Walsall charities missing out on thousands of pounds over banking dispute
Charities across Walsall are missing out on thousands of pounds in vital funding due to a banking dispute, stalling the distribution of £96,000.
Last year, the Sneyd Community Association on Vernon Way, Walsall, was ordered to close by Walsall Council as the green belt site was earmarked for 73 homes.
But the charity winding down its services has been unable to access a final portion of funds from a bank account with Santander.
Last year the charity began to collate all the funds to one existing bank account, ready to be distributed to other organisations in the local area.
The plan was to distribute the money to other charities which serve the same people who benefited from Sneyd CA before its closure.
All the affected accounts are held in the same name and registered at the same address, and all the other accounts have been successfully transferred, except for the one with Santander.
Trustees at the charity say they have been passed from ‘pillar to post’ by more than a dozen representatives at Santander since October 2024, leaving plans to redistribute the charitable funds in limbo.
Administrator at the charity, Patricia Salt, said they had been met with months of delays and broken promises from the bank.
Trustees say the longer the ordeal goes on for, the more costs are incurred which eat into the money destined for other community organisations in the area.
Trevor Simms, vice chair of the board of trustees for Sneyd CA, said: “It is very frustrating. It’s got to the point where we can’t do anything about the money.
“We want to make sure that all these local charities can get this cash to help them do what they need to do going forward.
“But it’s brick wall to brick wall. We should have been closed down and finished by now.
“There’s been a lot of hard work in the last 12 months with redundancies, to make sure everyone is sorted. All the trustees have been working really hard but we’ve been let down by Santander.
“We didn’t want to close, we were forced to close by the council. They pulled the plug to build houses here. It’s soul destroying.
“We wanted to finish in December then it would have given us a couple of months to close everything down neatly for the new financial year. But this has thrown us into turmoil. It’s just absolutely horrendous.”
Another trustee, Liz Hazell, added: “We need to close and finalise everything but unfortunately, Santander is the problem. It’s very sad that one bank is withholding money that needs to be divided up for good local causes.
“Because we’re unable to finish, we’re still employing people, and those funds are being reduced instead of being given to those charities. Ultimately we just want Santander to send the funds across so we can distribute them.
“We’ve got employees who have been good enough to remain with us but they can’t move on with their lives. It’s bad enough telling someone that they’re being made redundant, but then asking them to stay on for a bit longer, it’s not a nice way to treat your employees. This needs to be dealt with.”
Patricia added: “All of the other banks have been fine, it’s just Santander who haven’t done it.
“We feel we’re banging our heads against a brick wall. We just want to get that money sorted so other charities can benefit from it and carry on the work that we did.”
The trustees have also called on Santander to reimburse the additional costs incurred by the delays, to be distributed to the local charities.
Santander has been approached for comment.
