March for Dartington

This Saturday (December 9) a group of current and former staff of Dartington Trust, students, and locals are being asked to gather for a march up to the Great Hall to show their concern for the future of the estate and all the businesses and groups associated with it.

That there is concern is no surprise – when the parish council met with the chair of trustees and the man he brought in to restructure the Trust’s finances, Robert Fedder from business turn around specialists Buchler Phillips, they expressed it like this :”The biggest hurdles were felt to be trust and to reassure the community there’s no intention to strip assets.”

The minutes of the meeting go on : ”RF continued that to avoid going into administration, the Trust needs to change working practices aggressively and match working environments to peaks and troughs; but this will not be enough, and the Trust needs to build capital for investment.”

Among many abrupt changes recently such as zero-hours contracts being imposed on the majority of staff, previous arrangements with Soundart Radio were threatening its future. But agreement has since been reached with Soundart stating: “After some negotiation, we are thrilled to say we have won the support of the Dartington Hall Trust to continue on the Dartington Estate as a valued community partner. This will involve a studio move this Winter – to a space many of us know and love, the old student bar in Higher Close, sometimes known as the ‘Rat and Emu’.”

The march begins at the weir at midday and will end at the Great Hall  at 1.30pm when a community assembly will be held so people can share their experiences of Dartington.