William Malloy
7 Dec 2010

Whilst there are many commendable things that can be said about both The Forest Cafe and The Roxy Arthouse, one cannot overlook their role in bringing the collapse of the EUS. EUS were no strangers to the Edinburgh property market and had identified in early 2007 prior to taking advice from David Duff that EUS was running with an operating shortfall and The GRV hadnt been paying rent for a number of years, The Forest Cafe were paying a peppercorn rent on a building that had cost the EUS 600k in 2003.

David Duff arrived on the scene and contrary to reports made no attempt to hide his background and his criminal past was common knowledge in the office. He was not alone in pushing through the purchase of the Roxy Arthouse in mid 2008.

A limited company EUS Properties 1 Ltd was set up to manage the portfolio yet neither The GRV, The Roxy nor The Forest were generating anywhere near enough income to cover their own operating costs and overheads let alone generating surplus income for the charity in tough times.

Having swapped bankers from Bank of Scotland to RBS at the behest of David Duff, the reality is that in order to sustain the loss making venues EUS Properties 1 ltd with the financial backing of the RBS embarked upon the block purchase of 16 flats in the flagship Springside Development (announced march 2010 Scotsman).

By Festival 2010 money was so tight that the GRV were stealing electricity and it was all over.

Fundamentally the failure of the EUS to generate commercial income from its portfolio coupled with its disastrous expansion including The Roxy and the flat purchases led to its demise. The failure of both The Roxy and The Forest to generate any meaningful income and the subsequent flat purchase hastened the demise of this longstanding institution. It is a shame that it survived 100 years without owning either The Forest or The Roxy providing a bunch of well needed services to a vulnerable section of society perhaps more needing of help than the patrons of either The Roxy Art house or The Forest Cafe.

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Howard Lake
Director
UK Fundraising
1 Nov 2010

Is anyone publishing a list of charities that close? While charities go to the wall even in the good times, it might be illuminating to see the a list that are failing now that we struggle through, for many, the bad times.

I come across lots of charities that are closing or running out of money. Most of them seem to disappear without being covered by the sector press, let alone the nationals.

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