Sheffield park campaigner angry over council decision on old nurseries – “I think it’s disgusting, to be honest”
The leader of a Sheffield park friends group is furious that councillors have taken a key decision without consulting them.
Caroline Dewar, chair of the Friends of Graves Park, spoke out after learning that Sheffield City Council’s charity trustee sub-committee had held an extraordinary meeting on April 8.
Councillors discussed their response to a letter from the Charity Commission over the use of Norton Nurseries in the park. The Friends have been campaigning for years to return the old nurseries to parkland, a process they have already begun and raised funds for.
However, councillors at the meeting agreed to write to the commission to say that they believe they are legally entitled within the terms of the charitable trust that owns the park to grant the council a five-year licence to use the site as a parks equipment and refuse storage depot.
The sub-committee oversees 41 charitable assets, of which the council is sole trustee on behalf of the city. They include parks, open spaces and buildings.
The Friends have repeatedly challenged the council’s actions with the Charity Commission, which has warned the council that it faces breaching the 2011 Charities Act.
Interests
This is because all decisions regarding the assets of the Graves Park charitable trust must be made in the interests of the trust, not the council.
As the depot is used to store parks department vehicles and equipment and refuse collected from dozens of parks, this activity is not solely in the interests of the trust.
Caroline is often seen at sub-committee meetings, asking questions and scrutinising their decisions on behalf of the Friends group.
The Friends are now pushing for the council to get on with launching a public consultation that it said it needs to happen before any decision on the long-term future of the nurseries can be made.
Caroline said a council official even mentioned to her in an email about that consultation that the April 8 meeting would just discuss issues concerning other parks.
Decisions
Caroline supplied a copy of the email she received on March 24. It stated: “I also wanted to flag that an extraordinary meeting of the Charity Trustee Sub Committee has been scheduled for 8th April.
“This is to take two decisions – one on Hillsborough (related to children’s rides) and one on Weston Park (related to a bequest in a will).
“You are likely aware, but I wanted to highlight the fact that public questions will not normally be accepted for meetings held during the pre-election period and will, instead, be deferred to the next meeting of the committee after the election.”
One-third of council seats plus two casual vacancies are up for election in Sheffield on May 7.
Caroline said: “We were given the impression at the previous sub-committee meeting on March 9 that there would be no more meetings until after the election.
“That was the first one of the questions that we asked at that meeting – what was happening with the public consultation on Norton Nurseries? They’ve said they want a consultation before the land is relased before restoration.”
Frustrated
Caroline said she now feels angry and frustrated and can only conclude that the council is delaying the whole process because it does not want the land restoration to go ahead.
She said the Friends spoke to senior council officers before Christmas but nothing has actually happened. She said that the group worked on the consultation about the future of the Rose Garden Cafe and offered to do the same for Norton Nurseries.
The group again checked what was happening in March because they were worried that any progress would be delayed until after the council elections.
Caroline said that sub-committee chair Coun Richard Williams told her at the March 9 meeting that he did not see it as a political issue needing to be deferred.
“Imagine our dismay when I got an email from the parks manager, saying sorry but we can’t do anything during the pre-election period. It would have to wait.
Disgusting
“That’s fair enough – but you can have an extraordinary meeting where you’re going to answer a letter from the Charity Commission that we didn’t know anything about.
“They discussed external legal advice paid for by my council tax payer’s money to get round the Charity Commission rules about what they’re doing.
“I think it’s disgusting, to be honest. I can’t get my head round it, other than they don’t want to let that land go.”
Caroline said she has been fighting to protect the park for more than 30 years. She first became involved in the Hands Off Graves Park campaign in the mid-1990s, when there were council plans to sell off parkland for housing.
That led to the formation of the Friends of Graves Park.
Statement
A decade later the group headed off proposals to relocate St Luke’s Hospice to part of Graves Park.
In 2022 a public campaign involving the group forced the council to keep the Rose Garden Cafe open and set up a partnership to raise the money to restore it after structural issues meant it was threatened with potential demolition.
Caroline said those battles have left a legacy of mistrust between the Friends and the council, which news of the extraordinary committee meeting has just reinforced.
At the same time as continuing their campaign over Norton Nurseries, the group are planning celebrations at the end of May to celebrate the centenary of the gift of the park by Alderman JG Graves.
Sheffield City Council made the following statement: “The council is bound in the pre-election period to observe the requirements around publicity that could be seen to show support for a candidate or party standing in the election. We follow national and our own guidance on this.
“This means we restrict the public meetings we hold in that period to those that are necessary and cannot be delayed until after the election period. It also means we do not have public questions in these meetings.
“The meeting in question was held to deal with matters that could not wait without having detrimental impact for the relevant charities involved.
“That included the council as trustee approving a response to the Charity Commission to confirm the legal basis of a previous decision, following a request from the Charity Commission.
“To be clear, the decision taken was not to approve the licence for Norton Nurseries but merely for the trustee to confirm the letter informing the Charity Commission of the legal basis.”