Breakdown in relations between trustees
OSCR has demanded that a Glasgow charity elect an entire new board after a spat between trustees.
Cycling and activity community group Free Wheel North had come to the regulator’s attention last August and subsequently opened an inquiry.
A previous inquiry was opened by the regulator in 2022 following governance concerns and concluded in 2023.
At that time the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator acknowledged the board was clear on the changes and improvements that needed to be made to the governance of the charity.
Now the watchdog says: “OSCR has continually set out its expectation that the charity trustees call and hold an annual general meeting, following the rules in the charity’s governing document to ensure the proper election of charity trustees.
“Due to the severe breakdown in the relationship between the charity trustees this has failed to happen.”
OSCR has told Free Wheel North to hold an extraordinary general meeting to allow its members to properly elect a new board to ensure valid appointments are made that cannot be challenged and will allow the charity to move forward.
It added: “Following the appointment of new charity trustees, OSCR will meet with the board, as a collective, to set out their legal duties as charity trustees.”
The charity courted controversy in 2022 when four staff claimed they were made redundant in the middle of their shift, triggering the first investigation by the watchdog into bullying and mismanagement allegations.
Free Wheel North has been approached for comment. This story will be updated should a response be forthcoming.
As someone who was close to the Save Our Cycling Centre Campaign ( https://www.facebook.com/SaveOurCyclingCentre ) run by the sacked workers I would like to clarify some issues highlighted in the article.
Also the original inquiry report by OSCR is available here. https://www.oscr.org.uk/media/2kuhljew/inquiry-report-free-wheel-north-15-june-2023.pdf
1. The original investigation into Free Wheel North in 2022 was not triggered by the sacking of the workers. Free Wheel North was already under investigation by that time (September 2022) and had been since at least March 2022. 2. In the Summer of 2023 the 4 sacked workers won their claim for Unfair Dismissal against Free Wheel North at the Employment Tribunal in Glasgow. 3. The original complaints to OSCR were made due to mismanagement of the charity and corrupt practices regarding the formation of the board. That is to say that correct and legal methods were not followed. There was no mention of bullying.
The current situation that Free Wheel North finds itself in is entirely down to the ineptitude and inaction of OSCR following the 2022/23 inquiry. OSCR enabled this situation by, allegedly, not contacting any of the complainants and by implication taking the side of the charity. In their report the complainants are described as 'dissenters' which is a highly pejorative term anyway but in this context clearly highlights that OSCR held the complainants in complete contempt. Hence why NONE of the +120 complainants were ever contacted. In essence OSCR's 'investigation' was a whitewash and a biased and incompetent one at that. The current situation with Free Wheel North has become an impasse between opposing groups both of whom claim to be the 'legal board'. With this information OSCR belive that it has been clever knowing that an EGM is impossible while this situation exists. And that in order to sort the situation out that the opposing groups will probably have to go to court. This would be very expensive and could take years. OSCR knows this and have kicked the issue into the long grass until such times that OSCR decides to unilaterally dissolve the charity some time in the future. This will let the Trustees of Free Wheel North, whoever they are, off the hook and most of all lets OSCR and its highly paid, ineffectual and incompetent officers off the hook too. OSCR should be investigated and it's operations suspended until an inquiry into them has concluded.