It has come to my attention that the following reply was sent to a member of the National Trust for Scotland in relation to the Go Ape project:
“Dear //////
Below is the information you requested, hope it is of some use.
Pollok House, its contents and 361 acres of policies (now Pollok Country Park) were gifted to the City of Glasgow by Mrs Anne Maxwell MacDonald in 1969. There were a number of conditions attached to the gift, which also enabled the Burrell Collection to be located in the Park, The Country Park is managed by GCC Land Services, and the Burrell Collection by Culture & Sport Glasgow.
The Trust's involvement is that Mrs Anne Maxwell MacDonald's father, Sir John Stirling Maxwell, was a founder of the Trust, and in 1939 entered into a Conservation Agreement with the Trust over 1100 acres of Pollok Estate, including the area gifted to the City of Glasgow. A condition of the gift was that a Pollok Advisory Committee was to be created, to enable the Trust to provide advice to both the City and the Maxwell MacDonald family (Pollok & Corrour Ltd) on the management of their respective property.
Normally there has been prior consultation between the City, the Trust and P&C Ltd before any planning applications are submitted, to allow proposals to be fully considered, but this has not happened in this case, and that is the basis of the Trust's current objection to the planning application. It is hoped that this will allow time for the proposal to be fully considered and discussed between the parties, and by the Pollok Advisory Committee, and the Trust will then decide whether it will object further.
Yours etc. Dated January 2008”
Comments: The City of Glasgow Council have obviously not taken the proper steps in consulting with the Nation Trust on their proposals and this failure to follow the specific terms and conditions of the gift of Pollok Park has caused the Trust to object to the Go Ape proposals!
This proves that not only have the owners of the common good land (the people of the Glasgow area) been ignored by the City of Glasgow Council but the Pollok Advisory Committee (a sub-committee of the National Trust) who were formed to look at matters affecting the park as part of a Conservation Agreement have been kept in the dark—where is the openness and accountability claimed by the council in all of this?
Yours in the common good. Tom Minogue, 94 Victoria Terrace, Dunfermline, Fife, KY12 0LU. Tel: 01383729869