CASH-STRAPPED bosses at the Corporation of London are issuing Heath staff with collecting tins to raise money to maintain the 900-acre site.
A report to the Corporation’s Open Spaces committee which met on Friday at the Guildhall said the Corporation’s open spaces – including the Heath, a registered charity since 1997 –needed to start actively raising cash to boost funds.
Heath bosses will be now be given a “tool kit” including advice on how to publicise its charity status, a list of organisations to approach for money – and collecting tins.
Suggested moves included representatives of the Heath setting up a Trust and electing trustees separate from the Heath management committee.
According to Ms Adams in the report: “This should distance the site from the perception that the Corporation is a wealthy organisation.”
At present, money to manage the Heath comes from the Corporation’s private fund – a collection of property and equity built up over centuries called City’s Cash and estimated to be worth at least £1 billion.
But Ms Adams told the New Journal that recent belt-tightening moves by the Corporation – which included controversial proposals to close the Heath ponds last year – had forced bosses to look for alternative sources of money.
She said: “Most of the open spaces have been charities since we took them over since there was a feeling that that was the most efficient way to run it. The big difference is that most charities have to fundraise.
“Because the Corporation had funds that wasn’t necessary in the past but now that times are hard there is not reason why we should not be trying to raise funds.”
According to Ms Adams, the Heath’s fundraising activities will be limited to one-off projects involving major structural repairs and improvements.
Funds for the day-to-day running of the Heath – including staff costs and materials – will continue to come from the Corporation’s private pot. Projects that bosses could start fundraising for immediately include sponsorship for the Heath events diary at a cost of £20,000, an open day, money for an education officer and funding for the second phase of work on the Lido.
Ms Adams said: “We still have to research how much we need for many of the projects and tailor the applications accordingly.”
She added: “The reality is that the Corporation is a wealthy organisation but it does an awful lot of things charitably and it has to divide the pot. It is a simple matter of economics really.”
The moves were met with mixed reactions from Heath users groups.
Tony Ghilchik, who represents the Heath and Hampstead Society on the Heath management committee, said the Society would support raising funds for specific projects.
The conservation group is currently working with Heath bosses to raise money to help re-build a children’s play park in the Vale of Health dedicated to campaigner Peggy Jay.
Mr Ghilchik said: “We believe that people will give money for individual projects. The trouble is that people think they are a very wealthy organisation but their funds have to go to a lot of different things.”
But Jane Shallice, chairwoman of Kenwood Ladies Pond, who opposed plans to introduce charging at the Heath ponds, said: “They are a very wealthy organisation and I don’t think that people are going to start dipping their hands into their pockets until they are absolutely transparent about their position and their budgets.”