History and role of USRA

The Upper Saxondale Residents Association (USRA) was established as an informal grouping of local residents at the time that our development was created by David Wilson Homes (DWH).  USRA was managed by a group of trustees. After the development was completed, DWH transferred some of its land at Upper Saxondale to USRA, on certain conditions including a right of pre-emption. This means that in the very unlikely event that USRA wanted to dispose of any of its land then DWH would have first refusal to purchase it at the price of £1. More information about this land is available here.

After a while the USRA trustees decided that a specific legal entity should be created to hold the land and so the Upper Saxondale Community Interest Company (USCIC) was created for that purpose. This is a type of limited company.  USRA duly transferred the land to USCIC and some of the USRA trustees became directors of USCIC.

USRA and USCIC co-existed side-by-side for a number of years. USRA, through volunteers, greatly improved the land, creating the fruit orchard and planting trees and laying paths in what we now know as the nature trail, adjacent to the village hall and tennis courts. USRA also extended the village hall and organised many events for local residents. USCIC was the formal body that owned the land and managed the finances.

After a while it seemed needlessly complicated to have two parallel bodies, USRA and USCIC. Given that USRA was an informal body without a defined membership, and USCIC was a defined legal entity, we eventually took the decision to merge USRA into USCIC. We wanted to retain the USRA name so at the same time we changed the name of USCIC to USRAcic (the ‘cic’ is a legal requirement of the company name, it’s the equivalent of a normal limited company’s name ending in ‘Ltd’). However as USRAcic is a bit of a mouthful, we normally refer to it just as USRA! Take a look at the USRA Committee page for the list of current Directors.

The standard ‘articles of association’ of USRA provide a governance framework in areas such as meetings, voting, appointment of directors, delegation of authority and membership. Membership of USRA is the equivalent of being shareholder in a normal limited company and entitles the member to vote at meetings. The liability of a member is limited to £1. Membership is confined to local residents. USRA Articles of Association document, which was registered in 2012, gives more detail about what this means.

In the past, residents made a voluntary donation to the original unincorporated USRA. However, to be a member of USRA there is now a monthly subscription of £5 per household, which provides funds to help maintain our environment at Upper Saxondale, including the hall, tennis courts, nature trail and orchard. Members are also entitled to use the tennis courts and to become members of the Lawn Tennis Association (more information on tennis). Members are able to vote at our open meetings including our Annual General Meeting. Non-members are able to attend and speak at the meetings, but not to vote. 

The subscription is important to USRA as although we have other income from hiring out the hall, the subscription enables us to provide a greater range of amenities for residents and to maintain and enhance our environment for our collective benefit. We also need to have a reserve for possible significant expenditure on repairs to the hall and on maintaining (or if necessary felling) the numerous trees on the land that we own. And of course we want as many residents as possible to become members so they can participate in our decision-making.

If you would like to become a member of USRA please see our membership page.