Fudgestock - A Letter to Fudgy.

The letter below was sent to "The Fudgestock Trustees" by recorded delivery post on 30th July requesting a response by yesterday. No response whatsoever has been received.

For the background to this story, if you are not already familiar with it, please see my blogpost "Another Sandwell Labour Liar? - Tony "Fudgy" Meehan" dated 22nd July, 2014. Before I set out the letter there are just a couple of small points to make:

1. As yet,  Labour's "Fudgy" has not amended his legal Declaration in Sandwell Council's Register of Interests and so we must assume that he is NOT the same person as Anthony William Meehan, the legal owner of 8 Vicarage Road;

2. Turning to the charity side of things I should mention that last year, 2013, a member of The Skidder team e-mailed New Cross Hospital three times requesting confirmation of the total amounts received via Fudgestock/Judgestock. Whilst acknowledgements were received,  there was no substantive reply. This may, of course, just be down to administrative incompetence;

3. The "Friends" - who, may I say again, have done a considerable amount of fund-raising work for which they deserve credit - claimed a couple of years ago to have donated £110,000 to charity over 16 years. Unfortunately, we have no way of verifying this and, assuming the figure is accurate, we have no accounts to show what percentage that figure is of the total monies they raised and, if it was less than 100% of the take, what happened to the balance. It is clearly in the public interest that "fundraisers" should be accountable which is why there are detailed rules surrounding those claiming charitable status. Furthermore, the threshold annual income above which a charity must REGISTER with the Charity Commission is £5,000. By their own statements, The "Friends" have taken above that from the public ie £110,000 divided by 16 years = £6,875 per annum.

(I do not wish to discourage well-meaning folk from charitable fundraising. There is plenty of online information for those wishing to set up charities eg via The Charity Commission's own website. I expect the good folk at SCVO (Sandwell Council of Voluntary Organisations) can probably also help with advice and even some lawyers are prepared to do pro bono (unpaid) work for small charities. Fudgestock support Macmillan and I know from personal experience that they are extremely helpful to folk wishing to assist their fundraising activities).

Anyway, I still await a response to the following letter:

The Fudgestock Trustees                                                         Birmingham
c/o Tony Meehan                                                                     30/07/14
8 Vicarage Road
Wednesbury
WS10 9BA

Dear Sirs,

FRIENDS OF FUDGESTOCK CHARITABLE TRUST

I am enquiring about the status of the above trust. Please state:

1.   The date upon which the Trust was formed and whether this was formalised by deed;

2.   The full names and addresses of all present Trustees plus any that have retired since 01/04/10;

3.   The name and branch of the Trust’s bankers.

Please also let me have copies of all the annual accounts since the formation of the Trust. These can be sent via e-mail to thesandwellskidder@gmail.com to save copying charges. If this is not possible I will meet photocopying and postage charges up to £10.

Please reply by 9th August.

Yours faithfully,


JULIAN SAUNDERS

PS On an unrelated  matter can you please confirm whether “Tony” Meehan’s full name is Anthony William Meehan?

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