Letters / Conniving and despicable
There is no legal reason why Jonathan Wills’ proposal for direct elections to Shetland Charitable Trust should not go ahead (‘Wills wants trust to restore democratic control’, SN 25/04/16).
Last year the Stornoway Trust held elections for trustees as it has been doing for some time. His proposal is a useful stepping stone on the way to full democratic control with no appointees. As vice chairman of SCT he certainly should have been allowed to have it considered at next week’s meeting.
Undemocrat trustee, SIC councillor and Viking Energy proponent, Drew Ratter, has done a terrific job in showing precisely why councillors should not serve on trusts. They can use their political talents to run rings around the others and are apt to use the trust to forward their own agendas. In the wake of the McFadden Commission (Scotland’s equivalent of the Nolan Commission into Standards in Public Life) most councils across Scotland recommended councillors step back from trusts. When will the SIC pass on similar legal advice?
Drew was quoted in last week’s Shetland Times that “his long involvement with the trust had led him to the understanding that it was not the democratic organisation frequently imagined by the public”. Well no, it is not Drew, thanks to your ilk. Not yet. Were it so:
- CADSS and Shetland Youth Information Service might not have shut.
- Disability Shetland would not be as reliant on the human endurance fund-raising efforts of a remarkably dedicated pensioner;
- The employment terms and conditions in Shetland Amenity Trust might be more 20th century;
- Shetland’s youth would be involved, in not ignored by, their charitable trust.
- Greater imagination would have been brought to issues of poverty, structural inequality and social exclusion.
- SLAP wouldn’t be involved in complex rental agreements which funnel public money to SCT.
Instead Shetland Charitable Trust functions on the basis of “it’s aye been” whilst neglecting those in greatest need. Sport and culture, anyone? Not much free for those on benefits, though.
Drew went on to say SCT did have to abide by the Trustee Investments Act of 2003. Which exact section of which exactly which law is he hoping to hide behind?
Then we get onto his best yet: “setting up paid positions for senior trustees would help enlist poorer people who could not at present afford to be on the trust, and increase the representation of those who could not at present find the time”. What a laudable sentiment, if that is what he actually meant.
It is to be hoped that next week’s meeting [on Thursday 12 May] will be inquorate, delayed or otherwise disrupted in order that proper consultation, with, at the very least, our elected representatives on the SIC, can go ahead.
Something must be done to challenge SCT’s conniving, base and despicable approach. In treating the inhabitants of Shetland with such contempt are they in fact showing that they fear those they are meant to serve?
Yours sincerely,
Peter Hamilton, Sundibanks
Become a member of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its many readers to consider paying for membership to get additional features and services: -
- Remove non-local ads;
- Bookmark posts to read later;
- Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;
- Hide membership messages;
- Comments open for discussion.
If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.
Already a member? Sign in to hide this message.
