Some years ago the question arose: what if someone donated to the village a piece of land – a possibility at the time? A splendid idea; until someone raised a further question: who (or what) would own it. The village hall, the school, the shop, the church, a group of villagers? None of these had the legal, democratic or other capacity to hold an asset on behalf of the village. (The nearest example was the small piece of land and water-chute around Middle Mill Dam, bought from Wessex Water for £500, which is now held in a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (a type of charity).
The Fontmell Magna Neighbourhood Plan, adopted in November 2018, highlighted the importance of local community amenities and assets, and focused minds on several “What ifs” relating to community ownership. Hence, In February 2019 a small group (the CLT’s founding directors, Dick Stainer, Robin East, Robert McCurrach and Roger Thomas) met to investigate the possibility of setting up a Community Land Trust (CLT) in Fontmell Magna. This would be a legal vehicle which could hold land, property or any other asset in trust and on behalf of the whole community.
Contact was established with the Wessex Community Assets for help, advice and well tried templates on setting up a CLT, and the Plunkett Foundation for advice on Community shops. The group made visits to community projects (mainly community shops) in the North Dorset/South Wiltshire area eg Motcombe, Semley, East Knoyle, Hindon. Needless to say there was a steep learning curve and a mountain of paperwork, but the upshot was that the Fontmell Magna Community Land Trust (FMCLT) was registered by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in May 2019 and held its inaugural meeting on the 20 of May 2019.
Those who wish to know what goes on under the bonnet can click on the various links and document in this website. But the long and the short of it is as follows:-
(a) that an asset (shop, field or anything else) can now be held by the Trust
(b) the Trust in turn is “owned” by its members/shareholders (of which there are now about 100)
(c) their actions and responsibilities are in turn governed by the rules of the Trust
(d) which, most importantly, stipulates that it (the Trust) must be used for the benefit of the community as a whole.