No appetite for more savings

AN ATTEMPT to establish a new review group to keep squeezing annual spending at Shetland Charitable Trust found no backers on Thursday.

A meeting of the trust in Lerwick heard that a previous spending review had identified almost £2 million of savings from the charity’s £13 million revenue budget.

Trustee Rick Nickerson told the meeting that so far only the larger beneficiaries of SCT had to undergo the painful process of identifying cuts of around eight per cent, while the smaller voluntary groups had only to cope with a  standstill budget, which represented a real cut of just two per cent.

He said it was “unfair” not to look at all the funded bodies to make efficiency savings.

But he received no seconder to his motion as there was little appetite among fellow trustees to embark on yet another round of spending reviews.

Instead the meeting agreed to leave it to officers to keep a close eye on spending with the option to re-instate the review group should the need arise.

Chairman Bill Manson agreed with trust manager Ann Black who had argued that a period of consolidation was needed.

“We don’t need a sledge hammer to crack nuts,” Mr Manson said.

Shetland Charitable Trust is worth almost £220 million and uses its annual profits to part fund a series of social care, sports, arts and amenity organisations throughout the islands.