The tender to lease the Charity’s land — and the decision to name Wycombe Wanderers FC as preferred bidder — is crucially based on the narrative that the Charity is not financially sustainable.
But is that really so?

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Buckinghamshire Council maintains and manages the land of the Farnham Park Sports Fields Charity as part of its statutory duties. This is undisputed.

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The question is:

 

Who should pay for it — the Charity or the Council?

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The law gives the answer.

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Charity Commission guidance OG56 (“Local authorities as charity trustees”) states:

 

“Unless the funds are held for charitable purposes that necessarily involve applying them for the statutory functions of the local authority, a local authority cannot, as charity trustee, use charity funds to pay for its staff, agents or contracts for services which it needs to acquire for the discharge of its statutory functions.”

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All proceeds of activities on Charity land are Charity funds.

Those Charity’s funds are not held for council functions.
Therefore, the cost of management and maintenance must be met by the Council itself.

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We have placed this question before Buckinghamshire Council’s Audit and Governance Committee, which ist expected to address it at its next meeting on Wednesday, 12 November.

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However, the agenda lists the Charity in the non-public section of the meeting.

We ask that this legal position be acknowledged publicly — not behind closed doors.