Can someone help with questions on land in trust?

[playingthegame]

My Mum and Dad have received notification of a planning application to build on some land at the back of their house.

The application form says that the applicant is Sid Squirrel, The Town Name Trust, c/o The Agent. The agent is saying that the land was left in trust to a group of family members who now want to build on it.

No one locally seems to have heard of the Trust and no one knows who the trustees are.

For reasons that I won't go into here, people want to know who is making the application as it is quite a controversial application and people are suspecting that the applicant name is a trojan horse to get the planning through.

Can anyone tell me where I can hold of information about the Trust and trustees?

Many thanks

Thanks baby

That was my thoughts.

It looks as if trusts of land are made through HMRC but I don't think the information is available to the public. I suspect the land has been left to an organisation and they are going to get planning and sell it on. If I'm right it will be highly controversial. I know there are lots of tactics employed to get planning through and I wonder if this is what is happening now. Done deal springs to mind.

There is no reason for anyone locally to have heard of the trust. Trusts are private arrangements. There is no central register.

If I own a piece of land and want to put it into trust for my children either in lifetime or in my will then I only need to notify HMRC of the trust's existence if the trust is going to be receiving income eg if the land is to be let. The records at the Land Registry under registered owner would say something like " Mr X and Mrs Y as Trustees of Poshfrock's Trust".

However, the trustees are just the legal owners. The beneficial owners ( ie the ones entitled to any income or sale proceeds) could be someone else entirely and you would have no way of knowing who without seeing the original trust deed. If the trust is formed under a will then you can get a copy of the will as it is a public document once it has been proved to probate. But if it is lifetime trust or if the beneficiaries are listed on a document separate to the will such as a letter of wishes then there is no way of finding out.

Thanks poshfrock