CartoonChurch down yet again
Second time in a week. Apologies again.
The hosting company are posting news here: Technical Announcements, and the status is here: PurplePaw Support – Network Status, not that these are much help to you.
Contact me via my Wibsite e-mail if you need any cartoons urgently, or there are some on this site.
CartoonChurch site problems
Hello – I’m aware the site is down this morning. The hosting company say they are working on it. Apologies for inconvenience caused.
For the time being you can contact me via my wibsite e-mail: dave at wibsite dot com.
CartoonChurch: Down again
The site has down again today as you’ll have seen. I’m still getting no response or information from my web hosts so I’ve begun the process of moving the site to a new web host. I’m attempting to move the domain name as well, as the ‘DNS’, which is (if I understand things correctly) the domain name bit is experiencing severe problems too.
[Technical talk]It’s all a bit worrying as I have no ftp access to the old server, so I’m having to do things without a complete backup. This could be a big mistake, but it appears I have no option (apart from doing nothing, which is unacceptable when people have paid me money to use the site). I have a recent backup of the Cartoon Blog WordPress database, but I have no idea what to do with it. When I have some time I will spend a few days looking into it. Unfortunately these things do usually take me a few days (literally).
Continued apologies. Do contact me at the address given via the sidebar link if you need cartoons, advice etc.
Who are the ‘ENC Management company’?
I was interested to find out about the ‘ENC Management company’, the company operating most of the former SPCK bookshops. I looked them up on the Companies House website, along with the new companies for the Durham Cathedral and Chichester shops. The name given on the Companies House site is the ‘ENC SHOP MANAGEMENT CO.’
Here are the company ‘appointments’:
ENC SHOP MANAGEMENT CO.
Company Number: FC028292
SECRETARY: BREWER, SANDRA K
DIRECTOR: BREWER, J MARK
DIRECTOR: BREWER, PHILIP WDURHAM CATHEDERAL SHOP MANAGEMENT CO.
Company Number: FC028290
SECRETARY: BREWER, SANDRA K
DIRECTOR: BREWER, J MARK
DIRECTOR: BREWER, PHILIP WCHICHESTER SHOP MANAGEMENT CO.
Company Number: FC028291
SECRETARY: BREWER, SANDRA K
DIRECTOR: BREWER, J MARK
DIRECTOR: BREWER, PHILIP W
For comparison, the ‘bankrupt’ Saint Stephen the Great:
SAINT STEPHEN THE GREAT
Company Number: 06110519
DIRECTOR: BREWER, JOHN MARK
DIRECTOR: BREWER, KAREN ELLEN
DIRECTOR: BREWER, SANDRA KAY
It is, quite blatantly the same people.
Dyfrig made some really useful extra points on my site before it died mid-morning. Here are some of them:
The company that’s filed for bankruptcy in the US is SSG-LLC. The first thing to note is that companies go bankrupt in America – in the UK, individuals go bankrupt, companies go into liquidation. The Chapter 11 filing protects the American company in America and under any contracts with people or bodies outside America which are expressed to be under American law. So only if an SPCK worker’s contract is expressed to be with SSG-LLC will that person be affected by the change in employment. …
In order to trade in England & Wales, an organisation must either be a limited company (this includes charities that are limited by guarantee) or a limited liability partnership (it could be an unlimited partnership, but this is unlikely). Overseas companies therefore normally create a company in England & Wales. Saint Stephen the Great is a registered company in Poole. As at today, June 10th, it is neither in adminstration nor liquidation. Just because SSG-LLC is in bankruptcy in the US doesn’t mean that SSG Ltd in Poole is subject to the same protection, because it’s a separate legal entity from SSG-LLC.
Also:
On the whole St Stephen the Great Ltd / SSG-LLC issue, there is indeed only one company with that name registered in England & Wales, and that company is NOT in administration according to Companies House. Something called SSG LLC may have applied for Chapter 11 in the States, but I’m not clear how that can apply to an English-registered company. (ENC is actually registered with an “FC” number, which means it’s a foreign company – perhaps ENC has been registered in England and THEN gone into Chapter 11 in the States?).
The Trust’s website purports that there is a company called Saint Stephen the Great LLC, but that is incorrect, as companies is England & Wales cannot have that suffix – they must carry “Ltd” (or “Cyf”). The Trust may hold itself out as “SSG LLC” but that is not its identity and the legally registered company is Saint Stephen the Great Ltd, a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity.
Former SPCK bookshop tribunal adjourned
The first former SPCK bookshop employment tribunal case was due to take place today at the Sheffield Employment Tribunal. The case, Alison Speddings vs Mark Brewer, was adjourned. I understand that this was because of the ‘bankruptcy’ situation. Neither of the Brewers were in attendance.
I spoke to Alison on the phone a short time ago. She thanks everyone for their thoughts and prayers.
Former SPCK shops: Is SSG’s ‘bankruptcy’ legitimate?
The fallout from SSG’s ‘bankruptcy’ continues. Phil Groom asks whether their bankruptcy claim is legitimate.
A commenter on Phil Groom’s site says that the new company ENC Management ‘consists of the Brewer brothers and one of their wives’. Also ‘the two independent shops have been told to deposit takings in a new bank account in the name of Saint Stephen the Great Charitable Trust’.
Phil asks whether ‘filing for bankruptcy in the USA can, in any case, apply to SSG as a UK registered charity’. A good question.
If I have the date right Alison Speddings’ tribunal case begins today in Sheffield. All best wishes to you Alison.
The Chester shop is closed (above). I am also told that the Newcastle shop is closed. Please update me as to the status of any others.
If you can help get the word out about this then please do. The world needs to hear.
[Thanks to Peter for the photo]
CartoonChurch is back… sort of
CartoonChurch.com and the Cartoon Blog should be returning soon after over 5 days out of action. They were back for a few minutes earlier but remain unreliable at the time of writing with the ‘database error’ page showing.
I did a backup of my blog database as soon as the site came back in case there are any further problems.
All being well I will transfer the Feedburner feed back over to the usual blog once things have stabilised a bit so everyone subscribed to that should begin to get updates from there once again. There may be a delay and some turbulence.
Once again – I’m so sorry about all this.
Update: The latest news from my web host is here.
