DCH 124 Bedford Borough Council
BEDFORD
BOROUGH COUNCIL
Francine Graham
Clerk
Joint Committee on the Draft Charities
Bill
Scrutiny Unit
Room G10
7 Millbank SW1P 35A
Dear Francine Graham
The Harpur Trust in Bedford
provides private fee-charging schools in the town. These schools,
which cater only for some of the most privileged children in our
community, excluding the rest by means of fees and/or entry requirements,
do not serve the public interest in any realistic sense, and therefore
should not qualify for charitable status under the proposed revision
of Charity law. The bursaries they claim as a public service for
"poor" children are restricted to a small number of
children who meet their entry requirements. They are not available
to the general public.
The money that they do
distribute for genuine public beneficence comes from the endowment
of their founder, Sir William Harpur, who set this up for the
education of poor children, not just the most privileged. Only
3/liths of this is used for almshouses and other truly charitable
objects and this represents a minute proportion of the £35
million devoted to the needs of their schools. The money garnered
from fees is used to provide a luxury education, with a per capita
spend at least 3x that of local community schools and a pupil
teacher ratio which provides over 40 more teachers for every 1000
pupils. We feel strongly that charitable status should be based
on the main functions of an organisation, not on minor, peripheral
activities it chooses
to undertake; otherwise football clubs and many businesses would
have it.
The way in
which these schools
are run is far from being in the public interest; indeed it is
arguable the opposite is true. Their operation of a selective
system deprives the community's schools of a significant number
only of the most able children and thus restricts the ability
of those schools
to serve most effectively the interests of all the children in
their care.
Please convey my feelings
to your Joint Committee.
Yours sincerely,
Labour Group Leader
Please reply to: Members' Room,
Town Hall, St Paul's Square,
Bedford MK4O 1 SJ
Telephone (01234) 221791 Fax
(01234) 221606 DX 5600 Bedford
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