Is the National Trust still fit for purpose in its current form?
A long-standing volunteer is dismayed at the charity’s drift from its original purpose, of which the failure to care for the Sherborne Estate is just the latest manifestation to make the headlines.
As a long-time member and volunteer at a National Trust property, I am concerned by the failures of the Director-General and the Trustees in carrying out their duties and the inevitable decay of so much of the nation’s prized heritage. The re-wilding proposals for the Sherborne estate are just the latest in a line of decisions taken by people whose egos seem to be much bigger than their sense of responsibility.
The mission for the National Trust has always been clear and it is not to act in the interests of the beliefs and ideologies espoused by this particular group of people who happen to be in charge at the moment. It is clearly “to preserve historic and natural places for the public and for future generations” and nobody does this by instituting unnecessary change and neglecting what already exists. The focus of the National Trust should be on conservation and preservation, not on furthering some fashionable personal agenda.
Contemporary art at Tyntesfield
I am not particularly interested in the personal aspirations of the Director-General and the Trustees or in what they want to create to satisfy themselves. I am interested in what past generations created and how these can be preserved for present and future generations. If the Trustees want to create something new, let them do so at their own expense and at their own personal properties. I think they are acting outside the objectives of their charity and the original intentions of the founders. There are plenty of other charities which can undertake re-wilding, but the National Trust has other responsibilities.
All this happens against a backdrop of repeated redundancies and hollowing-out of existing properties to the detriment of those properties. Many managers are struggling to offer a service to the public whilst managing repeated tranches of staff redundancies and trying to raise funding for essential repairs. The heavy hand of a corporate management style bent on centralised control and a particular ideological agenda has already succeeded, especially in catering and retail, in eliminating much of the individuality of properties and failed ideas like Pride lanyards and the debacle of Clandon are not helping.
Social campaigning is distracting the National Trust from its task of preserving heritage
The Trustees of the National Trust give an impression that they are steering a ship with a broken rudder but have not noticed that fact. Like the vast majority of NT volunteers, I belong to a generation where charity trustees were expected to adhere to their remit and I cannot see that the proposal at Sherborne does anything of the kind. The departure from this strict standard, in favour of fashionable causes outside the remit, does not augur well for the future of the NT and its properties.
It is, perhaps, time for a root-and-branch reform to this organisation with more diversity of opinion and thought in the Trustee body and a new Director-General with a bit more respect for the properties within the control of the National Trust and for the troops on the ground who are the actual deliverers for these great national assets. I have a near relative who works for the National Trust and feel it would be unfair to this person if I used my name when criticising the Trust. Perhaps that queasiness about an organisation that discourages opposition and uses practices like the Quick Vote is also part of the message.