Charity of Tanlade meeting - Wednesday 12 November 2025, 4:30pm - Folkestone & Hythe webcasting

Charity of Tanlade meeting
Wednesday, 12th November 2025 at 4:30pm 

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  1. Webcast Finished

of the Tan Laid charity.
This meeting will be webcast live to the internet.
For those of you who do not wish to be recorded or filmed,
you will need to leave the chamber.
The members, officers and others speaking at the meeting
is important that we use the microphones
so viewers on the webcast and others in the room
may hear you.
Would anyone with a mobile phone
please switch it to silent mode as they can be distracting.

1. Apologies for absence

Welcome everyone.
So, yep, for sure.
I was just looking, just out of interest as to when the last time Tannlaid met, but there we go.
So, I'm going to do it, don't worry.
We'll do the first item, which is apologies for absence.
Do you have any apologies?
I've not received any apologies this evening.
Okay, thank you very much.
And do we have any declarations of interest?
So, Councillor McConville and Councillor Prater.
I want to declare that in another role
as head of finance committee on Fosun Town Council,
I feel that my decision with regards to
if this is taken on by Fosun Town Council

2. Declarations of interest

would be far too great to weigh in on both sides
with the two hats.
So I'm gonna withdraw from the item
and leave this completely focused with my town council hat on.
Fully understood.
Councillor Proctor.
I'm going to declare an interest as a Folkestone town councillor,
but I do not believe that that's a significant, unless I'll take advice,
but I haven't until this moment thought that was a significant enough reason to withdraw,
but if the monitoring officer thinks that I should get the hell out,
I'll get the hell out.
Okay, well we're happy with that.
Thank you very much everyone.

