We are disappointed that the supporters of CuriosiTEA rooms have deemed it appropriate to pursue a campaign of harassment and intimidation on social media, directed personally and systematically against the Trustees of this Charity and the Charity itself. We cannot allow a commercial business or its supporters to attempt to influence by intimidation the decisions we make on behalf of our Charity, or for our volunteer Trustees to find themselves the objects of social media bullying. It is a sad day when any Charity is forced to resort to seeking legal protection for its members but we have today put CuriosiTEA rooms on formal notice that any attempts by them or by their supporters to defame any of the Trustees, or the businesses that they are involved in, will be taken seriously and appropriate legal action taken.
In view of the ongoing campaign of harassment and the threat it currently poses to our charitable endeavours, to our Board of Trustees and to the attendees of any event we might organise at this present time, we have regrettably been obliged to cancel our plans for the Christmas Market event which was due to take place on 26th November. We are so very sorry to disappoint our local stallholders and the many villagers who expressed interest in this festive event.
The Trustees had hoped that relationships between the ourselves and CuriosiTEA rooms might have remained amicable and courteous until the natural expiry of the Lease, however the aggressive campaign which has been waged online and in the media against the Trustees since our communication regarding the end of the Lease in June 2022, has made this impossible. We have therefore, today, served Notice of Termination of Lease to CuriosiTEA rooms with a termination date of 1st January 2022. Whilst no reasons are required to be given by the Trustees in the exercise of their right, the evident break down in relations between CuriosiTEA rooms and the Board of Trustees has been a significant factor in our decision.
We thank all those amongst you who have offered your support to us and to our Charity over the last couple of months. We are a small group of Ivinghoe villagers who have opted to be volunteer Trustees of a charity whose aims we believe in and we intend to develop the Charity and its premises into a vibrant and welcoming community activity base with its own café.
We are working hard in preparation for the launch of the Ivinghoe Hub Community Café and will share updates on this project together with details of the many other community projects we will be proposing, in due course.
Ivinghoe Old School Hub Charity
The Trustees of this Charity have supported the local community for the past 10 years. The original Trustees rescued a historic building and then raised the funds to restore it, over time creating a community home for local residents to meet, hold meetings, clubs and hobby groups-The Ivinghoe Old School Hub.
The Hub Charity has a duty of care to maintain the entire building and cover the costs of all repairs and these can be costly in an old building. The Hub also purchased and maintains the kitchen equipment. For this reason the Charity elects to maintain an ongoing repair and maintenance fund of £7.5k, together with a general emergency fund of £7.5k. As newly elected Trustees we are grateful to have been given in trust a building that has been so well maintained and we will do all we can to make sure it remains that way.
We also have a duty of care to maintain, and where possible increase the level of support the Hub Charity is able to provide to the community. To do this we need to increase our yearly revenue which currently comes mainly from modest room rental fees. We plan to do this by bringing the management of the community cafe in house. In this way we can put 100% of the profits from its activities back into to the local community.
We want the community café to be run professionally and we therefore plan to employ a professional team to ensure that it is well managed and remains profitable. We will, in due course, welcome all applications for these remunerated roles and will also gratefully accept all offers of voluntary assistance. Our professional and volunteer team will enable us to provide extended opening hours as well as special events catering for other hub activities and neighbourhood outreach programs. The trust will channel all profits into local community groups and activities and provide vital support to the vulnerable in our villages.
