The 1996 disaggregation of Strathclyde Regional Council rendered Castle Toward an asset of Argyll & Bute Council. Argyll & Bute Council sought and achieved title to the property on the basis that jobs were protected and economic activity guaranteed at the centre. The best way to do that was to cooperate with an initiative to continue its use as an outdoor education residential facility, via the Castle Trust, with a Joint Management Committee of The Three Councils being established in 1997 encompassing Glasgow City Council as the site’s historic owner, and East Renfrewshire Council, owing to the use all three Council’s made of the outdoor education centre.
The minutes of the Castle Trust Meeting on 27th February 1998, Item 3.3 assert that ‘the purpose of the Committee is to oversee the operation of the centres [Castle Toward and its sister centre Ardentinny] on behalf of the Councils.’
The minutes from the first Joint Management Committee Meeting on Friday 22nd August 1997 approved that the Chairmanship of the Committee ‘for the first year should rest with Argyll & Bute Council’. Argyll & Bute had attempted to have permanent convenorship, but was forced to concede to a rotation with its counterparts. Upon achieving this mantle, the Council then orchestrated the beginning of the dissolution of this partnership, and would renege upon the guarantee in order to pursue alternative interests.
The next stage of events is 1998 – 2003: The Lease Debacle