Tax move is music to our ears
DEPUTY Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Treasury Chief Danny Alexander have righted an injustice and the UK Government is now covering the VAT shelled out by Scotland’s mountain rescue teams on new equipment purchases.
It means that the volunteer service is now treated the same as the RNLI who perform the same rescue function around Britain’s coasts albeit with different VAT arrangements.
Most of the funding for the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team comes from donations, bequests and the fundraising activities of the volunteers themselves.
They and their counterparts carry out a vital life-saving service which would cost Government millions of pounds per year if it ever turned “professional” and had to be paid for.
It was wrong that the hard and selfless work of these volunteers was being used to swell Treasury coffers, and only right that this money is paid back.
GRANTOWN fundraiser Bill Quirie has just completed an epic trip during which he scaled ladders on cliff faces above Argentiere in France and grabbed onto shubbery for dear life above 3,000 foot drops.
And it was all it the name of charity.
Bill was walking for the Macmillan Cancer Support whose caring staff have helped him bounce back from his battle with bowel cancer.
To listen to Bill and see his enthusiasm having just returned from the walk was inspiring in itself. The same can be said for his admiration of the Macmillan staff who have got him back to top form.
His turn-around in a little over a year has been remarkable.
It is not surprising therefore that he and many others who have benefitted at first hands from the likes of Macmillan, Marie Curie and other charities are so keen to give something back – whatever the perils!
