News / Trust reform delayed until 2012
SHETLAND Charitable Trust this morning (Thursday) rejected proposals to reform itself and voted instead to put off any change to its constitution until after the next local government election, expected in spring of 2012.
The trust has been forced to look at how it is being run after being told by the Scottish charity regulator OSCR that it did not comply with current charity law, and had to demonstrate its independence from Shetland Islands Council.
But trustees, led by council convener Sandy Cluness, were unhappy with the suggestions worked out by a group of seven trustees over the last 12 months, and decided they wanted more time to consult before making a decision.
The trust holds around £200 million of Shetland’s oil funds, and supports a wide range of charitable organisations and initiatives. Its board is made up of 21 councillors plus two independent members, the Lord Lieutenant and the head teacher of the Anderson High School.
The meeting kicked off with a short presentation from trust general manager Ann Black who urged trustees to accept the review group’s proposals as they were likely to be accepted by OSCR.
Trust chairman Bill Manson added that “no change was not an option” and moved the recommendations from the chair.
Initially it looked as though the proposal to reduce the number of trustees from 23 to 15, comprising of eight councillors and seven additional members selected from the wider community would win the day.
An attempt by Jonathan Wills to change the plan to seven councillors plus eight elected, rather than selected, independent members, was defeated by nine votes to three with nine abstentions.
Dr Wills had argued the reform group’s proposal was “contemptuous of the public” as it would reduce accountability from 91 per cent elected members to just 53 per cent.
He also questioned the wisdom behind the decision to exclude the 50 or so responses to the consultation from the public report before trustees yesterday.
Following that debate, Mr Cluness moved to postpone a decision for two years as, in his view, the changes proposed did not represent the view of the community.
He said: “I am not against change. But the review and the consultation you had have not demonstrated to me that the people of Shetland want this.
“The option is not that there will never be change, but the appropriate time would be after 2012.”
And he suggested inviting officers from OSCR to a trust meeting to tell them of the unique set up and responsibilities of Shetland Charitable Trust.
His move to delay a decision was supported by those who wanted more radical change, arguing that no decision on the governance would be better than the proposal put forward by the review group.
Conceding defeat, trust chairman Bill Manson said: “What you are saying is that the working group worked for a year and got it wrong, or not right enough.”
An attempt by Gary Robinson to get the ball rolling quicker was heavily defeated. He had accused Mr Cluness of “kicking the issue into the long grass”, but only got two trustees to support his motion to reduce the consultation period to just three months.
The two hour long debate was witnessed by 13 members of the public, many of whom had submitted their own responses to the consultation process.
After the meeting, Kevin Learmonth of grassroots group Sustainable Shetland, said “the decision not to do anything” would throw the trust into a crisis situation with the regulator.
He added: “It is sad to see that they are prepared to jeopardise the trust to maintain their own power. The status quo is not an option and we want to see proper democratic reform, but they have just decided to ignore that.”
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