Council / Councillor proposes motion on SIC’s partnership with recreational trust
AN URGENT motion could go in front of elected members next week on the council’s partnership with Shetland Recreational Trust (SRT) ahead of the closure of the Scalloway swimming pool.
The motion is being led by Shetland Central member Davie Sandison, who is keen for Shetland Islands Council (SIC) to take a strategic view on the matter.
It comes as it was confirmed yesterday (Wednesday) that core funder Shetland Charitable Trust had turned down a request for more funding for SRT ahead of the closure of the Scalloway pool on 31 March.
While services will stop after that date, SRT said it will retain ownership of the building for a longer period of time to “give the community further opportunity to suggest alternatives and allow the possibility of reopening should a sustainable long-term solution be identified”.
Sandison’s motion, which could go in front of a meeting of the full council on Wednesday, begins by noting the importance of the SRT – including the Scalloway pool – to the health, wellbeing, recreation and water safety of the Shetland community.
It also noted the statutory obligation for local authorities to, in certain circumstances, ensure the provision of leisure and recreational facilities under Scottish local government law.
The motion also notes the “obligations that the Shetland Charitable Trust and the Shetland Recreational Trust have toward their beneficiaries, the inhabitants of Shetland”.
Sandison’s motion instructs SIC chief executive Maggie Sandison to review service agreements between the council and the SRT to assess cost benefits and best value and “whether overall level of charges is appropriate”.
It then further instructs the chief executive to make representation to the charitable trust and SRT, “citing the above factors”.
“The chief executive should seek such information from the trusts to enable her to report back to members on options for a sustainable long-term plan to maintain the operation of the SRT and the Scalloway Pool into the future”.
Speaking about the motion, Davie Sandison said it is “making a case for the council to have a seat at the table to even have a discussion about this in the first place”.
He said he been concerned about the “partnership arrangement” between the council and the trusts, particularly given that the SIC was not informed in advance of the decision to close the Scalloway pool.
“Everybody is looking at the council saying ‘why don’t you do something’ – well the council won’t do something unless they’ve got a trigger to do it, and this is giving them a trigger hopefully,” he said.
“But that’s not going to save the pool from closure at the end of the month, unless the very fact that this gets carried is enough to put additional pressure on the charitable trust to do something.”
Sandison noted that with the council commissioning £700,000 of services, if the SRT is saying it is not sustainable due to funding issues then that should be a concern.
He also said reviewing the SIC’s service agreements with the SRT would look at whether the current model gives “best value”.
The councillor said “I don’t believe we’ve turned every stone” on the matter.
The motion has also been signed by Shetland Central members Ian Scott and Catherine Hughson.
However, Sandison said it has to be accepted by the convener next week before it can be heard by members. A new convener is only being appointed at the beginning of the meeting following the resignation of Andrea Manson last week.
The latest news from SRT and the charitable trust was met with disappointment by the ‘Save Scalloway Pool’ campaign group.
It questioned if a “proper and meaningful conversation about how to keep Scalloway pool open” ever took place between the two trusts.
Both the SRT and the charitable trust released statements at the same time on Wednesday to provide an update on the situation with the Scalloway pool.
The charitable trust said it had “reluctantly turned down” an ask from SRT for more funding, with chairman Robert Leask calling it an “incredibly difficult decision”.
Shetland Recreational Trust (SRT) confirmed in a statement that this would mean the closure of the pool would have to go ahead in less than two weeks time.
It said its staff and trustees had decided that a one year extension of the pool – which has been requested by campaigners – “would not resolve” the underlying financial difficulties, and would “risk further instability”.
SRT chairman David Thomson however said trustees agreed “we would do what we can and our decision to put the building into suspension rather than permanently shuttering anything still allows the community a chance to explore whether a sustainable future can be identified”.
Charitable trust chairman Robert Leask said its trustees had met three times to consider the funding request from the recreational trust.
He added they had “reluctantly” decided that it could damage the charitable trust and put its guaranteed funding with other organisations at risk.
“Our financial advisers say we already spend to our maximum sustainable level on grants, which is £10m a year,” Leask said.
“To go beyond that to boost SRT as a special case was felt by trustees to be unwise and unfair to the other charitable groups. Almost all these 30 organisations require more funding than we are able to give them.”
SRT’s core grant over the five years to 2025 was £16 million, and for 2025-2030 this was increased to £19.6 million.
The charitable trust said previous extra funding agreements to SRT included £600,000 during 2021 and 2022 to help it through the slump caused by the Covid pandemic and an extra £512,000 during 2023 and 2024 to help with running costs.
But the SRT came to a decision that it needed to close one of its facilities to remain financially sustainable.
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