Future of 33 parks in Newcastle under review with Urban Green facing £6.7m shortfall

The future of 33 parks in Newcastle is under review with the charity in charge facing a financial crisis.

Newcastle City Council handed control of the parks and more than 60 allotment sites to Urban Green Newcastle in 2019, hoping to secure their future during local government cuts.

However, it has emerged that the trust has already spent the funding it was given for the first 10 years and it predicts it will face a £6.7 million shortfall between now and 2029.

Urban Green has blamed the impact of Covid-19 for its struggles and insists that it is “bringing in more income than expected”.

The council has said they will review the parks’ future and opposition councillors have questioned whether the organisation is providing value for money.

It pledged to provide up to £7.7m, revised down from an original £9.5m, to support Urban Green during its first decade in operation after which, it was envisaged that the trust would become self-sustaining.

It was hoped that Urban Green could access funding off-limits to the council and generate more income to maintain and enhance the city's green spaces.

However, the charity's latest accounts show that the 10-year funding has already been used.

It adds that the trust’s original financial model “underestimated certain costs” and was “overly ambitious”, but that the main source of problems was the Covid-19 pandemic having “shifted focus away from developing new income streams” as bosses tried to deal with the impact of lockdown.

The council, identified in Urban Green’s accounts as the “only realistic source of funding” to keep the trust going beyond April this year, has committed to give £1m to balance the books for the next 12 months.

Asked if it was considering bringing control of parks back to the civic centre, as is the case with the city’s social housing as Your Homes Newcastle is to be abolished, a council spokesperson said that “all options remain on the table”.

They added: “For various reasons, including a pandemic, Urban Green Newcastle is now facing its own financial pressures and has requested additional financial support from the city council. We have agreed £1m to assist the organisation for the next 12 months.

“We remain in close contact with Urban Green and continue to work collaboratively with them in the best interests of the city and our residents. We appreciate how important green spaces are to the health, wellbeing, and quality of life in the city, so will undertake a review of all our parks and open spaces in the longer term.”

Coun Colin Ferguson, leader of the city’s Lib Dem opposition, called for “urgent” clarity on Urban Green’s future.

He said: “We warned from the outset that the business case was questionable, and it now appears our fears were well-founded, with the charity’s own business plan indicating no expectation of generating a financial surplus on their own terms before 2029.

“In the meantime, members of the public urgently deserve clarity as to how much more public money will go towards plugging Urban Green’s projected £6.7m gap, and whether this represents better value for money for the taxpayer than retaining the parks under public management from the outset, as we argued for all along.”

In response to the latest set of accounts, Urban Green claimed its latest accounts detailed “another successful 12 months”, saying it had met its income targets and delivered projects including upgrades to the Hadrian’s Cycleway.

The trust said that two-thirds of its income is now self-generated and that it is “bringing in more income than expected when compared with the original operating model” but had been hit with higher costs as a result of inflation and the pandemic.

A charity spokesperson added: “At the time of submitting the accounts in January 2024, Urban Green Newcastle’s trustees disclosed a material uncertainty related to going concern in the accounts. This was to provide absolute transparency and state the material uncertainty at the time.

"However, Urban Green Newcastle has been in dialogue with Newcastle City Council as part of a review of operations and future options for provision, and Newcastle City Council has provided an injection of £1m funding to ensure continuing delivery.

“Working together, we want to see more people visiting Newcastle’s green spaces and enjoying the many benefits that come from spending time in nature.

"Access to green spaces is proven to improve people’s health and wellbeing, which is why it’s so important for communities across the city to be able to access their local park or allotment. For people without a garden or outdoor space of their own, their local green space is incredibly important to their quality of life.

“Our ongoing discussions with Newcastle City Council will have no impact on the city’s green spaces.”

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