Joining forces could help to preserve our heritage

ONE is a conservation organisation that protects Scotland's natural and cultural heritage, the other safeguards the nation's historic environment.

The descriptions of two organisations are informative as the first describes the National Trust for Scotland, the second Historic Scotland and there is a considerable overlap in the remit of the two.

The reason this confluence of interest is relevant is that the NTS faces having to share resources with other heritage bodies, reduce management, cut jobs and sell more of its historic sites. George Reid, the former Holyrood presiding officer heading a review of the charity, says these measures are needed if the charity is to have a future.

Mr Reid's early diagnosis of the problem injects a dose of realism into the crisis-hit body but he is also right to rule out the radical option of a merger with its counterpart in England.

What Mr Reid has not so far considered, but should, is whether the heritage parts of the NTS could be combined with the preservation role of Historic Scotland. Under such an arrangement, Historic Scotland's role as a regulator where it can, for example, intervene to protect buildings from inappropriate development, would be carried out by a separate, smaller body.

This would leave the larger and therefore more robust organisation – perhaps established as a charity with government support – able to get on with the business of protecting and promoting Scotland's unique heritage.