From 1998 until 2003 when intentions to sell Castle Toward were made known, Actual Reality attempted to ascertain a lease from a reluctant Argyll & Bute Council, to secure that the outdoor education centre continues.
This report of a Council meeting provides the official stance concerning Castle Towards’ management at this point:
Policy & Resources Committee Meeting, Thursday 11th June 1998, Item 6, Outdoor Centres/Castle Trust – Current Position
1. SUMMARY
1.1 … In summary responsibility for managing the centres [Achnamara, Ardentinny and Castle Toward] has been transferred to the Castle Trust which has let a contract for day to day operation of the centres through a Joint Management Committee to Actual Reality Scotland Limited.
3. DETAIL
3.2 At the time of the meeting 25 year leases from the Councils to the Castle Trust had not been concluded owing to technical legal complexities. No insurmountable difficulties are envisaged but simply more time to contemplate the documentation. In the interim period 6 month license agreements have been established between the respective councils and the Castle Trust.
4. CONCLUSION
… The Joint Management Committee agreed to award a 2 year contract to Actual Reality Scotland Ltd
Read the entire document here.
Actual Reality awaited the formalization. A Council meeting was held to further discuss the area 2 years on. The minutes restrict access to the report on the agenda regarding the Council’s intentions for the lease however does provide the following statement:
Policy & Resources Committee Meeting, Wednesday 13th December 2000, Item 37, Actual Reality (Scotland) Limited
MINUTES
A report was submitted by the Director of Corporate and Legal Services which proposed that the two outdoor centres at Castle Toward and Ardentinny be leased by the Council on a long term basis to Actual Reality (Scotland) Limited.
- Attempts were made by Actual Reality in this period, to request access to this report, but this was denied, under the Local Government Access To Information Act 1985, as advised by Charles Reppke, Head of Democratic & Community Services
The Joint Management Committee meeting of 18th May 2001 convened that Argyll & Bute Council was obliged to grant a ninety-nine year lease to Actual Reality as the occupying company managing outdoor education at Castle Toward. This lease was agreed upon as a condition to the disbanding of the Committee. Actual Reality was present at this meeting.
- Elaine Galletly, as Solicitor for Glasgow City Council at the time, wrote to Actual Reality on 22nd May 2001 on behalf of the Joint Management Committee reasserting that ‘the Members of the Board and Joint Committee wish you every success in the future and confirm their commitment to the centres and to promoting these to their schools’.
Actual Reality again awaited the formalization of the lease but Argyll & Bute Council rescheduled the agreed date many times, prompting continuous correspondence to encourage progress.
- The Council responded with a host of contradictory explanations, firstly claiming that delays were due to requirements that the Scottish Executive approve the length of the lease.
- This was followed by Councillor J R Walsh notifying Actual Reality in a letter dated 12th March 2002 that he was ‘not aware that there was a problem of delay with the processing of the agreed lease’.
- In a third contradiction, Councillor Allan Macaskill informed in a letter dated 4th April 2002, that ‘the delay has been caused by access difficulties through the grounds’.
- Actual Reality was directly affected by these delays due to the uncertainty involved in not having a secured lease. The company wrote to James McLellan, then Chief Executive of Argyll & Bute Council in a letter dated 17th June 2002 to explain such difficulties and to question the continued delays. No response was issued.
- Actual Reality’s lawyers contacted Susan Mair on this issue in a letter of 2nd October 2002 to implore progress and make the Council aware that legal proceedings may convene, but received no reply to this nor a hastener sent on the 28th October 2002.
In January 2003, the Council responded to the many requests for this lease to be properly dealt with, with a revised version of the lease, at just twenty-one years. This was in breach of the obligations agreed by the Joint Management Committee. No explanation was given as to the change in duration.
- Mair’s ambiguous reference to a ‘long term’ lease in correspondence from 20th July 2001, reflected the 2000 minutes as noted above, causing confusion, and now being used in defense, claiming that the ninety-nine years had never been seriously considered.
- In a letter of 17th February 2003, then Council Leader Allan Macaskill confirmed this intent of a twenty-one year tenancy, stating that ‘the council would be severely criticized if they allowed such a valuable capital receipt to be leased for longer than that period’.
Argyll & Bute Council made this decision unilaterally, leading Glasgow City Council and East Renfrewshire Council to believe that Actual Reality had been kept abreast of developments throughout the period.
- Ian Drummond, Solicitor to the Council for Glasgow City Council encouraged the legal services department at Argyll & Bute to conclude the matter as quickly as possible, as he informed Actual Reality of in a letter of 9th May 2003.
Subsequent efforts negotiated that the lease become a thirty year rolling arrangement and Actual Reality reluctantly accepted this, in order to proceed from this stalemate. Throughout this period various intentions of leases had been declared, from 25 years, to 2 years, to 99 years, to 21 years to a 30 year rolling lease. Still Actual Reality awaited the formalization of any lease from Argyll & Bute Council.
- Letters dated 2nd May, 27th May and 16th June 2004 from Actual Reality to Susan Mair would continue to request finalization of the lease but gained no response.
The next stage of events is 2003 – 2004: The Intended ‘Disposal’ of Castle Toward