News / Trust chairman retires; Hjaltland chief takes over
SHETLAND Recreational Trust chairman Joe Irvine has retired from the post after almost a quarter of a century on the board of trustees.
The former headmaster of Brae high school joined the trust in May 1990 and became chairman five years later.
He is being replaced by Hjaltland Housing Association chief executive Bryan Leask, who was elected by his fellow trustees on Wednesday evening at an event in the Lerwick Hotel.
Leask is the coach of Shetland’s successful senior rugby team and has been closely involved in the sport’s development in recent years.
Irvine said he was retiring with the “reassuring knowledge” that the trust was in safe hands of “very capable staff and trustees”.
“Sport in Shetland has evolved a great deal in the last 25 years and I am privileged to have been able to contribute what I could to that,” he said.
During those years the recreational trust has grown from 65 to almost 250 staff, with attendances at the local leisure centres rising from 400,000 to 700,000 a year.
The period also saw the opening of the swimming pools in Sandwick, Scalloway and Lerwick’s Clickimin, the town’s bowls hall and Apex Fitness Centre, the west mainland leisure centre, the Brae pool extension, the new Clickimin running track and squash courts.
He was a key organiser of the 1995 NatWest Island Games in Shetland, when he also coordinated the sail boarding competition.
He also received the European Community of Sport award on behalf of the trust in Brussels last year.
He is currently chairman of the Voxter Trust which manages the Voxter Outdoor Centre and has previously served on the Shetland health board.
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