News

Dartford charity tribunal appeal partly succeeds but can't stop development

Governance | Tania Mason | 17 Nov 2009

Two local Dartford residents who appealed to the charity tribunal against a Charity Commission decision to rubber-stamp an earlier sale of charity land to property developers, have been partially successful.

But they cannot stop the developers building on the land if they get planning permission to do so. 

The land, a section of the Kidd Legacy plot, which is an integral part of Central Park in Dartford (pictured), was sold to a developer by Dartford Borough Council in 2004, in the wake of erroneous legal advice about the land’s jurisdiction. The Council is the charity’s sole trustee.

Four years later the Charity Commission retrospectively authorised the sale and made the Council pay the charity compensation.  It also allowed the charity to buy replacement land and ordered governance changes to the charity.

The appellants were not satisfied with this.  They felt that the terms of Charles Newman Kidd's 1903 legacy, that the land should be used “in perpetuity as a public recreation ground and for no other purpose whatsoever”, rendered the sale illegal. The developers are proposing a major development that will include high-rise flats and a Tesco superstore.

The tribunal had already told the appellants earlier this year that it had no power to reverse the sale of the land, as the parties to the sale had acted in good faith at the time.  But after hearing from the appellents in person – the first time it has done so – and visiting the land to let them explain why they were so concerned about the development, the tribunal upheld parts of the appeal.

In its final decision, it has ordered the Commission to reinstate the charity’s original objects and appoint enough independent trustees to the charity’s board that it can make decisions if the Council-appointed trustees cannot vote because of conflicts of interest.

The tribunal is also consulting with the appellants and the Council as to whether it would be better to force the Commission to make a whole new scheme to effect these orders, or to simply amend the old one.

The land in question must also now be registered with the Land Registry, “so that local people can be reassured that this historic charity could not be overlooked again in the plans for the development of the town centre,” said the tribunal in a statement.

Tweet

Directory: Charity Commission | The Charity Tribunal