Brief update:
The week before Christmas, Neil Riley had told Peter that the board had contacted Companies House and "explained the error in the attachment of the pre-2013 version of the Articles to the 2014 November Resolution"; that Companies House had asked them to submit the necessary forms to correct the error and that the forms would be submitted shortly.
This was over six weeks ago.
I have been checking the MEA's
CH Filing History regularly and no new file containing the "correct 2014 Articles" has been filed after the most recent entry (which is dated 25 Oct 2024: "Termination of appointment of Georgina Evans as a director on 20 October 2024") and no corrected Articles or redirection notice for a corrected file has been registered and inserted above the existing 2014 entry: "04 Dec 2014 Resolution of adoption of Articles of Association".
One assumes that the MEA's request for the correction of a mis-filed document is still being processed.
Since the new year, I have been tied up with domestic admin work but have had some further correspondence with Neil Riley. Mr Riley appears reluctant to provide meaningful responses to questions put to him.
The last time I replied to him, he had responded (on 22 January):
I presume from your query that you wish to ensure that the new Articles were passed in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act.
You have seen the documents that we have put up on our website which confirm this.
Are you now querying that this is not the case?
I replied (and copied in David Allen, Deputy Chair) on 22 January:
Subject: Re: Having scrutinised the 2013 EGM Minutes and the 2014 OGM Minutes it still does not make sense
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2025 16:37:13 +0000
From: Suzy Chapman [Redacted]
To: Neil Riley [Redacted]
CC: Charles Shepherd; Russell Fleming; David Allen
Dear Neil,
No, Neil, I am not querying whether "the new Articles were passed in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act".
What I am querying is why in November 2014, three Resolutions were put out to membership vote when the same Resolutions
had already been put out to vote and passed in November 2013.
In November 2013 the membership had been asked to vote on the following:
1 Adoption of the new model form.
2 The change of "annually" to "Every two years" for retirement of Directors by rotation (article 24).
3 Changes to article 28: Allowed Payments
In November 2014 the membership was asked to vote again on the following:
1 Adoption of the new model form.
2 The change of "annually" to "Every two years" for retirement of Directors by rotation (article 24).
3 Changes to article 28: Allowed Payments
All I am asking for is an explanation as to why these three changes were put to the vote again in November 2014
when they had already been passed in November 2013.
That is all.
With kind regards,
Suzy
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Neil's response (22 January) was:
Dear Suzy
I wonder, if I might, ask you a question for a change.
Why?
Best wishes,
Neil
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's like wading through treacle...
I'll be writing to the board again this coming week.