Letter: Wishful thinking

YOUR LEADER, "Trust landed with a thorny problem" (31 May), is a helpful acknowledgement of a hard but necessary decision faced by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) trustees, as we seek to balance better our responsibilities and our resource.

I would like to reassure your readers that the trust always respects the wishes of donors. This is a fundamental trust value.

The instructions of Miss McNiven's will were not that her whole estate was to be used for the benefit of Duddingston Village. Miss McNiven's estate was left to NTS on an unrestricted basis, together with an expression of wish that, if possible, the trust should associate with the village of Duddingston and its history.

This wish is being fully respected in the trustees' decision-making. The piece referred to the proposed sale at market value and to the price. As is often the case in such situations, this matter is not as simple as presented.

Charity law places limits on trustees as to how they treat the charity's assets - they are not always entirely free to act at their own discretion. Any consideration of price will require the trust to strike a balance between recognising the donor's wishes, the future of the community asset and trustee obligations to comply with charity regulations.

Kate Mavor

The National Trust for Scotland

Cultins Road

Edinburgh