Issue - meetings

John Dawber Garden

Meeting: 12/12/2022 - Executive (Item 60)

60 John Dawber Garden pdf icon PDF 167 KB

Minutes:

Purpose of Report

 

To consider a request to transfer, under a lease, the care and maintenance of the John Dawber Gardens from the City Council to a dedicated trust.

 

Decision

 

That a 5 year lease in principle be agreed by the Council as the basis of terms with the Dawber Gardens Community Trust, subject to the findings of the advertisement, delegating the decision to proceed, and final format of any legal agreement to the Director of Communities and Environment, the Chief Finance Officer and the City Solicitor. Progress to be reviewed in 12 months’ time.

 

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

 

1.            To not support the long lease request.

 

2.            To consider an alternative arrangement of a management agreement.

 

A Management Agreement would not constitute a transferable interest in the property in the hands of the Trust or offer the Trust any security of tenure beyond a reasonable notice period for termination. In the absence of a lease (typically requiring 25 years), the Trust may be unable to raise finance or accept grant funding if needing to be secured against a longer term interest in the property. 

 

Reasons for the Decision

 

In 1986 the City Council formerly opened the John Dawber gardens, within the Lawn complex, a collaborative endeavour with the John Dawber Trust.

 

The project celebrated both the City’s twining links and the county’s connection with the great plant hunter and botanist, Sir Joseph Banks.

 

Originally the gardens were associated with an adjacent heated conservatory, but due to the prolonged period of austerity, and associated Council funding restrictions, the conservatory had to be removed. Funding for the garden had remained very basic. Consequently, the planting and infrastructure was 36 years old, and now in need of a total refurbishment throughout.

 

In recognition that the Council was now entering yet another challenging period for funding, it had to be stated that there was no prospect of internal funding being available in the short/medium term.

 

The Council had recently received a request for a lease for the site from a newly formed group dedicated to the care and maintenance of the site.

 

The group, having applied for formal charitable trust status, comprised a number of interested parties including local residents, volunteers on the site previously, some with experience of charitable trusts such as Liquorice Park and the John Dawber Trust.

 

The newly formed Dawber Gardens Community Trust had submitted to the council an outline of how they would like to proceed. Suffice to say it proposed to rejuvenate the gardens by a combination of volunteer works, investment from businesses and groups of businesses within the city, and by seeking external funding.