One year on and some Datchet Parish Councillors continue their misguided and ill-informed attempt to hijack the assets of the DRCCT. The names of the individual Datchet Parish Councillors involved in the unauthorised and clandestine April 2025 meeting in Windsor can be found on the DPC web page here. There was no DPC election in 2023 due to insufficient nominations. Consequently the majority of the Councillors attending the Windsor meeting were co-opted after August 2023 and have no experience of prior events. Below is a quote from the 15/4/2025 document:
Datchet Parish Council (DPC), in its legal capacity as the sole managing trustee of the Datchet Recreation Centre Charitable Trust (DRCCT), has taken the necessary and considered decision to dissolve the current DRCCT Committee. This action has been taken with the paramount objective of ensuring the proper governance of the charity and, crucially, to safeguard the welfare of Datchet Parish Council staff.
Today DPC is simultaneously refusing to vacate a building they do not own, have no lease for and pay no rent.
Datchet Parish Council (DPC) is about to be evicted from the building that they use as the Parish Office. It is nearly one year since the DPC Chair (Cllr David Buckley) and the Clerk commenced their dawn raid to change the locks on buildings that they do not own. They claimed to be the ‘new committee’ and demanded Hall access and that the Hall Manager hand over the hall booking takings. This poorly planned and secretive attempt to hijack the assets of the Datchet Recreation Centre Charity Trust (DRCCT) failed at the first hurdle. Sadly, a year later, DPC continues to use fabricated allegations and Parish Council funds trying to gain control of DRCCT assets that already belong to the village. Consequently DPC have now received Notice from the DRCCT to Vacate the Parish Office.
So what’s going on here?
The DRCCT owns the land and buildings between the Horton Road and the ditch. The current DRCCT Trustees were appointed by mutual agreement in April 2019. The DPC Chair (Cllr David Buckley) and the Clerk decided that they could hold an unjustified and unauthorised DRCCT (actually secret?) meeting in Windsor at very short notice (one working day), debate a fabricated report (still hidden by the Clerk) and get support to oust the established Trustees. You can view the unauthorised Agenda here DRCCT Meeting Agenda for 14.04.2025 Note the date of the Agenda being 11 April 2025. This is the Friday before the Monday meeting on the 14th. In fact the Trustees were not aware of the meeting and five of the nine DPC Councillors attending the meeting and voting had been co-opted.
- DPC has no lease or licence for the office building (No. 1)
- DPC failed to comply with the DoR* agreement
- DPC confirms that the DRCCT own the land and buildings
- DPC uses parish money to fund their failed legal claim
- DPC has refused access (to No.1) for inspection purposes
- DPC has refused access to change the locks
- DPC has now been served ‘Notice to Vacate’
- DPC is ignoring the ‘Notice to Vacate’
- DPC refuses to mediate or negotiate
- The DPC and football club have no lease
*Division of Responsibilities
And the irony –
- Datchet Parish Council is already well into an ongoing and very costly (>£30k) two-year legal claim (on its way to Court) to regain control of RBWM land leased to DPC (the Land at Mill Place).
- DPC failure to maintain LAMP fencing has enabled encroachment and fly-tipping.
- Datchet Parish Council is simultaneously refusing to vacate a building they do not own, have no lease for and pay no rent.
Talk about ‘double standards‘ – and as for the DPC legal costs – guess who pays?
The names of the individual Datchet Parish Councillors involved in the April 2025 meeting in Windsor and the way in which they voted can be found here
And the good news – the legitimate Trustees appointed in 2019 are still in control – and it’s only a year until the next election.