Review will strengthen trust – Gregson
A NEW ethos of openness and communication will help transform Shetland Amenity Trust into a slimmer and smarter organisation, according to its chairman Brian Gregson.
Following the untimely death of former manager Jimmy Moncrieff in February of this year, the trust has been undergoing a root and branch review of its activities.
The review has created uncertainty among staff leaving many worried for their employment prospects.
This has been further exacerbated by the uncertainty of future EU funding following the UK’s Brexit vote and, more recently, the impact of the Promote Shetland contract upheaval.
Following a staff meeting on Friday, Gregson said he was confident that the trust would be able to continue with most, if not all, of its activities.
He said acting manager Andy Steven had agreed to continue with the task of reforming and “effectively rebuilding” the trust and was present at Friday’s meeting.
“We are continuing the work of doing a very serious in depth review of the structure and the work of the trust,” Gregson told Shetland News.
“We are trying as hard as we can not to discontinue anything. We are rationalising the way the trust is structured in order to try to keep everything going; and keep providing what the public expects.”
However, he said he was unable to give an assurance at this time that everybody’s jobs would be secure in the future.
“I am not prepared to put my hand on my heart at this stage and say that all of the activities are safe and everything is sacred,” he said.
“We certainly looking at different ways of doing things, and at the end of the review there might be some things where we have to say ‘sorry we cannot afford to do that anymore’.
Gregson continued by saying that a new culture of communication within the trust had already produced some tangible improvements.
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“Out of the discussions with everybody we already got some ideas how we can do things in a smarter way and produce an as good if not better product or service at the other end,” he said.
Shetland Amenity Trust continues to be in discussion with the council as to how some of the elements of the Promote Shetland contract can continue to be delivered while the contract is being re-tendered.
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