Westminster Chapel and Manse Trust, London: Charity Commission decision
Published 15 November 2013
Applies to England and Wales
© Crown copyright 2013
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/westminster-chapel-and-manse-trust-london/westminster-chapel-and-manse-trust-london-charity-commission-decision
The Commission published a draft cy-près Scheme, which it proposed to make to merge the two charities together, change their historic trusts and appoint a new corporate trustee. It received representations against the Scheme being made within the scheme publication period. The review was conducted by a Senior Officer in the Commission’s Operations Unit (Taunton) who, after considering the representations, decided that the Scheme should be made, but with modification.
The Commission cannot determine doctrinal matters - which would be necessary in deciding whether or not the current congregation adhered to the original trusts. The Reviewer therefore considered that the circumstances necessary to make a cy-près application of property (set out in the Charities Act 2011) had not been proven. However, he considered it was expedient in the interests of the charities to replace the individual trustees with a corporate trustee (a charitable company set up for the purpose). The Scheme was therefore substantially revised to provide only for the appointment of the trustee together with making the necessary consequential amendments to the original trusts.