A new charity will launch to look after London's royal parks, after getting the go-ahead from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
A statement by Royal Parks last week said it will now begin the process of applying for charitable status with the Charity Commission.
The new body will take over the management of eight London parks, including Green Park (pictured), which is currently undertaken by the Royal Parks Agency. It will also take over fundraising, which is currently managed by the Royal Parks Foundation.
The RPA and RPF will merge to form the new body. Based on current income it will among the top 250 largest bodies registered with the Commission.
RPA currently spends in the region of £36.6m a year on maintenance of 5,000 acres of parks. Some 65 per cent of running costs are generated through events, sponsorship, donations, catering, grants, lottery funding, licences, rental income from lodges, filming and photography. A further 35 per cent of funding comes from government grants from the DCMS.
The move towards charitable status follows “decreasing government funding” that has made “maintaining high standards increasingly challenging”, the statement by the Royal Parks said.
The hope is that as a charity at arm’s length from the government, will be more attractive to both corporate sponsors and private donors.
“The new charitable public corporation will be increasingly self-sustaining, and so will be able to manage the parks even more efficiently, with better services provided at a lower cost while maintaining excellent visitor satisfaction,” the Royal Parks' statement said.
Chief executive of the Royal Parks, Andrew Scattergood, said it was an “exciting new era” for the parks.
London Mayor Boris Johnson MP, said he "fully supports the creation of this new organisation, which will give the Parks a stronger financial footing".
The creation of the new charity will see a new board of trustees appointed. Recruitment for a new chair is currently being advertised on the Cabinet Office's public appointments website.
