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Now National Trust for Scotland has to shed staff
The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has just announced that the economic downturn leaves it facing a reduction in staffing level to save costs. With falling revenues in visitors, donors and memberships, it has to reduce its costs to ensure that the charity will be able to deliver on its plans for the future.
Staff were informed yesterday (5th March) that cost saving measures, including likely job losses, are required across the whole organisation.
As many reductions as possible are to be sought through natural wastage and a voluntary redundancy programme. However it is anticipated there may be in the region of 91 full time posts lost in 2009/10, with recruitment of new seasonal staff at the Trust’s properties put on hold whilst a reduction of overall seasonal hours is achieved.
A staff consultation period will begin next week and will include regular meetings with the relevant trade union, Prospect. The union has been kept fully informed about developments over the past weeks and months.
All parts of the charity will be streamlined, including changes to some loss-making properties. Summing up the Trust’s current challenges and the announcement of job losses, Chief Executive Kate Mavor said: ‘Like most organisations the Trust has been considerably affected by the recession and we accept we have to respond to the economic conditions by making these cost savings.
‘Inevitably this includes reducing our staffing levels and doing everything we can to ensure the charity is more efficient if we are to have a sustainable future.
‘Today’s proposed job losses are very regrettable but as staffing accounts for 50% of our operating expenditure, we must inevitably face the prospect of redundancies.
‘Whilst we have taken some very difficult decisions, we are convinced that this is the right thing to do to secure the long term viability of the Trust’.
For Argyll should have news later today on how some of the Trust’s properties will be affected.
And the winner of the Moorcroft art nouveau ‘White ladies’ vase raffled by Helensburgh’s Hill House is…
Eric Knowles, the respected BBC’s Antiques Roadshow director was responsible for arranging an eye-catching fundraiser for Hill House in Helensburgh. Knowles has described the Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed house as ‘the jewel in the crown of the National Trust for Scotland’,
The White Ladies Vase, a beautiful Mackintosh-inspired vase by one of Moorcroft Pottery’s leading designers, Nicola Slaney, was the prize in a raffle to raise funds for Hill House. The vase was donated by Moorcroft, of which Knowles is also a director.
The vase is worth over £2,000 and references Mackintosh’s famous Glasgow rose and art-nouveau female figures. Mr Knowles says: ‘I was very impressed with The White Ladies design, which instantly reminded me of Mackintosh’s ‘kimono’ cabinet in which these shrouded ladies appear. Designer Nicola Slaney has created a most fitting interpretation, in my opinion.
Well, the draw took place and news of the winner eventually emerged – and the lucky winner is centenarian Dan Orr from Edinburgh.
Head for the Snowdrop Festival at Arduaine
Things are looking up. From 1st February until 16th March the National Trust for Scotland’s lovely Arduaine Gardens, near Loch Melfort south of Oban, are taking part in VisitScotland’s Snowdrop Festival.
Arduaine, open all year-round, is famed for its collection of exotic plants but many hold the snowdrop, which Arduaine has in abundance, the most beautiful of all. The garden’s west coast location gives it the benefit of a warmer climate that can produce the early snowdrop sightings that lift the spirits at this time of year.
To contact the gardens direct, phone 0844 493 2216.
The photograph – of the snowdrop, or Galanthus Nivalis – is licensed under Wikipedia Commons and this is considered one of its finest images.
National Trust for Scotland sets up online site for Robert Burns’ letters
The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has created an online site to display letters from Robert Burns until the Burns Birthplace Museum opens in July 2010.
The letters will appear on the site on the dates they were originally written. They were sent to friends, colleagues, other companions and literary magazines and the NTS say that they will give readers an insight into the ‘colourful life’ Burns led. Site visitors can post comments on each letter.
Shonaig Macpherson, NTS’s chairman, says: ‘In the period from 1787 to 1789 we see many sides of Burns in his letters. The great love poet can seem cold in his correspondence with friend Robert Ainslie, but he is then flowery in his love letters to Mrs Agnes McLehose – codename ‘Clarinda’ – while a more factual and reflective side is seen in other letters.
‘One of the aims of the new museum is to show every side to Burns and these letters are an early way of people seeing how complex a character he truly was’.
