Council was not ‘repeatedly briefed’ about SRT finances, chief executive says
SHETLAND Islands Council has strongly denied that it was “regularly and repeatedly briefed” by Shetland Recreational Trust (SRT) about its financial outlook.
SRT chairman David Thomson made the claim in an 18-page response to Scalloway Community Council last week, as reported by Shetland News yesterday.
Charitable trust told ‘seriousness’ of SRT’s financial outlook before Scalloway closure
Thomson said that the “precarious nature” of the SRT’s finances had been public knowledge for a decade, adding that the SIC and Shetland Charitable Trust were “regularly and repeatedly briefed” about this.
But SIC chief executive Maggie Sandison has denied this claim strongly in a statement sent to Shetland News today (Tuesday).
Sandison said that only once, in 2023, was the council made aware by the SRT that its financial sustainability was uncertain.
“There has not been ‘regular or repeated’ briefings to the council on the financial sustainability of the trust since the initial contact in 2023,” she said.
And Sandison added that there was “no prior notification of the decision to close Scalloway Pool” either before it was publicly announced by the SRT last month.
The council chief said the SIC had been working with SRT to develop a contract to access their facilities, including the use of Scalloway Pool.
“At no point in those contractual negotiations has the possibility of Scalloway Pool not being available during the term of the contract raised,” Sandison said.
The SIC’s chief executive said she would not ordinarily respond publicly about another organisation’s operations, but “given the public misrepresentation of what the council have been told/knew” she had decided to clarify its position.
“In 2023, the council was made aware by Shetland Recreational Trust that the financial sustainability of the trust was uncertain and that a turnaround plan was being developed,” she said.
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“Officers considered this to be a business continuity risk to delivery of the council’s own statutory duties.
“That risk was reported to the council with an assurance that SRT management team and board had developed a turnaround plan to mitigate that risk.
“The council reassessed the risk of possible future insolvency in 2024 and determined SRT were acting to mitigate the risk and were no longer highlighting to the council any risk of insolvency.”
Sandison added that the cost pressures facing SRT were “not a surprise”, citing the impact of rising costs on organisations such as the SIC.
But she clarified that the SRT had given the council no prior notification of the decision to close Scalloway Pool.
The unexpected statement from the SIC comes in response to a lengthy reply from SRT chairman Thomson to Scalloway Community Council last week.
In the document, Thomson said the SRT received just eight per cent of an asked 14 per cent funding uplift from SCT in 2025, to see it through to 2030.
Both the charitable trust and the SIC were told “the seriousness of receiving less than the absolute minimum necessary”, he claimed.
Despite the SRT’s “grave concerns”, Thomson said last week it became clear that “no such funding was forthcoming”.
He also revealed that the SRT was just four months from insolvency before taking urgent action to reduce staffing levels in 2023.
The trust has warned it again faces insolvency by the 2028/29 financial year, unless it takes further drastic measures like shutting the Scalloway pool.
A petition calling for the pool to be saved is set to be presented at Shetland Charitable Trust’s Lerwick offices on Thursday at 10.30am ahead of the organisation’s meeting later that morning.
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