Trustees vote for standstill

Hans J Marter

9 May, 2008

SHETLAND Charitable Trust overwhelmingly voted not to make any changes to its present membership structure when it met yesterday (Wednesday).

A meeting of the trust decided by 18 votes to two to ignore legal advice that recommended the trust should act now in implementing changes to comply with the new Charities & Trustees Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.

Instead, the trust will contact the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) in a bid to get their stamp of approval for its present structure of 22 councillors and two independent trustees.

Only if the regulator decides the present governance does not comply with current law will the charitable trust look into alternatives.

Having all members of Shetland Islands Council as trustees risks being interpreted as third party control of the trust, it had been warned.

A proposal to present the regulator with a variety of future membership options which would have removed the council's majority from the trust only won two backers, independent John Scott and new trustee Jonathan Wills.

Council convener Sandy Cluness made the case for the status quo, saying the £220 million fund had served the people of Shetland well over the last 30 years with its existing structure. "I see no reason to depart from that," he said.

He was supported by Allan Wishart, who warned fellow trustees not to run the risk of "looking like rabbits caught in the headlights".

He said it was important to stick with the status

quo while the law was new and still untested in the courts.

"The guidance on the new law is still in draft form and OSCR is still finding its feet," he added.

Mr Cluness also said that there was a case for the transfer of some charitable trust assets and functions back to the council as charity law appeared to be getting more complex while funding for local government under the SNP administration had seen a lot of red tape removed.

The case against a delay in changing the governance of the trust was led by Mr Scott who has been vocal on the issue since the end of last year when a campaign group pressing for reform was launched.

He said the status quo was not an option because the rules had changed.

He and Mr Wills presented three options for a future membership structure of the trust, which they wanted to be discussed with OSCR. Their proposals followed legal advice from Mr Mackintosh, who had presented a number of options to remove the majority of councillors from the trust.

Mr Scott said: "I agree with that view that we should get the best legal advice that we can get, but it is a little unwise to ignore it."

Yesterday's decision was condemned by members of the Shetland Trusts Reform Group, whose members watched closely proceedings in the council chamber.

Its spokesman Kevin Learmonth said: "Trustee after trustee said that they did not see any problem and that the status quo was fine.

"And that is after one council report costing more than £100,000 and one charitable trust report from the foremost charity expert in the country, both saying the status quo is not an option, you must reform. I think the trustees are seriously out of step."