Campaigners hopeful that velodrome can be saved

Martin Shipton

Campaigners who want to protect an iconic velodrome linked to Olympic gold medallist Geraint Thomas say they are encouraged by a ruling that Cardiff council has no right to make decisions about the future of the facility, which is owned by a charitable trust.

The Maindy Velodrome in Cardiff has been at the centre of a complicated legal row involving the council, the trust and the Charity Commission.

Campaigners fear that the council wants to shut the velodrome down.

But following answers to written questions from opposition councillors and Freedom of Information disclosures, they are hopeful of stopping any such plans.

Jeremy Sparkes, a spokesperson for the Save Maindy Velodrome Campaign, said: “After years of pretence by Cardiff council – and spending thousands of pounds of public money to try to keep details secret – the truth about the Maindy Park Trust, a registered charity, is finally starting to emerge.

“A letter from the Charity Commission shows that the iconic velodrome, forever associated across the world with Welsh cycling greats such as Geraint Thomas and Elinor Barker, is not part of the council estate for the local authority to use and dispose of to suit its corporate needs, but is an asset of the charitable trust.

“This is huge for three reasons. Firstly, the council must now keep full and accurate records of the trust’s income and expenditure. It has failed to do so for well over a decade despite charity law being clear and precise.”

Mr Sparkes cited section 130 of the Charities Act 2011, which sets out trustees’ responsibilities for financial records and reporting:

“‘(1) The charity trustees of a charity must ensure that accounting records are kept in respect of the charity which are sufficient to show and explain all the charity’s transactions, and which are such as to (a) disclose at any time, with reasonable accuracy, the financial position of the charity at that time, and (b) enable the trustees to ensure that, where any statements of accounts are prepared by them under section 132(1), those statements of accounts comply with the requirements of regulations under section 132(1).

“‘(2) The accounting records must in particular contain— (a) entries showing from day to day all sums of money received and expended by the charity, and the matters in respect of which the receipt and expenditure takes place, and (b) a record of the assets and liabilities of the charity.’”

He continued: “Powys County Council has a similar situation with regard to one of its leisure facilities that is part of a charitable trust and which is operated under lease by a third party. Its most recent filing with the Charity Commission is clear and transparent.

“There is no reason why Cardiff council cannot report the financial position of the Maindy Park Trust with similar transparency. It did so when it was sole trustee for the Norwegian Church Preservation Trust, so it clearly has the requisite financial recording and reporting systems in place to do so.

“Secondly, the valuation for the land swap could be considerably to the detriment of the trust.

“The fact that the velodrome is a charity asset of the trust raises major concerns about the terms of reference Cardiff council used for the land valuation it had prepared for its attempt to execute a land swap.

“If it had been successful, this would have enabled the council to bulldoze Maindy Velodrome and deny the trust the future income it would otherwise have been likely to generate.

“The failure to recognise the velodrome’s ability to generate significant revenue – and a reasonable surplus – as pertaining to the trust’s asset means the land valuation could well be an undervaluation.”

‘Beneficial interest’

Mr Sparkes added: “Thirdly, the failure to recognise the beneficial interest of the trust in the lease and contractual arrangements with GLL [a private company under contract to the council to run leisure centres] must be rectified.

“When the council wanted to outsource a number of recreation facilities in 2016, it included the charity assets as though they were part of the council’s own estate.

“The director of economic development admitted that the velodrome’s strong financial position was central to Maindy being able to operate at a surplus: ‘The proposed removal of the Velodrome would place the Maindy Leisure Centre into an operating deficit position.’

“Thus, it is clear why the council wishes to have the velodrome viewed as its corporate asset: it supports the rest of the leisure activities on the park and was a vital financial consideration in its corporate strategy to outsource leisure centres.

‘Disgraceful’

“However, the council or its third-party operator, GLL, cannot continue to use the financial strength of the Maindy Park Trust, through the velodrome as part of its charity assets, to offset losses elsewhere on the leisure centre contract.

“It is disgraceful that the council has been using charity assets as though they were the council’s own property.

“This must be put right, it must be put right now and it must be put right in such a way that the council’s shameful conduct disbars it from any part of the decision-making process in the future where there is a conflict of interest.”

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