Decision details

To approve the 2013/14 annual report for the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment Museum Trust for submission to the Charity Commission.

That the 2013/14 annual report for the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment Museum Trust, attached as Appendix A to the report of the Head of Economic and Commercial Development, be approved for submission to the Charity Commission.

On 12 March 2007 the Charity Commission, in consultation with Maidstone Borough Council, created a new Scheme which appointed the Council as sole trustee of the Regimental Museum Charity.  Ownership of the Trust’s assets passed to the Council which now has responsibility for managing, curating and insuring the collection.

The old Regimental Trust has become an un-registered charity known as a Combined Fund.  The Council has a Duty of Consultation to report once a year on matters relating to the management of the collection to a nominated representative of the Combined Fund (the Secretary of the Queen’s Own Buffs Association, based at the PWRR barracks in Canterbury).  The Council must produce an annual report and accounts for the Charity Commission.

Any alternative course of action would not meet the requirements of the Charity Commission.  This could undermine public confidence in the ability of the Council to manage the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment Museum Trust.