Letters / The joys of austerity
As Scalloway’s swimming pool is consigned to oblivion along with the Scalloway secondary school due to the joys of austerity – the people of Skeld have also recently had a taste of these joys – there are certainly numerous issues involving our trusts that desperately need airing.
Firstly, given the apparent half-hearted nature of the Shetland Recreational Trust’s efforts to maintain the pool, the question I think people are asking is this: was there any real desire to maintain the pool in the first place, the pool undoubtedly being one of the outstanding jewels in Shetland’s crown.
The effort therefore to maintain the pool seems so lacklustre that any actual desire to save the pool seems improbable.
Secondly, and this is where it becomes most interesting. The charitable trust, who are custodians of nearly half a billion pounds of Shetland’s reserves, have deemed it “unsustainable” to increase the funding required to save the pool. I say this with caution as everything seems to be shrouded in mystery, making the whole picture fairly vague.
Having enjoyed an increase of £90m pounds in its reserves since last April – oh yes, funds are volatile, yes I know – it was deemed unaffordable, unsustainable, call it what you want, to release a few hundred thousand pounds which would subsequently go against its precious £10m yearly disbursements limit.
It is this very mystery that takes me further. As a general point, to say spending is unsustainable can only be viewed after that spending has occurred, and as the great J K Galbraith once succinctly put it, the only function of economic forecasting is to make astrologers look respectable.
It took a bold set of councillors, the vision of John Nicolson, coupled with the tireless efforts of Joe Grimond, our Liberal MP, for these facilities to come to fruition.
Another question which needs asking is this: is there nobody within these two trusts who sees the lunacy of this behaviour, and is prepared to fight against such lunacy.
And in conclusion, isn’t it ironic that the very week the Scalloway Pool is being closed, there has been a move to build a new hockey pitch in Lerwick. Will anyone take a wager that this spending is not unsustainable?
Shetland’s combined reserves currently hover at around the £900m plus mark, and yes I’m all too aware that our own council also sings from the very same page from the book of Thatcher.
Ian Scott
Councillor for Shetland Central
