DCH 35 Peter Wiffen
12 Claxton Avenue
Mowden Park
Darlington
Mr Alan Milburn MP
House of Commons
London
SWi lAA
Dear Mr Milburn,
Re:- Sports Clubs and Charity Status
I wrote to you on this subject some
4 years ago when I was the Chairman of the Darlington Railway
Athletic Sports Club in Brinkburn Road. The Club has a mixture
of sports, including football, cricket, a bowling green and a
smallbore rifle range. You may recall that the origins of the
club were as a recreational facility for railway men in the town.
After a considerable battle with the Railways Property Board an
agreement was reached to support the development of housing on
about 6 acres and the remaining 12 acres were transferred to the
members in trust and that the profits of any disposal within 25
years would pass back to the Railways property board.
Following an announcement by the Chancellor
that Sports Clubs would be allowed to seek Charity status The
RA Club decided that the best way to secure the ground for future
generations was to make application to register as a Charity.
As chairman I undertook to set this in motion and on behalf of
the club I prepared the application form and a large number of
supporting documents. For anyone to suggest that this would be
a simple matter is talking nonsense, the initial reply from the
charities board raised more fences to get over than in the Grand
National.
The most serious obstacles were quite
definitely the existence of a members bar and also having a rifle
range. It might have been easy to close down the range but some
of these members have 30 or more years service and have shot for
Great Britain and brought distinction to the club. The sport is
an accepted Olympic competition.
The problems with the existence of
a bar are that this appears incompatible with charity status notwithstanding
that were it not
for the reinvestment of the bar profits in the ground it would
be impossible to continue. Charity law as it stands makes an assumption
that a bar is for every one to get drunk then go and play a bit
of sport. Clearly a sports club bar is for people to meet and
socialise after games and to be a meeting place for those former
sports men and women and to pass on their experience.
The bottom line for the RA was that
we decided to seek professional advice. We asked Wrigley's of
Leeds to take on our case they are "Charity Specialists".
This has so far cost the club £3000-GO which we could ill
afford although it has also been money well spent. The announcement
of the review of charity law and the introduction of improvements
in Community Amateur Sports Club status to almost match that available
as a charity has decided the club to put the Charity application
on hold and register as a Community Amateur Sports Club instead
this particularly improves the position of our bar and rifle range.
I hope that you have taken the trouble
to read this far and that as Chairman of the Charities review
committee you will help to create a definition of Charity law
which will make it easier for sports clubs to protect their grounds
for future generations. Perhaps at the same time ensure that Eton
College and Harrow etc. really have some proper charitable p se
since the position currently is a total nonsense.
If the RA club experience can offer
you any more insight into the problems of sports clubs and Charity
Status please feel welcome to contact either myself or the current
Chairman Mike Parkinson do the club.
Yours truly.
Peter Wiffen Ex chair RA club
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