|Chairman’s Statementcontinued
| People
In September last year, Charles Lenox- Conyngham stepped down as the Fund’s Chairman after 14 years’ service, having steered the Board through stormy seas into relatively calm and more productive waters. When Charles arrived in 1996 the Fund’s income was just beginning to take off due to an agreement with the bookmaking industry which saw the recommended rate of contribution rise from 0.25% to 0.4% and then, later, to the present 0.6%.
For those not aware, the Fund was established as a consequence of an informal agreement with the Treasury following the 1992 Budget when the then Chancellor linked a reduction in betting duty to increased support for both horse and greyhound racing.
Charles became the Fund’s second Chairman at a time when the politics surrounding the bookmaker–greyhound relationship were at their fiercest. He showed remarkable fortitude in those days and the Fund has due cause to be grateful for his sterling service.
As Charles’s successor, there is no possibility of my matching his length of years in office, but, for the record, my qualifications are long experience of bookmaker affairs and an involvement in greyhound racing that dates back to having been a youthful SP returner at Powderhall in the early sixties.
The Fund continues to operate from one office within the Greyhound Board premises in London, with one full-time member of staff, the highly efficient Margaret Woodruff, and one part-timer in myself. Overall administration costs last year were just over 2% of income.
In May last year, Barry Faulkner became CEO of the Greyhound Board and, as such, became a Fund Director. On the bookmaking side, David Hood, who had himself replaced Ian Spearing, as an ABB representative, was succeeded by Kate Miller. A more recent ABB appointee is Gordon Bissett, well known in greyhound circles, who took the seat vacated by Alan Ross. Jim Fox of the Scottish Independent Bookmaker’s Association stepped down in June and has been replaced by Billy King junior, son of former board member and Shawfield representative Billy King senior. A full list of Directors appears on page 19.
The so-called workhorse of the main board is the Board Committee, the members of which during the last year were Rachel Corden, Barry Faulkner and Clive Feltham from the Greyhound Board and Alan Ross (now replaced by Gordon Bissett) and Joe Scanlon from the bookmaker side. I am also a member of this Committee and will now attend in my new capacity whilst Kate Miller joins the team for the ABB.
Our Audit and Finance Committee comprises Joe Scanlon and Clive Feltham.
Finally I have to thank the Board for its confidence in appointing me to succeed Charles Lenox-Conyngham and its support in the period since I took office. And I must also record the Board’s gratitude to Charles, who chaired the Fund with skill and style for so many years.
Tom Kelly Chairman, British Greyhound Racing Fund
4 Annual Report 2010-2011
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