By The Editor
The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association have been notified by the Office of Scottish Charities Register (OSCR) that they will be taking no action against the Association following allegations of impropriety.
The RSPBA’s Board of Directors have today issued this statement: ‘Following our previous statement on 20th January 2020 regarding the articles in the national press and our discussions with the Office of Scottish Charities Register (OSCR), we can confirm that the information requested was provided by the Board of Directors.
‘This morning, we received a communication from OSCR advising that they had reviewed the requested information provided by the RSPBA, and determined that the charity trustees (Board of Directors) have demonstrated that decisions were made in the best interests of the charity, and as a result, have decided that there is no further action to be taken and they are closing the file.’
This decision is completely as expected and the conspiracy theorists have been silenced. Each had his own personal agenda. That they should use it to try to undermine a body which for the past 90 years has brought real benefit to thousands of pipers and drummers and also to the status of the pipe band movement worldwide, well, I’ll leave others to make of that what they will. The roll call of shame is known to everyone and there is no point in repeating it here.
I think everyone should now put this whole episode behind them and move on. We’ve a great 2020 season to look forward to. Perhaps an apology or two might be in order and that would certainly help the healing process.
For now it is a huge well done to the hardworking RSPBA Chairman John Hughes and Chief Executive Ian Embelton and indeed the whole RSPBA Board of Directors. This carry-on put much pressure on them and it will be a relief that the Government’s charity watchdog agrees that this was all nothing more than malicious social media flim flam.
- Read the story of the refurbishment here
