Amenity trust chief aims for further financial stability

The chief executive of Shetland Amenity Trust says things are “moving in the right direction” – following a discussion of its accounts at its annual general meeting.

Members were told on Friday that the trust had a deficit of £337,000 in operating costs for the 2017/18 year, but factoring in depreciation and other figures the trust had a cash position of minus-£77,000, down from minus-£111,000 the previous year.

Mat Roberts said after the meeting there was an aim for further financial stability at the trust.

He said: “£337,000 is the figure reported in the accounts and that includes the depreciation figures and all the other bits and pieces that the accountants like to put in.

“The cash position, as it were, was minus-£77,000. That’s real terms.”

Mr Roberts said the trust was examining all of its expenditure and income streams.

The trust is also looking at its funding options and trimming down its property portfolio and the costs of Hays Dock restaurant, which Mr Roberts said had made been making a loss, and had done historically too.

“We’re looking at everything again in greater detail and in a more measured sense,” Mr Roberts said.

“Obviously I wasn’t here last year, but I get the impression people discovered the situation and there was a certain amount of enthusiasm and energy and immediacy that was required to solve the problem. And therefore fairly broad decisions had to be made because problems had to be solved very quickly.

“The accounts show we’re going in the right direction, and we’ve bought ourselves some thinking time to take a more considered approach now to how we build a sustainable long-term business model.”

• More in next week’s Shetland Times.