Bid to put elected politicians back on board of Newcastle parks charity facing 'crisis' fails

A bid to put elected politicians back on the board of the Newcastle parks charity facing a financial “crisis” has failed.

Liberal Democrat efforts to restore councillors to the leadership of Urban Green Newcastle (UGN) were voted down by the city’s ruling Labour group on Wednesday night. The future of the city’s green spaces has been called into question recently, with the charity having warned that it faces a multi-million pound shortfall and will need to be propped up by Newcastle City Council.

UGN was handed control of 33 parks and more than 60 allotments by the local authority in 2019, in the expectation that it would be able to attract more income for them and look after them better than the cash-strapped civic centre. It was hoped that Urban Green would become self-sustaining within 10 years, but all of the £7.7 million subsidy offered by the council to help it through its first decade in existence has already been drawn down – and a further £6.7 million deficit is predicted up to 2029.

• Read More: Lib Dems blocked in bid to grill council over ‘bailout’ for Newcastle parks charity

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The council has the right to appoint two of UGN’s trustees, a role originally held by the now North East mayor Kim McGuinness and subsequently by other Labour councillors, but no elected councillor has sat on the board since May 2022. Instead, council assistant chief executive Matt Wilton is now the authority’s sole representative.

Coun Colin Ferguson, leader of Newcastle’s Liberal Democrat opposition, called on Wednesday night for that position to be reconsidered and for councillors with the “responsibility and authority” to speak on residents’ behalf to be restored to the board. At this week’s meeting of Newcastle City Council, Coun Ferguson said: “We in this chamber are custodians of the city’s green spaces on behalf of the people. We have been custodians for over 125 years. We should not carry that responsibility lightly.”

He added: “We should have seen this crisis for our parks coming, we should be at the table dealing with the solution. It is not enough to say that the council’s two members don’t hold overall control, it is not enough to say that others can do that job for them.

“If we want more control, as this council has stated, we should take what is available to us. We are custodians of the city’s green spaces on behalf of the people. We must be custodians for the next 125 years.”

The council recently agreed to give UGN a further £1 million to balance its books this year, as well bringing in specialist consultants to carry out a £50,000 review into the charity’s future. A report stated that the council “requires more control” over how its money is spent if it is going to be giving the charity more funding than was planned, with UGN having told the authority that “financial self-sufficiency is not achievable within the foreseeable future”.

Labour leader Nick Kemp, whose party voted to reject the Lib Dems’ request, said it would be “inappropriate” to predetermine the outcome of the review of whether Urban Green represents the best value for taxpayers. He added: “In 2022 no councillors were formally appointed to the Urban Green board, officers were appointed instead. That supports the nature of the involvement and attention the council needed to give to Urban Green.

“The council is not required to appoint directors, trustees to the board of Urban Green – it is allowed to appoint them. Anyone who is appointed to the board will owe duties to the company as a director and their primary responsibility is to that organisation.

“It is therefore always necessary to consider whether the person appointed can carry out their role effectively and also meet their duties to the company. This is particularly the case with elected members, who are responsible for policy-making at the council.”

Coun Kemp said that offering UGN 12 months’ worth of funding at this stage was “better value for money than the alternative, that the organisation simply handed back the keys and the city council was clearly not in a position to take on responsibility for the parks”.