Westway
Development Trust: (2/6) "London
property developer in nightclub
swindle"
This research document will
make little sense if you haven't read
Brian Deer's Notting
Hell from The Sunday
Times of June 17 2001. In July 2002 the
trust renamed itself Westway Development
Trust. A Westway
Development Trust index of materials is
also available
<<<go
to the start<<<
(C)
THE TRUST RECEIVED NO DECLARED INCOME FOR
CHARITABLE USE FROM THE PREMISES BEYOND
ITS COSTS
The
transfer of the premises was to Mr Power,
an Irish citizen, personally - rather
than to any company - for what Roger
Matland describes in a letter to The
Sunday Times as "a neutral financial
effect on the Trust" [S9]. He
says:
"The
fee payable was structured to cover loan
repayments for moneys previously borrowed
from the local authority".
Mr
Power agreed in the interview with Brian
Deer that the trust had, in effect, given
him the premises for "nothing".
There
is no clause in the 1988 lease, entry in
trust accounts, or any evidence in
correspondence with the local authority,
The Sunday Times, or verbally, that there
was any other financial gain to the
charity from the night-club's operations.
There was no profit-sharing arrangement,
declared donations, or any other income
of any kind whatsoever being raised for
the trust or other charities from
Subterania's commercial activities.
(D)
MEANWHILE, CHARITY MONEY IS FUNNELLED
INTO MR POWER'S BUSINESS
In
fact, the balance of the financial flow
between Mr Power and the trust was in the
direction of charity funds augmenting the
night-club's apparently considerable
profits. For reasons which have not been
adequately explained, the trust
established an arrangement under which it
incited and then paid subsidies to other
charities in the area to use Subterania
during times when Mr Power's premises
might otherwise be empty and thus not
making him any money. No such subsidy is
paid to charities who may wish to use
other - possibly more appropriate - local
venues, creating a perverse incentive for
local charitable funds to be funnelled
into the night-club when, say, a pub
across the street may be cheaper and more
satisfactory. In a recorded interview
with Brian Deer on 18th October 2000, the
trust's chair, Judge Gerald Gordon,
confirmed that he knew of this
arrangement, but offered no justification
for it.
In a
letter from the trust to the local
authority's director of environmental
health dated 4th March 1999 [S10],
Matland says:
"We
do have in place the arrangement with the
Mean Fiddler to have use of Subterania
for community use. When the venue is
hired out to third parties the charge is
in the order of £500-650 plus VAT. The
Trust's arrangement is that we pay them a
flat fee of £150 (to cover sound
technicians and doormen) and sometimes we
ask the community group to pay up to 50%
of that sum or nothing depending on the
resources of the group. So, at worst, a
local group would pay £75 whereas
without the Trust's arrangement the costs
to such groups would be prohibitive.
"It
is the Trust which makes all the
arrangements with the Mean Fiddler and
the community groups refer to us. We
promote the opportunity to all local
groups in leaflet form."
A
specimen invoice [S11] from Mean
Fiddler to the trust for the month of
August 1998, shows a payment due for
£1,351,25 relating to 7 unspecified
bookings believed to be the film festival
referred to above.
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