Row over use of Sheffield Graves Park Norton Nurseries takes step towards being resolved

Sheffield City Council’s charity trustee sub-committee yesterday (July 23) agreed to grant the council a temporary licence until November 30 to use Norton Nurseries in Graves Park as an operating base for its parks and countryside department. This involves space for parking machinery and vehicles, plus the temporary storage of waste collected from 35 parks and open spaces.

A decision about the long-term use of the site including any alternative arrangements to replace the depot operation will be made at a meeting in September.

The Friends of Graves Park has been highly critical of the council over the issue and has repeatedly gone to the Charity Commission to complain about the council’s actions. The group has raised the money to continue its work of turning nurseries land into an arboretum and the depot use has blocked the next stage of this project.

The park is owned by a charitable trust for the people of Sheffield and the city council operates as sole trustee. The Charity Commission has repeatedly warned the council that any use of the park must benefit the aims of the charity, not the council, and has ruled that the parks depot contravenes the Charities Act 2011.

A letter from the Commission dated July 7 stated: “If the trustee is not in a position to provide to the Commission the reasons why the use of the Norton Nurseries land, by the council in its role as the local authority, both in the long term and the short term, is in the best interests of the charity, on or before Friday, July 18, 2025 then the council in its role as the local authority must cease using the Norton Nurseries land given this is continued unauthorised use of charitable land by a connected party.”

Escalation

It added: “If the trustee fails to comply with this regulatory advice, then we will consider escalation of our regulatory powers.”

Friends group deputy chair David Hartlebury asked two questions at the meeting. One accused the sub-committee of “conducting business in an undemocratic manner” because documents relating to the issue were not available to the press and public at the June meeting of the sub-committee.

He also asked if the independent legal advice contained in one of those restricted documents was obtained on behalf of the council or the charitable trust.

All documents have subsequently been published by the council.

Committee chair Coun Richard Williams replied: “As per the answers given at the last charity trustee sub-committee, the council’s monitoring officer commissioned the advice in accordance with their duty to obtain legal counsel on behalf of the council, in this case in relation to its duties as trustee of the Graves Park charity, and the legal advice was for the benefit of the council as trustee.”

The second question asked the committee to instruct council officers to free up the next section of the arboretum land, so that restoration can start work this autumn.

Valued

Coun Williams responded: “The council, acting as sole trustee of the Graves Park Charity, acknowledges the important and valued role of the Friends of Graves Park (FOGP) in supporting the charity’s objectives and enhancing the park for the benefit of the public.”

He said that the meeting in September will take into account correspondence and guidance from the Charity Commission, the operational needs of the charity and its tenants, the aspirations of FOGP to restore the next section of the nurseries to parkland and the legal and financial implications of any proposed changes.

Council director of culture, parks and leisure Lisa Firth said that the trustees must be able to show that the use of the land is in the best interests of the Graves Park charity. She said the legal advice obtained said that any use of Norton Nurseries for parks maintenance must show a cost benefit analysis.

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Granting a licence to the council would give the charity £60,000 in rent for use of the site, helping to offset the £728,000 annual cost of maintaining Graves Park. In addition, £10,000 of the £60,000 would be ring-fenced for park improvements.

Coun Douglas Johnson said: “In my view personally, the build-up to this point has been massively over-complicated. Some of the statements made publicly have been confusing and misleading, which is unhelpful.

Disrepair

“Nevertheless, it is clearly in the charity’s interests to have an operational base to look after the park. Without that, the park would fall into disrepair.

“The fact that other places also benefit in a minor way is neither here nor there. The charity does not lose out.

“In as far as any compensation is due to the charity for any additional benefit the council receives, it is far outweighed by the sum the council contributes from its own resources to support the operations of the charity.”

He said that the council had got itself into “a big pit of sand” in its dealings with the Charity Commission.

Coun Fran Belbin said that the Charity Commission is now basically happy at the way the committee is now proceeding. She said she felt the decisions members were taking felt very close to what they decided last November.

She added: “Last November we did make it very clear that we take our duties as trustees very seriously. It makes it look like we weren’t doing our duty – I think we were.”

Coun Williams said that there is now a sense that progress is being made on the issue.