All you need to know
https://geoffbuyscars.uk/objections-to-and-issues-with-the-malvern-hills-bill/
The Bill
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3897
The PR
https://www.malvernhills.org.uk/latest-news/20240419-private-bill
The Consultation
https://www.malvernhills.org.uk/governance-changes/consultation
Video 1 – The Malvern Hills Private Bill is a SCANDAL in the Shires. Here’s why…
https://youtu.be/zFUgdyFepqc
Video 2 – The Malvern Mafia and the Private Bill. Time for Pitchforks?
https://youtu.be/L2B5nbTgVjQ
- MHC (Malvern Hills Conservators) cannot become a private charity because it raises tax from the public and would not survive without that money. Making MHC into a charity controlled by a small number of trustees (6 elected who then appoint 6 others) without direct local or central government accountability and oversight would leave full control of the MHC precept (currently part of the local Council Tax) effectively in the charity’s own hands. A huge conflict of interest and a system vulnerable to abuse or even corrupt exploitation of public finance.
The Bill would set a precedent that is against the fundamental democratic principle that taxation without direct accountability, to the taxpayers, is undemocratic and unacceptable. There must be local authority and central government accountability which this Bill removes. The Charity Commission is not set up to regulate taxation in the UK.
- The Bill removes 120 years of accountability to local councils/the public by cutting 28 directly elected and local authority elected trustees, down to 6 elected and 6 appointed. Even the six elected trutees do not have to come from each of the ward areas that pay the Precept. This could leave areas that pay the tax without any local elected representation or accountability for the amount raised or its use. The Bill removes all elected local council/government trustees and thus deliberately reduces public accountability to a dangerously low level. This could allow a small group of people to take over and run MHC, possibly leading to changes in development policy, land use and even the fundamental preservation of the Malvern Hills. This could therefore become a ‘Post Office’ type scandal in the future, as the potential value of the assets and easements that MHC control are potentially worth hundreds of millions of pounds, if fully exploited. A small group, less than half the present number of trustees, could make themselves, or their linked, controlling interests, vast amounts of money from misuse of the land controlled by MHC. This Bill removes layers of local and national government accountability that are in the existing legislation and protect the public from such potential corruption.
- The ‘Consultation’ carried out by MHC was not actually on the Bill at all and merely contained some of the ideas that were set to be in it. There has been no genuine public consultation on the actual Bill as it was not finished and drafted until well after the process was carried out. There is evidence proving this. Even trustees such as myself did not see the draft bill before voting on putting it forward to parliament!
- The general power in the Bill will allow a small group in charge of MHC to change the whole basis of how this publicly funded body runs itself and could lead to a situation which undermines the 120 years of protection this vital national asset has had until now. There are no genuine safeguards built into this Bill which could not be ignored by a future board of trustees that were determined to follow a particular set of policies. No one could stop them.
- There is no reform of the Precept boundaries which enshrine an unfairly distributed tax raising area that is increasingly inconsistent with local government ward boundaries and the growth of residential areas in the Malvern Hills. MHC did not tackle this issue because it would have stopped this Bill in its tracks. The lack of reform is disgraceful in the context of this Bill.
- The Bill removes constraints on MHC to keep the original objectives of those that originally set up the organisation and the generations who have managed them since. The original clauses contained within previous Acts of Parliament are replaced with ‘charitable objectives’ that could be changed if a small group managed to take over the proposed charity as detailed above.
- Virtually all representations and concerns from councils and the public have been ignored. There have been no substantive changes to the ideas put forward during the preparation of the Bill, including representations by MHDC and Malvern Town Council.
- The fact that this Bill has been prepared at all completely refutes the argument put forward by MHC that reform is needed. If MHC were as dysfunctional as they claimed… How did they manage to put forward this Bill into parliament?
- Any operational reforms required by MHC could be achieved by amending the existing Bills, with the support of local government, through a process of genuine collaboration. This has not happened. There were no meetings with local councils and no such collaboration.
- 50 petitions have been entered into parliament against this Private Bill which is the most ever for a bill of this type. The CEO and senior Board members have not acknowledged or admitted that any significant aspect of the Bill is contentious or needs to be changed. They have excluded five trustees who petitioned against the Bill from ‘Special’ (secret) Board Meetings about the Bill and claimed that these trustees are bound by confidential collective responsibility and should consider resigning! Why have they acted like that if there is nothing to hide?
- There are suspicions that one or two of the most ardent advocates of this Bill may have links with developers who would make large amounts of money if the Bill goes through.
- Most of the group of approximately 15-17 Trustees who have voted for every aspect of this Bill are either Green Party members or associated with Extinction Rebellion and other extreme environmental activism. There are reports that this group would use the general power, control the reduced number of trustees, appoint sympathetic ‘expert’ trustees in order to change the very nature/aspect of the preserved Hills. Their goal would be a carbon sink/extreme rewilding which would completely change the Malvern Hills. This would be done to cement Green Party control over the Malvern area by making use of MHC patronage, resources and rights to develop in certain areas that would be sacrificed for the greater ‘good’. This would not gain popular support and so this Private Bill route was chosen to achieve their goals.