At last week’s public meeting to discuss the future of the Ventnor Botanic Garden, a statement from Cllr George Brown was read out to the audience at the beginning of the meeting.
It explained his absence from the meeting and the Isle of Wight council’s position on the review of the future of the Garden.
For those who missed the meeting, or those who were there by didn’t hear the full statement, you can now read it on VentnorBlog.
More on future of the Botanic Gardens and the delegated decision to spend £220,000 on the lift to follow on VB soon.
Can I first apologise that because of a prior and long standing engagement, I am not able to attend this meeting in person. Given suitable notice, I would however be more than happy to attend similar any follow up meetings to this one.
In the meantime, I hope this statement will spell out the current situation regarding Ventnor Botanic Garden and assure you all of our intention to see the garden enhanced as an amenity for residents and visitors.
I also hope that tonight’s public meeting will generate a real sense of enthusiasm for the opportunities that exist for the friends and others in the community to play a part in shaping the future of these gardens.
I would from the outset like to allay some fears and dispel some misinformation that has entered the public domain.
Under the terms of the lottery grant received to develop the visitor centre, the garden cannot be sold off and run by a different entity without approval from the Big Lottery Fund. Without this approval, the BLF could require repayment of a proportion of – or all – the £2.3 million grant.
Similarly, the garden is designated a Grade II listed landscape effectively meaning it can only remain as a botanic garden and public open space.
There may well be other covenants that further protect the garden in its current form.
To these real constraints let me add this. It is neither the council’s nor my own intention to cut and run from this very special place. Quite the opposite is true. I feel that the council – given the financial and bureaucratic realities within which it has to operate – is not the best body to help manage the garden to realise its full potential.
We need to free the garden of the council’s limitations and help it into a new era where it can be more responsive, more imaginative and where it can be enjoyed by more people for a greater variety of reasons. On the other side of the coin, we need to free the tax payer of the requirement to fund the garden to the tune of £250,000 a year at a time when we are having to make service reductions right across the council, in areas including statutory services.
That is not to detract from what is on offer here at the moment and certainly not from the endeavours of the highly skilled and dedicated staff who do a truly magnificent job in running the garden.
But what we as a council have failed to do is unlock the true potential of the gardens. We need to allow it to expand as a visitor attraction as a place for education and as a place of therapeutic benefit.
Faced with having to make cuts of at least £32 million in the coming four years, this council simply does not have the means to do this. What it does have is the will to find a new way forward.
I would hope there are people in this room tonight who will offer their ideas or their experience or their time to help the garden succeed.
We all have a unique opportunity here to lead the garden into an exciting new future. People in this room whether Friends, supporters or users of the garden – or staff – will find the council willing to work with you to create an enhanced amenity in which the Island community has genuine ownership and involvement.
Can I lastly say that I hope the current issue of the lift serves as a metaphor for both the garden’s past and future. The failure over many years to offer visitors use of a reliable lift nor to gain the proper recompense from those responsible for its faults show how a large organisation with competing priorities and disparate responsibilities can take its eye off the ball.
That we are now looking to invest to save in a new structure should serve as proof that we are serious about giving every chance of success to whoever steps up from the community to take this amenity to where it deserves to be.
