The job below at Stornoway Trust was advertised at the beginning of the year by Community Land Scotland. My sources tell me a certain person was appointed to the £50,000-a-year post so I asked who, when, why. I was told I had to contact trust chairman Murdo Murray as he was dealing with all inquiries personally. The chairman? Weird.
Silent but deadly. Murdo Murray, chairman, Stornoway Trust
My emailed request, made last Friday, was ignored. Murdo Murray, supposed to be chairman of a responsible public landlord, has been struck silent. Maybe the appointment is a secret. The truth is he has a quite horrific reputation of ignoring questions. By speaking to others, I have only just discovered how completely unprofessional the man actually is. Why does Mo Murray have to treat people like they are shshomething stuck to his shoe?
Maybe he sees himself as too important to talk to some bolshie local hack about the woman chosen to sort out the castle grounds. Nobody reads that stupid blog anyway. Keep the public in the dark and feed them b******t, seems to be his absolute mantra.
Still, he will probably find a local media person who won’t ask him any probing questions because of their newspapers’ or friends’ business connections, their bosses’ directorships, family connections, advertising considerations et al. They will merely smile and meekly say thank you, Mr Murray. No further questions, Mr Murray. No boats will be rocked, Mr Murray.
Also, unfortunately for this fragile community, the record shows Murray has behind him a charmless band which make up a majority of trust members who are very sycophantic and will blindly support him when they should be challenging him and his officer. There are only a couple or so of honourable exceptions. Without any accountability demanded from unquestioning wannabes, the current chairman and the current officer now think they don’t need to care what anyone else thinks. They think they know what is good for the community. Deals are done in advance. No one needs to know the details. Just nod and you can go home. Their way or no way.
While Murray was a board member, there were certain issues in the trust leadership which allowed him to see clearly that there was a way for him to take things forward with a few well-chosen words in the right ears. His plan worked well. Even he didn’t think it would work so wonderfully. He can’t believe his luck. Neither can many who know him very well indeed.
This, of course, is the same Murdo Murray who showed his true colours when he sanctioned the vile and probably illegal threats published in the Stornoway Gazette a fortnight ago by his officer to snatch crofts from any islanders who stand in their way to allow Amec and EDF Energy to have trust land for a pittance. They have now both made Stornoway Trust a bad landlord that bullies people and no longer cares about ordinary people – and that’s official. No wonder other Scottish community land groups are looking on, open-mouthed.
Ordinary crofters who run community propellors have struck deals many times more lucrative without the trust leadership’s toing and froing to sip cognac in some of Europe’s swankiest hotels. The Stornoway Windfarm payback deal is laid bare as a monstrous joke. A joke, but as the facts slowly come out, no one outwith Leverhulme House is laughing any more.
The Scottish charities’ regulator tells me Stornoway Trust is allowed to be a registered charity, with all the benefits that brings, because it has signed up to be open and honest and decent. It’s not a lot to ask, really. When any charity stops being open and honest and decent, it wants to know and will take prompt action on complaints. Oh yes, I think I will probably be keeping in touch with the regulator a lot in the near future.
Trust elections will be upon us in a few weeks. Heartless Murray is now boring anyone who will listen with his endless drivel about how he has a plan to stay on as chairman of the trust for many years to come. Why not, with so many spineless board members that he can cleverly manipulate? After all, Amec and their Gallic associates can be expected to be even more thankful and undoubtedly will be even more munificent with, er, their island friends and supporters. Merci beaucoup, mes amis.
Who is to blame? Probably you and me, actually. By not taking a keen interest in how unfit for purpose Stornoway Trust has become in recent years, the people who live on Leverhulme’s land are getting exactly what they deserve. His Lordship must be spinning in his grave.
.
.
Job ad below
Stornoway Trust Transition Project Director
(15 month contract up to £50k/annum) Full details on application
An exciting opportunity to work in the Outer Hebrides, supporting Stornoway Trust, one of Scotland’s oldest community trusts as it prepares to deliver a significant capital investment project and to re-position itself to meet future opportunities and challenges.The Transition Director will be responsible for supporting the strategic and business planning processes which will ensure the success of the Lews Castle Grounds Regeneration Project and the Trusts’ other business interests in the long term.
Central to this will be advising the Trust on the most effective organisational and staffing structures to provide the framework for success.This transition post and the Lews Castle Grounds Regeneration Project are supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Due to the nature and scope of the post, the preferred option is for the role to be full time and based in Stornoway, however negotiation with an exceptional candidate would be considered if it can be demonstrated that all requirements of the post could be delivered through an alternative arrangement, such as consultancy support or secondment.
Closing date for applications: The closing date for applications is midnight Thursday 29th January 2015.
So, do we know who’s relative, oops, I mean exceptional candidate, has been given this nice little stop-gap for a staggering £50K/yr? Can’t say that any of the above is news as it goes on elsewhere…with impunity. Wind farms again. The money (taxpayers money) to be made goes into the pockets of those who already have money and the community are given promises of a share of diddly.
This is developing into a major scandal, and I do hope that we will get a choice of decent candidates to stand for the Trust at the next election. I believe that five of them have to stand down then, and if they had any sense of the total contempt in which they are held by the community they would all stand now, and not wait until the Trust election.
Keep digging Mr. Maciver.
Just so as we are are clear who we are talking abut Mr Maciver, would you print a list of the Trust members.
pooper snooper,are you saying nepotism is alive and doing £50.000k well over the next year?,if so should the word “trust” be dropped from the management title,or the the addition of “dis” be inserted in front??
Excellent article Iain. Keep on sticking the boot into them and, hopefully, they will all stand down before the next Trust elections.
Something is rotten in the state of Stornoway Trust, and a £50,000 per year Chief Executive is not going to be able to fix something which has been falling apart for years.
The Trust is now as shabby and derelict as Lady Lever Park, torn apart in a wilful act of vandalism, and the Trustees must bear most, if not all, of the blame.
There will be an opportunity at the coming Trust election for the public to take the first step in cleaning out the Augean stables, getting rid once and for all of the council rejects, religious bigots, quango hoppers and the no hopers (sometimes a combination of all four) who constitute the present Trust.
Only then can the Herculean task begin.