3. Tanlade Charity update

So moving to item three, the Tan Laid charity update, and I think that you're going to take
us through it Susan.
Thank you very much.
Thank you and evening trustees.
Welcome to my first meeting of this charity.
So to answer your question, leader,
this charity hasn't met for any time I can recall
with the council being trustees.
So I would like to take you into report tan stroke
25 stroke zero one is item three in your agenda.
So you'll see from the short report
that the Tanmay charity was formed on the 28th of March in 1674 with circus generated
from the property specifically designated for the purposes of the benefit of the fishermen
of Folkestone and you'll see the details of the charity scheme as appendix one in the
pack. So at the time that the charity was created you've got the background there which
was that it was a small building in the middle of what was then the fish market in Folkestone
and the facility came about through donation
by Dr. William Harvey to the town in his will.
So this facility over the years and through the stewardship
I think of the various councils since 1674,
has resulted, you'll see in paragraph 1 .8,
with the building having been let at a modest sum
of 1 ,400 pounds per annum.
And however, the building itself now
is waiting for significant repairs,
so it's not currently let.
And the repairs are, as I understand it, to the roof.
We have had an estimated cost of those repairs
which is detailed in paragraph 1 .2,
which is in the region of 10 ,000.
And there's a current balance in the Time -Laid Charity account as of the end of March 25
of £23 ,209 which of course is available for the ongoing maintenance and repairs before
any surpluses may well be distributed or otherwise.
However, there is no supporting documentation that we can find that shows there's been any
distribution of surplus income in the being of this council.
And colleagues felt that now it was timely
to tidy up this matter.
So section two of your report explains
that there are no restrictions
within the adopted charity schemes.
However, there are certain decisions
that the trustees need to make
before we can take forward actions
and liaise with the Charities Commission.
So you'll see in option three,
there are a couple of options that we've outlined for you,
one of which is to have discussions
with folks in town council about transferring the charity,
including all assets, i .e. building and available funds,
to them for their ongoing stewardship
and deployment against the scheme
as you've seen in appendix one.
Or option two, if that doesn't find favour,
to dispose of the building with the proceeds
then distributed as appropriate to the fishermen
of Folkestone or an appropriate
body, facility, charity, et cetera.
And then to dissolve the charity.
So those are the two options before you.
And then the remainder of the document gives you
the finance and legal comments as per normal.
So, members, the map at the back shows you the demise, so to speak, in terms of either
assets for disposal or for transfer as we've outlined.
So it would be useful to get a steer from you about how you'd like us to proceed.
Thank you.
Well, thank you very much.
and so particularly focusing on...
Well, do feel free to ask any questions,
but if you could particularly start to give us a steer
with regard to which option you would like us to pursue.
Does anyone want to kick us off?
Oh, Councillor Pro Tem.
Gertrude.
I thought the paper was really well written.
I thought it was very clear, it explained the position.
I actually didn't know that it was a William Harvey bequest
that set the thing up, so that makes it quite exciting
to be playing with it 350 years later.
And what was even odder is that in 2003, for nine months,
I lived directly in front of the building,
which is the Tanlade building itself, and I didn't know what it was.
I thought it was a bit of a garage,
and wondered why fishermen kept hanging round it.
And I now know the answers to those questions,
So thank you very much for the paper and the pictures.
It has been fascinating.
I think it's entirely appropriate that this goes to folks in town council.
I really hope that they would take it on.
It looks like it is not going to...
It shouldn't create them a financial issue
and it should allow them to, as you say, do the works to the building,
get it so that it performs a function akin to that which it was set up for.
I think that the town council is probably the organisation that would have had it all
the way through if, and probably would have done 350 years ago and at different stages
in that 350 years if they hadn't been organised out of existence and back into it.
So I think that I would, the recommendations which are in front of us are actually a piece
in themselves, because essentially two and three are if folks in town council says yes,
and if the charity commission says that's okay, then do that, but if either of those
things then don't work, then under four, find some other way of doing this. And that's entirely
reasonable, so effectively it's asking folks in town council if they'd like to take it,
if they'd like to take it, then asking the charity commission if that's okay, and that
will take a long time because writing to the charity commission always takes a long time.
And as long as those hurdles are first I hope it will go to Folkestone Town Council but
I accept that the reason for four is that if either of those two hurdles fail, I suspect
it's possible, I'd hope it doesn't, but it gives us another option to go ahead without
within another couple of years having to have another meeting of this charity which would
be arduous of time. So I'm very happy to move the proposals as whatever trusteeship
It's trustee, not council.
And that is supporting option one?
No, you've got four recommendations in the paper, and unless I'm going mad, that's all.
I am moving all four of those recommendations.
So to agree, the town council would be approached to make a request to the charity commissions,
but then if that all goes wrong, we will go with number four.
Yeah, essentially, because item two is that we ask the town council,
and if they say yes, we go to item three,
which is to see if the charity commission are happy with that,
and if the answer to that is yes, then we do it,
and if the answer to either of those two is no,
we go straight to four, which is broadly to sell the building
and put whatever cash is remaining in that bank account
and the proceeds of that building, which will not be significant,
to whichever is the appropriate charity.
I'd like to not have to pick that charity and do that route,
but I understand that you're going to have to make that arrangement for that to happen
for us to even then discuss which charity it would be.
So it's the four recommendations I've written.
I've got Stephen and then Rebecca.
I'm very happy with what you say, Tim.
I think it makes perfect sense.
I support it entirely.
Just a thought around the edges, as it were,
if we negotiate with and offer the premises and charity to folks in town council, is there
a way in which they might be able to acknowledge the heritage and the storey behind the charity
in one way or another?
It's an open question but it would be quite a nice thing to add in as a, I don't think
it's a condition, but I think it would be appropriate if we acknowledged the way in
which the charity has deep roots in the fishing community.
I'm sure that point won't be wasted on Fosun Town Council.
I know that they take their association with William Harvey very seriously.
I'm sure that we can have that at the centre of the discussions
as the officers make this approach.
Rebecca.
I was just going to be very happy to second it.
And yes, very interesting storey behind it
and very interesting to read it, thank you.
Just for completeness, is there anyone
who would support the other option,
option two, to dispose of the building
and distribute the funds?
The recommendations are there,
is that it runs through the first option
and then only moves to the second option
if votes on take -outs don't want it on the Charity Commission, don't want it.
I think that's a fall -back option and that's the way I'd see it.
But no -one wants to do that as a primary...
Yeah, terrific. I'm sure we're all agreed.
Right, okay. So we have a proposer in Trustee Prater
and a seconder in Trustee Shrew.
All those in favour, please indicate.
Thank you very much, everyone.
He's the end. If you could all keep your seats.