The Charity Commission has said it has no further role in an ongoing debate over the sale of a rural estate in Cornwall.
Trustees of the Gerald Curgenven Will Trust had decided to sell the Trevalga estate, and local residents had raised concerns about the validity of the sale.
The charity distributes money to private school Marlborough College, according to the Commission website.
Tracy Howarth, assistant director of casework at the Commission, noted this has been “a period of great uncertainty and anxiety for the residents of Trevalga” and added this outcome “will come as a further disappointment for those impacted”.
Nonetheless, she said: “Having thoroughly assessed the matter, we have concluded this is not a matter in which the Commission can intervene. In this instance, we are satisfied that the trustees’ decision-making and the process followed have complied with the law and our guidance. It is therefore right that we have concluded our case.”
The 1,199 acre estate is on the market at a guide price of almost £16m, through estate agent Savills. It was previously for sale in 2010 for £10m, before the sale was suspended due to potential illegality.
Trevalga was originally left in a will to Marlborough College in Wiltshire by former pupil Gerald Curgenven when he died in 1959.
The Gerald Curgenven Will Trust put the estate up for sale on the basis that it is no longer financially viable.
John Wakeham, trustee at Gerald Curgenven Will Trust, previously said the only money available to the trustees is rental income, and Marlborough College as a registered charity itself “requires its correct share of that income”.
He added: “Any improvements, or modernisation, of the properties cannot come from rental income and must come from borrowing or liquidating an asset, namely selling part of the estate. By selling individual properties we would begin the break-up of the estate, damaging value in this rare and integrated coastal mix of unspoilt property.”
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