New charitable body to run Royal Parks
Melanie May | 24 February 2016 | News
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has given the green light to plans by The Royal Parks Agency and the Royal Parks Foundation to create a new public corporation.
The new charitable body will take over the role of managing the parks from The Royal Parks Agency (TRP), which last year spent £36.6m maintaining the 5,000 acre estate. It will also build on the role of fundraising currently undertaken by the Royal Parks Foundation (RPF).
According to The Royal Parks, maintaining standards is becoming increasingly challenging as a result of high visitor numbers and decreasing government funding.
It has said that the new charitable public corporation will be increasingly self-sustaining, and will be able to manage the parks even more efficiently, with better services provided at a lower cost while maintaining excellent visitor satisfaction.
It also believes that one single charitable body at arm’s length from government can also present a more compelling case for support to corporate sponsors, private donors and charitable trusts, as well as attracting new volunteers.
Andrew Scattergood, chief executive of The Royal Parks, said:
“Bringing TRP and the Foundation together means our parks benefit from the best of both worlds, ensuring they remain among the most popular and best managed parks.
“We will remain accountable for maintaining and conserving the parks for public enjoyment, and will have more freedom around how we raise and spend money. These include being able to plan and invest for the longer-term rather than on a year-by-year basis and operate more efficiently.”
Both organisations are now working together to create the new body, with the aim of launching it by the end of this year.
The creation of the new body will also see a new board of trustees appointed. Recruitment for its Chair has already been advertised publicly on the Cabinet Office’s public appointments website.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.