The West Somerset Steam Railway Trust announces with regret that it is having to defer its Annual General Meeting from the proposed date of September 19th to a date later in the year. The Chairman, Chris Austin, will be writing to members in the next few days to explain the reason for this and to advise the revised date for the meeting.
The reason for the deferral is the receipt this evening of papers from Robin White proposing to appoint 14 additional directors to the Trust to force through a merger with the West Somerset Railway Association and to require early implementation of the Bailey Report. This clearly has profound implications for all parts of the railway, and particularly for the Trust’s members who previously have expressed a wish to remain as a separate charity focussing on the the museums, carriage restoration programme and educational outreach at which the Trust has been so successful in recent years. We will also need to take legal advice and that of the Charity Commission so that the Trust Board can properly advise its members of the implications of this belated proposal which would fundamentally alter the character of the Trust.
A new date for the AGM will be published a soon as possible.
