CARLOWAY ESTATE TRUST - DISSENSION IN THE RANKS (23)

Word is reaching us of dissension within the ranks of the Trust.  The Trust chairman wants a four-fold increase in  croft rents,  a move the vice-chairman emphatically opposes.

Inevitable,  we suppose,  and our view from the very beginning.  Add to that the unconscionable charges the Trust has imposed for a spot of evening angling and one really does wonder what passes for rational thought in the direction of the Trust.

The vice-chairman is a popular fellow within the wider community and,  no doubt,  he will have wide community support in his opposition to this crazy proposal.  If a four-fold increase in croft rents is the way forward for the Trust,  then why was this not explained to the Trust electorate BEFORE the Trust was ever constituted?  Cluelessness, or dishonesty with the electorate,  are the only answers and,  in all probability,  go together.  An added difficulty for the Trust is that the chairman is not,  exactly, the most popular member of the community.

The fundamental problem with the Trust - like many other Community Buy-Outs - is that it has no natural resources which to develop other than those that would cost £millions and no sensible body would ever lend money on that scale - or even on any scale -  to the Trust.  That much was apparent from the very start so that the Trust is very much in a stew of its own making.  It was utterly irresponsible conduct and the only sensible people were those who refused to go along with it.

As we keep saying,  we've been sold a pup ....... and we know it.