Statement issued over way ahead for closure-hit Falls of Shin Visitor Centre
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Managers of the closure-hit Falls of Shin Visitor Centre have issued a statement over its future.
The Kyle of Sutherland Development Trust (KoSDT) which owns the facility on behalf of the community, took to its social media page to explain a plan that has been hammered out.
The move follows talks held between KoSDT and the National Lottery Community Fund, which provided more than £1 million to develop the facility and still retains a financial interest over it.
A KoSDT directors’ meeting was also held this week to discuss the situation.
The Falls of Shin Visitor Centre, comprising a 60-cover restaurant and gift shop, has been closed over the past two years with KoSDT unable to appoint an operator. The trust has lost more than £50,000 as a result of it not trading.
The trust and the lottery are at odds in that the trust’s “clear preference” is to sell the property but the lottery is keen for it to remain in community ownership
Up until now the trust has been wary of selling as it was feared any demand for a pay-back from the lottery would threaten the organisation’s existence.
However, it has now emerged that the lottery will not seek to recover any funds for the remaining asset liability period.
And now a last-ditch effort is to be made to encourage a community group to take over the running of the Falls of Shin before a final decision on whether to sell or not will be made.
The KoSDT post states: “The National Lottery will support any interested local community group to develop a business plan. There will be a cut-off date applied to this process of November 30.
“Simultaneously KoSDT will start the process of looking for selling agents to market the property.
“At that point the options, including lease, sale and transfer of ownership will be assessed by the KoSDT board to identify the option that provides the most common benefit in the long-term.
“The priority of the KoSDT Board will be that the future of the site should be based on long-term employment with opportunities for training and development and sustained economic activity.
“The KoSDT board have a clear preference to sell the property but do not wish to do so without being confident that there is a robust business plan that creates long term employment and economic benefit to the local community in place.”
A spokesman for the National Lottery Community Fund said: "We recognise that this has been a challenging and difficult time for the Trust. Following a number of meetings, we have a shared way forward which allows us to explore solutions. In the meantime, The Fund will support the Trust to ensure that maintenance costs for the building will be met.”
The full post can be viewed here.
