YHAgroup.org.uk

Coldingham Sands YH, one of the seven earmaked for closure by the SYHA last year, could be saved if the local community have their way. According to a report in the Berwickshire News, the sale of the hostel has been suspended whilst local people attempt a buy-out under Community Right to Buy legislation. Residents have 21 days to convince Scottish ministers of their case.

If given the go-ahead, they’ll then have about six months to fully develop their business case and raise the necessary funding. Either way, the hostel will be closed for the 2008 season.

Leading the new community company is Ged Hearn, who already has big plans:

The hostel is already heavily used in summer and we know that with careful adaptation its use can be extended throughout the year […] The plan is to run it as a hostel and we hope to affiliate to the YHA and advertise with them.

Mr Hearn doesn’t have to look far across the border for inspiration. Both Wooler and Greenhead are thriving under private ownership after having been written off by the YHA. Let’s see if Coldingham can follow suit.

Whilst limited means concessions are being withdrawn in England & Wales, not even children get a discount in some Scottish hostels. Three of their most remote hostels, Glen Affric, Loch Ossian and Raasay charge the same amount for an overnight regardless of whether you are an adult or a child.

Having had my attention drawn to this by a comment on this site (keep ‘em coming folks!), I asked SYHA to confirm that it was true and asked the reasoning behind it. They replied:

At present we do charge the same rate for juniors and seniors at three of our Rustic Hostels namely Glen Affric, Loch Ossian and Raasay. Our rationale is simple really. Because of the costs associated with running these remote hostels, we have to charge the same price for all guests, regardless of status. However, we will be lowering junior rates for Raasay from next year, so the policy will only apply to Loch Ossian and Glen Affric.

In addition we would never discourage children from staying at any hostel, however these remote hostels because of their location and basic facilities are not ideal for young families, especially those not used to hostelling. Add to this the limited accommodation and the laws regarding sleeping arrangements for young children, we are limited in what we can offer.

It should be remembered that membership of the SYHA is free for children, and an adult overnight at these hostels of £13 is still less than a child would pay at some places south of the border, but this still seems a strange decision.

It’s not often that the youth hostel movement gets 20 minutes’ discussion on national radio (well, national to Scotland anyway), so I thought I’d preserve Wednesday’s coverage in the form of a transcript. Scotland Live airs every weekday lunchtime on Radio Scotland and is presented by Mhairi Stuart, here’s what they had to say about hostel closures… Continue reading…

The projected closure of seven SYHA hostels has attracted some attention in the media. As well as several letters written to The Herald and a report on the BBC News website, the story was featured at length on Radio Scotland’s Scotland Live programme yesterday.

For the next six days you can “listen again” to the whole programme, the report begins about 24 minutes in and includes an interview with Keith Legge, Chief Executive of SYHA, a report from Killin about the feared effect of the hostel closing there, and a talk with Marilyn Barrack of the Elenydd Trust about how they saved T’yn Cornel and Dolgoch and whether the same apporach might work in Scotland. The whole report lasts 20 minutes and besides the odd gag about “bobble hats” gives the whole issue a fair going over.

Viewed from south of the border, the whole situation seems sadly familiar. In many a YHA common room you’ll hear Scotland described as the promised land, where the wily old SYHA have resisted the temptation to excessively “do up” their hostels and kept the sacred flame of simple hostelling alive. Well, now it seems that the Scots are meeting the same problems as the rest of us, coming up with some of the same solutions, resulting in the same response from the membership. We can only wait to see what happens next.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), Scotland’s charity watchdog, has begun a review of SYHA’s charitable status, according to The Herald. This will form part of an ongoing review of all Scotland’s charities following some recent scandals in the sector. Why pick on the SYHA?

The newly created OSCR decided to prioritise its task of vetting all 23,500 charities by concentrating first on those where there was “risk” or uncertainty as to their status.

Independent schools, care homes and universities [and hostel associations too, presumably] could fall foul of the legislation - and therefore lose valuable tax breaks - if their fees are deemed to be “unduly restrictive”.

As it only costs up to £8 per year to join the SYHA, and non-members can stay at their hostels for a mere £1 per night extra, they shouldn’t have too much to worry about on that score. Still, a renewed focus on their charitable status shouldn’t do them any harm.

South of the border, it should be noted, the recent AGM called on “all parts of the  YHA community to renew their commitment to YHA’s charitable object”. Perhaps they ought to make that call more vocal?

Just in case you thought mass hostel closures only happened south of the border, the SYHA have announced the closure of seven of their 53 hostels. The decision follows an 18-month “Hostel Network and Management Review”, and was approved on Sunday. According to the SYHA site (my emphasis):

Hostels marked for closure are: Armadale, Coldingham, Glendevon, Inverey, Killin, Kyleakin and Loch Lochy. In addition a storage facility in Stirling, a plot of land in Cargen, a disused building in Cannich and a former hostel in Whiting Bay will be sold. A review of the Hostel Services and HR functions in the SYHA’s National Office will also take place as part of the restructure.

It is anticipated that the recommendations will be implemented in phases with Phase 1 of the restructure in place by February 2008 and Phase 2 by February 2009.

The closure of Coldingham has already led to a report on the BBC News website. No doubt there’ll be further protests in the press and at the SYHA’s AGM next Saturday.

If any of these hostels is one of your (or your group’s) favourites, it’s time to start plotting a final visit…

At a time when YHA England & Wales sometimes seem to be reducing their support for affiliated and local groups, north of the border things are going the other way.

YHA groups as we know them do not currently exist in Scotland, but the SYHA is taking active steps to get some going. A full page advert in their house magazine Scottish Hosteller (of which more in a later post…), and a page on the SYHA web site invite members to join up:

A New network of SYHA Members Groups is being established, to give members the opportunity to support the Association while taking part in a range of activities and events. The groups will be open to all members and we hope that as many as possible will join.

This is your opportunity to become more involved with the SYHA, joining with like minded members to help take the Association forward, while having some fun along the way.

Interestingly, the as-yet-non-existant Scottish groups already have places reserved for them on the Association’s new governing Council. Down south, we don’t yet know whether our representation at the England and Wales equivalent will survive the Purkiss review.