Purpose

West Sussex County Council
(WSCC) is the sole Corporate Trustee of the St John’s
Institute Charity (charity number 305190).   This charity owns the freehold estate of
Park Centre, Park Road, Burgess Hill, West Sussex, RH15
8EU.  The land is registered at the Land
Registry under two title numbers (Title WSX350108 and WSX341568)
together referred to as the “Designated Land” as set
out in the plan in Appendix A. The charity has a linked charity
called the St John’s Institute Cottage (charity number
305190-1) which has been dormant and has no assets. 
 
The Park Centre was
declared
surplus to operational requirements
(decision reference CAB 02 21/22) and identified as
a suitable asset for a Community Asset Transfer. As per Key
Decision FP03 (23-24) the
Park Centre Burgess Hill Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), was selected as the
preferred organisation to take over the building and new Objects
for the charity were proposed, subject to Charity Commission
approval.
 
The Charity Commission has now
approved the new Objects for the St Johns Institute Charity and
proposed a mechanism to transfer the Park Centre to the Park
Centre, Burgess Hill CIO.
 
The County Council, acting as
Trustee, is now required to take a resolution under section 280A of
the Charities Act 2022 to amend the Objects to the St John’s
Institute Charity and send these to the Charities
Commission.  
 
The Park Centre itself must be
used for the purposes set out within the Charity’s governing
documents and is therefore ‘designated land’. There are
special rules relating to the transfer of designated land to
another charity. Once the Objects are changed the County Council,
acting as Trustee, intends to execute a pre-merger vesting
declaration which will appoint the CIO as
trustee of the designated land and vest any other assets in the CIO
so that they become part of the CIO’s corporate
property.  It will also vest legal
title(s) in the CIO so that it holds the designated land on its
existing trusts (as amended) and that will mean that the designated
land will become part of the CIO for accounting, reporting and
registration purposes.   

Decision

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Property
has approved that –
 
1)  
the County Council acting as Trustee for the St John’s
Institute now amends the Objects of the St Johns Institute Charity
and the linked St Johns Institute Cottage charity as agreed by the
Charity Commission.
2)  
the County Council acting as Trustee for the St John’s
Institute Charity executes a pre-merger vesting declaration to:
a)    
appoint the Park
Centre, Burgess Hill Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)
Registered Charity number 1203295 as trustee of the designated
land
b)    
vest legal title in the CIO so that it holds the designated land on
the existing trusts (as amended) and so that the land becomes part
of the CIO for accounting, reporting and registration purposes;
and
c)    
vest any other assets in the CIO so that they become part of the
CIO’s corporate property.  
3)  
authority is delegated to the Assistant Director (Property and
Assets) and the Director of Law and Assurance to complete any
further documentation or legal agreement needed to conclude this
matter.