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If so, what process do you follow.? Our Parish Council is responsible for appointing trustees of the local charity lands, who can be but need not be, councillors. For the last 20 years or so no proper process has been in place to do this. Our electors are not happy  that trustees are appointed without them having the opportunity to put their names forward. Are there any councillors out there who could relate their own procedures in this?
by (3.9k points)

1 Answer

+1 vote
It doesn't altogether answer your question, but in setting up a new non-profit (potentially charitable) organisation, we're looking at making the council a director.  This assumes that the organisation is a company limited by guarantee.  A corporate body can be a director of a company.  I don't know whether a similar approach can be applied to a non incorporated trust.  The advantage of this approach is that the council obviously has to be represented by a councillor in practice, but the councillor is never appointed a trustee as such.  Thus, if the person ceases to be a councillor, they automatically lose the right to act on behalf of the council.  The council remains a trustee and has the right to nominate a new representative.  The aim is to avoid the common situations where either an individual remains a trustee and the council forgets to exercise its right to appoint a new trustee, or the trust falls into a state where the trustees are dead or incapable of acting.
by (33.0k points)
Councillors who are appointed Trustee's will always have a conflict of interest. I would not bother. Speak to your Local Standards Board.
Are you quite sure of that?  Can you say why?
Excellent answer counterpoint! However the particular charity I was referring to is not incorporated and I dont know either if the Council itself could appointed as a trustee itself.

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