Plans to break up York’s biggest amateur sports club have been shelved – for now, at least. But the York RI will still have to be restructured, if it is to avoid losing tens of thousands in rates relief from next April. STEPHEN LEWIS reports.

IF there was ever any doubt how strongly people feel about York's biggest amateur sports club, they were laid to rest on April 29.

Normally about 20 people would be expected to turn up for the York RI's AGM. In fact, more than 400 people went along to the meeting at New Lane – so many that it had to be called off.

The reason for the surge of interest? The York RI council's proposal to split the club up into five parts to avoid it losing £70,000 a year in rates relief when new Government rules come into force next year.

RI president Frank Paterson admitted he was 'gratified' at the strength of feeling shown, even though it meant the break-up could not be approved.

Since then the RI council has withdrawn the proposal, recognising it is unlikely to get the support of two-thirds of the club's 2,800 members, as required. A working party has been set up instead to "look at a way forward". But Mr Paterson has warned that doing nothing is not an option, if the club wants to hold on to its rates relief.

"We have to do something to keep the £70,000," he said. "If we don't, it is going to question our viability. But I'm sure we can. I'm an optimist."

Here, we look at the background to the proposal to split up the RI – and at what the club will do next...

Why the RI needs to change The York Railway Institute (RI) is registered as a Community Amateur Sports Club, or CASC. For more than a decade, CASCs have qualified for 80 per cent rates relief, plus other benefits, on the grounds they get people involved in sport. This relief is worth about £70,000 a year to the RI.

From April 1 next year, new Government rules will limit the size of community amateur sports clubs. Organisations that earn more than £100,000 a year from "non-member trading and property income" (such as renting their facilities out to non-member organisations) will lose their CASC status – and the rates relief that goes with it.

With a turnover of about £900,000, the York RI will no longer be able to be a CASC from next April without significant changes to the way it is run. Hence the proposal to split it up into five sections.

There was another reason for the proposal, however, Mr Paterson admitted.

The RI – a large umbrella organisation with many smaller clubs and 2,800 members – was run by a single council, which was inevitably distanced from many of the sports played by members. Members have also been reluctant to put themselves forward for the council.

"For the past ten years there have been no applicants for council vacancies... and we have had great difficulty in co-opting volunteers," Mr Paterson said.

Splitting the RI up into smaller units would mean each would be managed by people who actually played sport. "It would be a way of getting people who are going to be much more focused on playing into the management," Mr Paterson said.

What the proposal involved The proposal put forward by the York RI's ruling council was to split the RI up into five constituent parts. These would have been:

• Queen Street, the RI HQ, which includes facilities for badminton, squash, judo, table tennis, dance, pilates, yoga and snooker, as well as a bar and theatre.

• Pike Hills Golf Club

• New Lane, the base for York RI rugby union club and football clubs

• York RI bowls club

• York RI sailing club Under the proposals, the five new organisations would have kept the RI name, but would have effectively been independent organisations.

The bowls club, sailing club and New Lane would all have been small enough to retain their community amateur sports club status, and so to keep their rates relief.

Queen Street and the golf club would still be so big that they would lose CASC status, however, unless they could find other ways of reducing the profit they made from "non-member trading", such as by setting up a trading subsidiary.

York Press:
 The 7th hole at Pike Hills from the tee

If they couldn't do this, then even as an independent organisation the golf club, for example, would still stand to lose its CASC status and something like £24,000 a year in rates relief.

"That is significant, but not enough to ruin the club," Mr Paterson said. "My assessment is that the golf club would be quite happy to be on its own."

Why the proposal was abandoned The York RI council had voted 7-6 in favour of the break-up: but this decision needed to be ratified by a two-thirds vote of RI members.

Following the aborted AGM, the RI council realised there was no way the proposals would get the two thirds majority required.

The council also accepted there were many questions that needed to be answered before fresh proposals on the club's future could be put forward to members. These include:

• Is it possible for the RI to stay as a single organisation and become a charity?

• Could it become a co-operative?

• Are there other alternatives to CASC or charity status that might work?

• What would happen to RI assets were the organisation to be broken up? How would they be distributed?

• What else could the RI do to raise money?

• What could be done to reduce costs?

What the club is doing now Following the abandoned AGM at which more than 400 members turned up, several new members have come forward to join the council.

A working party has been set up, with a brief to answer the questions above (and many more) and then report back to council by June 24 with fresh proposals that are more likely to get the required majority.

A special general meeting of RI members will be called, by September at the latest, to vote on the proposals.

That deadline is important, Mr Paterson said. If the structure of the club were to be changed, it would take at least six months to make the necessary legal changes ahead of the April 1 deadline.

In his view, splitting the RI up would still be the most sustainable solution. But whatever proposal is decided on by the council, it has to be one that will be acceptable to the majority of RI members he says.

His main concern is that, given the strongly held views on the subject, it may be difficult to find a proposal that satisfies two thirds of members.

If that happened, would the very future of the RI be under threat once it lost its CASC status?

"I'm an optimist," he said. "We must get a solution. But if we are not either a CASC or a charity on April 1, 2016, then we would just have to pay the rates bill..."

• To find out more about the York Railway Institute and the challenge it faces, visit yorkricrossroads.com


A brief history of the York Railway Institute

The York Railway Institute was set up in 1889 by the North Eastern Railway as an educational and recreational centre for railway employees.

It was built on the site of what had been the Railway Tavern, and one reason for replacing pub with institute was to remove the temptation of the ‘demon drink’.

The institute had a well-stocked library with a reading room and various periodicals and newspapers. In the words of George Leeman, a director of the NER, the aim of the institute was to provide a place where the men whose “brawny arms and strong muscle and mechanical skill” were used in the service of the railways could also improve their minds.

York Press:
An old photo showing members of the York NER Civilians Rifle Club in 1909 

By the 1920s the educational role of the institute had decreased, and there was a greater demand for sport.

In 1926, redundant carriage-building shops on Queen Street were converted into a gym. Boxing was hugely popular, and the institute produced several national amateur champions. The gym is still used for table tennis, badminton and other sports to this day.

The golf club was formed in 1920 when members created a nine-hole course at Hob Moor. During the Second World War, Hob Moor was used for grazing cattle, which made it unfit as a golf course. In 1946, the RI leased 89 acres next to Askham Bog to create Pike Hills Golf Club.

York Press:
 The womens’ gymnastics class in 1948

Today, the RI has 2,800 members, who play everything from football, rugby and golf to bowls, snooker, badminton, squash, table tennis and judo.

Traditionally, the general manager of NER (and later of BR’s eastern region) was also President of the RI. That was how Frank Paterson, himself a former BR eastern region general manager, first became involved with the institute.

Since 1989 – a few years before rail privatisation – the institute has been an independent organisation managed by its own members.