QUESTIONS REMAIN UNANSWERED OVER NTS FINANCES - SMITH

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 9th Sep 2009

Liberal Democrat MSP for North East Fife and Convenor of the Scottish Parliament's Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee, Iain Smith today questioned the Chief Executive of the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) about the state of the Trust's finances and how the closure of properties such as Hill of Tarvit Mansion House in his constituency have affected the books.

Commenting, Mr Smith said:

"The National Trust for Scotland still have questions to answer on the state of their finances. The evidence from Chief Executive Kate Mavor gave the Committee a valuable insight into the problems faced by NTS, but it is still unclear how these problems will be resolved in the long term.

"The NTS has a duty to fulfil their responsibilities to Scotland's heritage in the long term, but, I am concerned that the NTS has rushed into some staff cutbacks and property closures to meet a short term problem

"There is some evidence that finances were already improving before the cuts and closures were agreed, and there must be questions about why the properties affected could not have been kept open over the summer in order for other alternatives to be explored.

"I wrote to the NTS in May to press for this with respect to the two properties in my constituency that were earmarked for closure.

"There is no doubt that the Trust's finances need attention. I am not convinced, however, that the problem is addressed by simply closing properties. These properties and the collections they house still need to be maintained and that costs money.

"The Hill of Tarvit Mansion House in my constituency was closed because it was making annual loss of over £100,000. However it emerged today that it will still cost £100,000 a year to maintain the building and conserve the valuable collections within it. There were no answers today when I asked about how much will actually be saved by its closure."

ENDS