MAJOR changes have been made to North Berwick Trust, which will now operate as a limited company.

A new board will also be appointed to serve the new limited company, replacing the trustees on the trust, which holds millions of pounds from a land sale to use to benefit local groups.

The new board will be made up of between seven and 10 members, and all the trustees, of which there are only 11 currently, have been given the opportunity to continue as board members.

The Rev Neil Dougall of the town’s St Andrew Blackadder Church is the trust chairman.

A letter from him to North Berwick Community Council (NBCC) was read out at a meeting of the group last week.

It read: “While individually all trustees appointed endeavoured to serve North Berwick Trust well, it is not a model that fits with current charity governance.

“There are four particular problems with it: the governing body is too large for effective governance; the potential for confusion over where an individual’s loyalty lay is built into it; North Berwick Trust is unable to appoint trustees on the basis of a skills audit which identifies skills needed to manage the charity effectively; and North Berwick Trust has no influence on the length of appointment.”

He outlined how the new set-up would work, with directors appointed on the basis of their skills to serve for three years initially, with the possibility of an additional three-year term.

The trust, which was set up in 1974 when North Berwick Town Council was disbanded, has held, in trust, land on the Mains Farm estate on the town’s south-eastern edge with the view of selling it to the highest bidder.

Now housing is being built on the land by Walker Group, CALA Homes and Cruden Homes, and the trust is to retain £15 million it has received from the sale for grants to charities and good causes in North Berwick.

The current trustees are: the Rev Neil Dougall; Councillor Jim Goodfellow; GP Morgan Flynn; Law Primary School headteacher Jill Wareham; David Kellock, chairman of North Berwick Environment Trust; and community councillors Claire Mackenzie, Ian Watson, Olwyn Owen, Kathryn Smith, Lewis Foster, Lesley Kay and Gordon Moodie

A post on the trust’s website reads: “This change to North Berwick Trust Ltd is a technical one. It is being made to ensure that North Berwick Trust is able to pursue its charitable purpose as efficiently and effectively as possible, while embodying best charitable practice.”

The post adds that the trust has now sold most of the land it owned, adding: “At present the income generated is being used to offer grants to community groups. In the future, some of the funds may be invested in one or more major projects in the community.”

North Berwick Trust Ltd has now been registered with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and Companies House and is being registered with HM Revenue and Customs.