UNDER CONSTRUCTION
I can report that after nine months the attempted hijack of DRCCT charity assets has clearly failed. As DRCCT Chair I am now preparing my report for insertion into the DRCCT Annual Report & Accounts 2025/26. This year will make very interesting reading and record the failed attempt by some Datchet Parish Councillors to hijack the assets of the charity.
At a meeting in Windsor in April 2025, a cabal consisting primarily of co-opted (i.e. unelected) Parish Councillors, organised and guided by the Chair and supported by a Clerk, decided to oust the existing Trustees and take control of the DRCCT. These Datchet Parish Councillors are named below.
These are the Councillors that voted in April 2025 for this action – Chairman David Buckley, Darren Sanders, Caroline Wise, Andrew Clemins, Cllr Glover [resigned December 2025], Cllr Young, Cllr Bacon, Cllr Loveridge and Cllr Whelan.
An early morning raid the next day (under false pretences) gained access to the Village Hall – and a locksmith was instructed to change the locks.
The Clerk accessed the Charity Commission web site in order to change the Trustees, contact and address details.
The Clerk (who cannot even get the title correct) wrote the following letter to the Trustees
DRCCT- Letter to outgoing committee 15.05.2025
A public statement was issued as follows: DPC & DRRCT Statement 15.04.25
From the document: This new committee will operate under the understanding that the Datchet Parish Council is the sole trustee and will maintain the independence and status of the DRCCT as a charity serving the community of Datchet.
Now I was first elected to Datchet Parish Council in 1986 and I look forward to seeing the evidence that Datchet Parish Council is the sole trustee.
From the document: Consequently, the Council has had to dissolve the current DRCCT Committee.
To be precise – and as has been demonstrated – DPC has no power to dissolve the current DRCCT Committee.
From the document:
Background
The Datchet Recreation Centre Charitable Trust was established in 1967 and it purchased the land known as the Sabatini Land with the aim of promoting the social, moral, and physical wellbeing of the people resident in the village of Datchet and the surrounding district. The Sabatini Land is legally owned by the DRCCT, and whatever is on the land belongs to the charity, including the Village Hall complex (from DPC & DRRCT Statement 15.04.25)
The above statement was then passed to the local Press and then published here
The last sentence of the newspaper article states correctly as follows: The Sabatini Land is legally owned by the DRCCT, and whatever is on the land belongs to the charity, including the village hall complex.
In November 2025 – and in the hope of making some progress I offered the following draft document for consideration
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING draft v3
The position today is that these Councillors have failed in their attempt to hijack the assets of the local charity (DRCCT) and now any debate on the subject is being deliberately suppressed. My question is – will anybody be held accountable for this debacle?
In conclusion – the position is actually crystal clear.
- Datchet Parish Council derives its income from the DPC assets and the precept (i.e. a portion of the Council Tax)
- The DRCCT derives its income from DRCCT assets.
- DPC does not own DRCCT assets
- Ownership of the assets requires clarification but it is already agreed that the Sabatini Land is legally owned by the DRCCT, and whatever is on the land belongs to the charity, including the Village Hall complex (from DPC & DRRCT Statement 15.04.25)
- The governance rules for DPC and the DRCCT are different.
- Datchet Parish Council has no evidence to support the claim that they are the sole DRCCT Trustees.
- The DRCCT Trustees are two Datchet Parish Councillors as shown on the Charity Commission web site. These two Trustees were properly appointed in April 2019. DRCCT Annual Reports and Accounts are submitted annually and can be found on the Charity Commission web site.
- Datchet Parish Council cannot continue to use DRCCT assets without a lease (or alternative) agreement.
- Datchet Parish Council has no right to offer DRCCT assets to a private organisation (and without a lease).