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Scotland’s heritage ‘put at risk
by Trust mismanagement’
Mike Wade
Columnist: The TImes
Filed 27Feb10
©Mike wade
This article was originally published in The TImes on 19th February 2010.
It is reproduced here with the kind permission of its author and of the newspaper.
The National Trust for Scotland’s ability to carry out its core function of conserving the nation’s heritage has been seriously undermined by its senior management, according to the man charged with reviewing the organisation’s work.
In an interview with The Times, George Reid laid bare an anachronistic organisation living beyond its means, whose board had compromised the trust’s ability to carry out its duties when it announced 91 redundancies and the closure of 11 properties last March.
Though these numbers were later reduced, “serious” damage had been done, Mr Reid said.
“When the organisation has made cuts it is difficult to start re-hiring. That has boxed them in. It is no longer a question of staff cuts, it is a question of whether there are enough staff to resource core purpose, that is the issue,” he added.
Research by the Prospect trade union showed that of 73 properties and departments affected by last year’s cuts, 33 were now in an “intolerable” condition, and 28 were “critical”. Problems extend from the island of St Kilda, where there are currently no archaeological staff, through Falkland Palace, which has poor security, to the NTS communications department, which has insufficient staff to cope with the continual tide of bad news.
Mr Reid defined the work of the trust as “conservation in the interests of the nation for all time”. Against that standard, its recent mistakes had been disastrous.
“The staff cuts in conservation were about 30 per cent, but project money rolls forward,” he said. “There is now money there that is not being spent because in some areas there is no staff to service it.”
He highlighted the problems of Mingulay, an island important both as a bird sanctuary and for its Iron Age remains, bequeathed to NTS in 2000.
Mr Reid said it was ironic that “there is money available in the Hebridean Fund, but not the basic resource to go and do anything.”
He had sympathy for Kate Mavor, the NTS chief executive, who took up her post the week the cuts were implemented. The ensuing controversy and subsequent furore over the sale of Wemyss House, the trust’s Edinburgh headquarters, is widely believed to have prompted the departure of its former chairwoman, Shonaig Macpherson.
Mr Reid’s reforms are likely to flow in two broad directions. Among the trust’s wider estate of 129 properties some powers are likely to be devolved to specialist staff and to partners, such as Historic Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and to local councils. At the centre, governance will be simplified, reducing an organisation that has “200 pinkies in the pie” to a much leaner administration.
Mr Reid conceded that some NTS council members — including organisations as diverse as the Scottish Women’s Rural Institute, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and Black Environment Network — as were likely to be unhappy with his findings.
He described a Kafka-esque organisation: “It is not unknown for a decision to be taken at fairly high level, to be challenged at staff level, and then to be referred to the council, where it might be referred to a committee. In a year and a half or two years, you may not be very much farther forward.
“How do you ensure that the widest range of conservation excellence is brought to bear on the organisation?
“I have been to one or two council meetings, but the actual discussion, was not to a great extent about conservation. If you have a conservation body, it has to be resourced, it can’t just turn up.”
©Mike Wade
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