. Built by the people and run for the people. Long may it prosper.
The Barclay challenge was a sideshow; a convenient diversion.
If the hall is to prosper for the benefit of all, Sark taxpayers deserve honesty from the hall trustees and transparency from the management team.
It is an insult to the Sark taxpayer that ANYONE should be allowed to operate the catering and bar concession and pay NO RENT. Furthermore the Sark taxpayer also has to pay for the upkeep of the hall! It is plain crazy.
Simple sums. The catering / bar concession must turnover circa £500k per annum?
Where does this money go? Cost of materials, OK. Operating costs, OK. Cleaning costs, how much? Wages, how much? Profit, how much?
The island hall is a gravy train. It blatantly laughs in the face of the Sark taxpayer and all the way to the bank.
How many more people can dip into this bottomless honeypot at the expense of the Sark taxpayer?
The perpetrators must be accountable. They must come out from behind the convenient mantle of the Sark committee system. They cannot continue to court the support of the island officers. They must declare their true percuniary interests. No smoke. No mirrors.
Under the terms of the new democracy Sark taxpayers deserve more honesty, integrity and open-ness.
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What a wonderful place to live. NO RENT to be paid on a Community Hall – what about the two pubs on the Island. I bet they have to pay rent so there is some very unfair “competition” here.
Democracy has supposedly come to Sark but surely the taxpayers deserve a better deal and far more honesty from those in charge of the Hall. What do they do with the profits? Pay it back to the community. I bet they do!
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They should start to pay there own rent and electric :)
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its good too see Sark holding their respect, after all that is what life is about respecting others not messing them about, (the meek will inherite the earth)
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