THE NATIONAL Botanic Garden of Wales has had what could be described as a ‘tricky’ twelve months.
This time last summer, the Garden was in the throes of controversy regarding its approach to the Welsh language; at the end of December, Dr Rosie Plummer stepped down as Director citing continuing cuts in funding from the Welsh Government and Carmarthenshire County Council; even the appointment of new director, Huw Francis, received some criticism from those fearing the Garden would become over-commercialised.
Bearing in mind Dr Plummer’s observations on ‘short-sighted’ cuts to the Garden’s budget and the calls for it to be more self-sustaining, it is clear that some people are unable to make up their minds as to what they want from the West Wales showpiece destination.
Now, as the cut to the Garden’s funding from Carmarthenshire County Council to £30,000 a year comes into play, we posed a series of questions regarding its future and recent difficulties.
THE WELSH LANGUAGE
We began by tackling the issue that propelled the Garden into (unwanted) attention last year: the Welsh language and the Garden’s approach to it.
Noting that the local authority has expressed dissatisfaction in the past about the Garden’s approach to the Welsh language, we asked whether it was satisfied that, working in partnership with the Council and Menter Cwm Gwendraeth Elli, it was addressing those concerns.
The Garden responded: It’s probably worth knowing that we (the Botanic Garden) have been working with Menter Cwm Gwendraeth Elli (MCGE) for several years. In fact, we have a Service Level Agreement (SLA – a sort of mutual-agreement-contract regarding our working together on numerous levels) with them.
MCGE supply translation services to us, we are working with them on a special event here at the Garden this summer to help celebrate their 25th anniversary this year and a special ‘Carolau yn yr Ardd’ event at Christmas, among other things.
We are also working with them around the issue of the Welsh Language Standards and making sure we continue to excel with our Welsh language provision.
To be frank, we take the view that the only people who criticise the Garden’s approach to the Welsh language are those not in possession of the true picture because they’ve never been here. It’s easy, isn’t it, to take political point-scoring pot-shots at a nearby national institution, in the comfort of the council chamber, or as a keyboard warrior.
A senior Visit Wales official (and Welsh speaker) recently described the “Croeso Cynnes” they received on arriving at the Garden as “Very Welsh – almost too Welsh”! And we weren’t doing anything special for them – that’s just the way we roll.
Also, even by the most conservative metric you care to measure it by, the Garden contributes somewhere in the region of £8m to the local economy so the return on the county council’s investment in the Garden of £50,000 in 2016-17 is pretty staggering in those terms!
CUTS AND MORE CUTS
We asked what effect the cut would have and what other sources of funding were available to the Garden:
I’m sure you can guess what effect the reduction in funding will have on the Garden. And, don’t forget, we have also suffered an 11% cut in funding from government as well as having to make provision for the National Living Wage and other increasing costs and charges.
We are the only national botanic garden in the world that raises two-thirds of its own income.
Kew is funded to the tune of 60-65% and Edinburgh 80-85% and Glasnevin is 100% funded. But, just like these other older, more famous and well-established institutions, we are changing the world.
RESEARCH & EDUCATION
We carry out vital research on plants, bees, pollination and the health-giving properties of tea and honey. We protect some of the world’s most endangered plants.
Our Head of Science (our only scientist!) recently led a project that saw Wales become the very first country in the world to DNA barcode all its native flowering plants. And we helped reintroduce a very rare flower into the wild which was had become extinct in Wales.
We have some 20,000 education visits a year and provide 40 curriculum-linked courses in English and Welsh; we were recently awarded a prestigious national award for its provision in learning outside the classroom.
The science and education doesn’t come cheap and, while it does wonders for our reputation and reach, it doesn’t turn us a buck, as it were. So we have to pedal hard and fast on the commercial front to make ends meet.”
NEW ATTRACTIONS
We have built a brand new playground – complete with zipline and trampoline – we have water zorbing activities in our water zorbing pool, we are (at this very moment!) building a straw-bale maze (in time for half term) and we will be holding more than 100 days of fun family activities. This is all to try and tempt a larger slice of the family market to our door – and it is starting to work! And we about to launch Plas Pili Pala – our brand new Tropical Butterfly House . . .
We don’t have a wide variety of funding options open to us, so we are focusing on the task of broadening our appeal and growing our audience to increase footfall and, therefore, improving our ‘gate’ revenue and secondary spend performance at the various catering and retail outlets around the Garden.
But it is definitely worth saying recent reports of us suffering a £300,000 “loss” are a grossly unfair and distorted picture of the Garden’s finances. The figures quoted were not “last year” either. They were from three years ago.
And this was a ‘book’ assessment i.e. the £10m ‘value’ of the Great Glasshouse has depreciated over time so, according to the accountants, it is now worth less. But, if your car was worth £5,000 last year and is only worth £1,000 now, does that mean you have actually “lost” £4,000.
No. It doesn’t.
THE REAL FIGURES
So, just for the record, here are some ‘real’ and up-to-date figures that should be taken into account – the sort of thing that is rarely, if ever, reported:
Despite incredibly difficult conditions and against a backdrop of reduced funding from our key stakeholders, we have had a cash surplus in the past two financial years; 2014/15 & 2015/16 (and these figures are much more recent that anything in the public domain)
- For 2015/16, we recorded visitor numbers of 145,000 of which the leisure visitors (114,420) were the highest since 2011/12.
- Membership levels are at an all-time high and income from membership topped the £100k mark for the first time ever
- Legacy donations of £75k from 3 separate estates – recognising & supporting the wonderful work we are undertaking here…
- Plant sales up are 15% on last year with a focus on being able to buy our own Botanic Garden-grown plants now really exciting our visitors
- Improving (up 2%) spend this year – both primary and total secondary spend in the Garden.
We would urge people to come and see how much we’ve changed. There’s loads going on and plenty to do across our 568-acre site and we are open from 10am to 6pm seven days a week, 363 days a year – so there’s plenty of opportunity to come and enjoy this fabulous, incredible, beautiful, awe-inspiring, amazing garden.
We are confident about the future and bullish about our achievements.
Can we do better? Yes.
Are we trying our hardest? You bet.
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