Sew bags to save St Kilda’s puffin chicks
Forget reindeer. Puffin chicks need your help. Every year, dozens of pufflings become disorientated by lights from the buildings on the isolated island of Hirta in the St Kilda island group. As a result they end up inland instead of out at sea and are too young to sort this problem out for themselves.They just get bewildered.
Rangers from the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), who live on the island throughout the summer, regularly rescue these pufflings by placing them in small, cotton drawstring-bags. These let the Rangers keep the little birds safe and take them to the coast for release out to sea.
Now NTS Property Manager, Susan Bain, is asking for help from keen sewers to produce more of the bags that are needed to aid the rescue of the lost puffin chicks.
So if you can sew, you can’t resist puffins, you can’t bear to think of the disoriented and vulnerable little pufflings – you can really help by increasing the stock of these vital rescue sacks.
Anyone interested in getting involved should contact Susan Bain on 01463 232034 for details of how and what to do.
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National Trust for Scotland pays tribute to Earl of Wemys and March, its ‘inspirational former President and Chairman’
The National Trust for Scotland has learned with the deepest sadness of the death of the 12th Earl of Wemyss & 8th Earl of March, pictured below, who was at the forefront of the Trust for five decades. He passed away in Edinburgh on Friday 12 December, aged 96. The Trust sends its sincere condolences to Lady Wemyss and family.
The Earl of Wemyss and March was elected onto the Trust’s Executive Committee in 1944 and two years later was elected to Council. He held his first meeting as the Chairman of Council, the Trust’s decision-making body, in February 1948 in his early thirties, a position he maintained until 1969.
He made a further distinguished contribution to the Trust as President for 24 years (1967-1991) and was a source of inspirational leadership and vision.
The Trust’s President the Duke of Buccleuch today paid tribute to Lord Wemyss. ‘He was a legendary figure, a giant in the story of the National Trust for Scotland whose contribution to the heritage of Scotland was simply immeasurable. Through his vision and tireless leadership for over half a century he inspired people across the country to preserve and enjoy their natural and cultural heritage’.
The Trust’s Chairman, Shonaig Macpherson, also paid tribute today, describing the late Earl of Wemyss, who was a life member of the charity for 70 years, as ‘part of the very fabric of the Trust’. She said: “The Trust has been blessed with the support of such a special and committed person for over 70 years. His influence and commitment to conservation, particularly in the 1950’s and 1960’s, is still felt to this day and we have so much to thank him for’.
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National Trust response to Helensburgh concerns on Hill House opening hours
Robert Ferguson, Glasgow and West Buildings and Gardens Group Manager for the National Trust for Scotland has sent us the following response to the news item – below, under Community News – on concerns in Helensburgh about its major visitor attraction, Hill House. The house is also one of Argyll’s tourist destinations, supporting the widespread interest in Charles Rennie Mackintosh.Concerns have arisen because the house is open only in afternoons on a year round basis, with no variation for the major tourist season. Mr Ferguson’s response follows:
“I refer to the recent correspondence regarding opening times at the Hill House, Helensburgh.
The vast majority of National Trust for Scotland properties are open to visitors every day during the summer. Many do operate on an afternoon-only basis and this decision is based on a regular analysis of expected visiting patterns over several seasons, as well as careful consideration of our conservation responsibilities.
The Hill House is one of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s finest creations and its many original features require careful control of the environment. Our opening hours help us to ensure that we manage the crucial conservation requirements of an internationally important historic house, while giving daily access. On occasion, mornings can allow school parties and large tour groups access, thereby reducing pressure during normal opening times.
The Hill House is just one of 129 varied properties which the National Trust for Scotland, as a charity, maintains on behalf of the nation and we look forward to welcoming many Herald readers to our properties over the rest of the season.”
Helensburgh concern over part time opening of Hill House
Visitors to Helensburgh have been found frustrated by their failure to gain morning access to one of the town’s – and Argyll’s – major attractions, Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Hill House, owned and run by the National Trust for Scotland. The house does not open on any day until 1.30pm and closes at 5.30pm. This is clearly not an arrangement designed to suit the visitors it is funded to attract – and this is the height of the tourist season.
Please note: There is now a response to this item from the National Trust for Scotland. Click on Comments to read it.