Back to HOMEPAGE Absurd. Crazy. But it could save the NTS
The National Trust for Scotland is in trouble. But take a deep
breath and consider this solution...
Magnus Linklater
Editor: Scottish Edition, The Times
Filed 26 Apr 09
©Magnus Linklater
This article was originally published in The Times on 22nd April 2009.
It is reproduced here with the kind permission of its author and of the newspaper.
For anyone travelling to Scotland in this, the bicentenary year of Charles Darwin, an essential stopping point would have to be the wonderful Hugh Miller Museum at Cromarty on the northeast coast, a small but perfectly preserved shrine to the great pioneer geologist, who was excavating fossils from the red sandstone cliffs around him and posing searching questions about the earth's creation 20 years before the publication of On the Origin of Species.
Here, in the house where Miller lived and worked, you can browse through the fascinating clues he disinterred of long extinct creatures, which first suggested to him “the remains of an entirely different and incalculably more ancient creation”.
Or rather you could. But be warned - do not try going on a Saturday. Or indeed a Thursday or a Friday. Because, unless the small and loyal band of volunteers who struggle to keep the museum open have arranged a decent rota by the summer, the doors will be shut to visitors. Earlier this year the National Trust for Scotland, which once funded and managed it, announced that it was cutting back its support, along with that of 11 other properties, which will either close forthwith, or open only on a restricted basis.
The announcement has caused predictable fury among the trust's members, some of them owners, such as Lord Aberdeen, whose family gifted its fabulous Adam house at Haddo to the nation but has now been told that it will no longer be open to the general public. The family has described the decision as appalling and has accused the trust of “15 years of mismanagement”.
Not surprisingly, the NTS membership - that doughty band of Barbour-clad enthusiasts who sustain it with their annual subscriptions - has risen in revolt. Led by an 80-year-old woman from Peebles, they are collecting the 2,000 signatures that they need for an extraordinary general meeting, at which they intend to hold the trust's board and council to account. If necessary, they will mount a coup at the annual general meeting. Be warned - there is nothing like a mutinous middle class bent on revenge.
But their aims appear essentially nostalgic. They want to go back to the days when the trust was almost a family affair, and when the big issues were more about the quality of the shortbread at Inverewe Gardens than how a body that now manages 129 properties can sustain its finances with a membership of under 300,000. Operationally, the trust is in deficit; a succession of poor management decisions has plunged it deeper into crisis; the reserves have been all but spent; and though the present board has set out a new vision and structure, it seems less able, every year, to deliver on the two principal activities for which it was established: conservation and access.
All sorts of solutions have been proposed. The architect James Simpson has suggested the creation of new conservation bodies to take charge of Scotland's heritage and environment, with the NTS being amalgamated into a government- sponsored quango with charitable status, called the Natural Heritage Estate. But the trust, supported by its membership, might hesitate about surrendering its identity to a government body in this way.
I have a better idea. The NTS should open immediate negotiations with the National Trust in England (as well as Wales and Northern Ireland), with a view to forming a UK-wide body. In this, the tenth anniversary year of devolution, there is a powerful case for reversing the trend and amalgamating the Scottish organisation with its larger, richer, better-resourced and financially healthier English counterpart.
It could retain its Scottish name, its headquarters in Edinburgh, and its regional bodies. But by merging management functions, conservation expertise, curatorial skills, marketing and promotion, it would gain economies of scale, while joining up with an entirely sympathetic body which shares all its aims, while simply delivering them rather better.
I can already see the outrage such a proposal would cause. Surrender a Scottish institution into English hands? Impossible. Bring to an end 70 years of proud independence? Out of the question. Lose autonomy just as the Scottish Parliament is seeking extra powers? Absurd. The Nationalists would oppose it tooth and nail. Even mild devolutionists would argue that this is a change that runs against the political trend.
But surely the long-term conservation of Scotland's heritage should take precedence over ruffled political feathers or cultural hand-wringing. A glance at the very different tone of the National Trust's annual review shows the gap opening up between the two bodies. It speaks of a membership that has grown 10 per cent in the past year, with income from investment and membership steadily growing and a series of commercial enterprises that have greatly improved the balance sheet. It has access to sources of expertise and funding for the management of buildings and the natural landscape that are at present denied the Scottish body. Why should the NTS not want to to take advantage of that larger resource?
Of course, there might be resistance from south as well as north of the border - but, nothing ventured, nothing gained. The time has come for the NTS to swallow its pride and act in the best interest, not only of its members, but the nation. It should have the courage to tell its members that radical change is needed if it is to survive the 21st century - and that there is nothing wrong with the age-old maxim: if you can't beat them, join them.
©Magnus Linklater
Further reading recommended by Land-Care
Irvine, James (2004). Scotland's Land. RSE conference 30th September 2004
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 04 Oct 04, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View
Irvine, James (2005). Fury with the National Trust as it plans to break up historic farm in the Lake District
See ENVIRONMENT Homepage, Filed 29 Jan 05, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View
Linklater, Magnus (2006). Linklater's Scotland. The new executive chairman of
the National Trust for Scotland. Poisoned chalice or holy grail?
See ENVIRONMENT Homepage, Filed 27 Mar 06, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View
Robertson, Liz (2004). SNH and the Isle of Arran. A Case Study presented at the PEOPLE TOO conference, Perth, 29th October 2004 "Who governs rural Scotland?"
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 19 Nov 04, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View
MacLeod, Kirsty (2005). Who takes the flak when "farming for the environment" schemes fail to deliver?
See ENVIRONMENT Homepage, File 30 Nov 05, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View
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