1 THE ISSUE

1.1 Since the Recreation Ground was declared a Charitable Trust, and registered as such following the ruling by the High Court, it has been the duty of the Council (acting as required by law through the full Executive) to carry out the functions and duties of the Trust.

1.2 As all but day to day management of the Trust has been temporarily transferred to a receiver and manager, appointed by the Charity Commission, no management actions have been necessary. However, it is now timely for the Executive to be in a position to resume full management of the affairs of the Trust, and as such are requested to consider whether they wish to corporately manage the affairs of the Trust, or whether they wish to delegate this task to a Sub-Committee of the full Executive.

2 RECOMMENDATION

The Council Executive is asked to agree that:

2.1 A Committee of the Council Executive comprising such number of Executive councillors as are determined by the Executive (to be known as a Trust Board) be established to deal with ongoing management issues on behalf of the Trustees.

3 4 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

4.1 None. The Trust will need to fund all costs associated with its management.

5 THE REPORT

5.1 On 31^st July 2002, the High Court declared that the Recreation Ground was a charitable trust. The trust was created by the conveyance of 1^st February1956, which conveyed the land to the Council, which in effect means that there has been a charitable trust of the Recreation Ground since 1956.

5.2 The Attorney General acts in charity cases on behalf of the Crown, and represents the interests of the charity. Day-to-day regulation of charities is provided by the Charity Commission.

5.3 The primary responsibility for ensuring that the charitable trust is fulfilled lies with the trustee - the Council as a corporate entity. Under the Council's management arrangements, the Council Executive acts on behalf of the trustees.

5.4 On 26^th June 2003, the Charity Commissioners appointed a Receiver/Manager in respect of the property and affairs of the Charity to deal with several issues, mainly the validity of leases and the issue of the Leisure Centre.

5.5 The Council Executive, as manager of the trust, has several ongoing matters to deal with, in particular, the receipt and approval of the annual accounts of the trust, and members may wish to appoint a Committee of the Executive to act as a trust board to deal with such issues.

6 RISK MANAGEMENT

A risk assessment related to the issue and recommendations has been undertaken, in compliance with the Council's decision making risk management guidance. No specific risks arise from the establishment of a sub group to deal with the affairs of the Trust, so long as proper advisory, information and reporting arrangements are put in place.

6 MATTERS FOR THE BOARD

6.1 The board must ensure that the income and property of the charity are used for the purposes of the charity and for no other purpose. They must also ensure that the objectives of the charity are pursued, not the objectives of the Council or the wider interests of the inhabitants of Bath and North East Somerset. The board will need to check that the charity's legal obligations in this respect and with regard to submitting accounts to the Charity Commission are met, and may need to consider a policy on reserves. Policy guidelines on use of the land, within the terms of the charity, will need to be evolved. In addition, the trust will need to consider its wider vision for the Trust, and operational matters such as its charging and lettings policy.

7. RATIONALE

7.1 To delegate day-to-day management decisions to a Committee of the Executive acting as trust board to make more efficient use of the full Executive's time resource, and to improve the speed of decision making for the Trust. .

8 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

8.1 Leaving matters in the hands of the full Executive.

8.2 Delegating some matters to an officer in consultation with certain members.

9. CONSULTATION

9.1 None.