News / LCC will write to OSCR over trust reform
LERWICK Community Council (LCC) is to write to charities regulator OSCR outlining its belief that Shetland Charitable Trust (SCT) should consult the Shetland public before making changes to its governance.
Last month LCC wrote to the trust urging it to conduct a full public consultation on its plans to change to a board consisting of 11 appointed trustees sitting alongside four SIC councillor-trustees.
The plans, backed by trustees at a meeting on 12 May, would reduce the number of councillor-trustees from seven to four and are subject to approval by OSCR.
Robinson is on record saying he’d like to see a majority of trustees directly elected, and councillors will meet to discuss the matter later this month.
Members of the community council have unanimously decided to make their feelings known to OSCR after receiving a letter from SCT chief executive Ann Black.
In it, she outlined how – with the help of the Institute of Directors (Scotland) – the trust had “held discussions with key stakeholders and within the trust” before drawing up its reform proposals.
Following that process, Black said, the trust drew up “a series of recommendations that collectively amount to a revision in the way the trust functions. Therefore trustees in the current financial climate did not believe it was necessary to carry out a public consultation”.
At LCC’s monthly meeting on Monday night, community councillor Stewart Hay questioned the use of the phrase “key” stakeholders.
“One of the most powerful heritages of the oil era is the charitable trust, and are we not all of us living and resident here stakeholders in what that charitable trust does?” he asked.
“The notion that there’s somehow ‘key’ and there’s the rest of us is concerning.”
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