Charity's overspend leaves parks future unclear

Newcastle City Council will give an extra £1m will be given by the local authority to help balance the Urban Green's books

A charity responsible for looking after a city’s parks is facing a £6.7m shortfall over the next five years.

Urban Green was handed control of 33 parks and more than 60 allotment sites by Newcastle City Council in 2019 in the hope it would save the council £110m.

However it has emerged that the charity has already spent all the funding it was offered by the council for it’s first ten years.

Urban Green has blamed the impact of Covid-19 and higher costs because of inflation for its struggles, but insists it is "bringing in more income than expected".

They added their discussions with the council “will have no impact on the city’s green spaces”.

The city council pledged to provide up to £7.7m, revised down from an original £9.5m, to support Urban Green during its first decade in operation.

It was then hoped to become self-sustaining.

The trust said two-thirds of its income is now self-generated and that it is "bringing in more income than expected when compared with the original operating model".

The Labour-run council are launching a review of the parks’ future, in addition to giving the charity an extra £1m to balance the books over the next 12 months.

Opposition councillors have questioned whether the organisation is providing value for taxpayers' money.

Following the return of the city's social housing to civic centre control, the council has said "all options remain on the table" when considering the future of the parks, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Urban Green and Newcastle City Council had a previous dispute in April 2022 over the staging of music festivals in Exhibition Park.

The charity's lawyer argued that restrictions would cut off a key source of income needed to pay for the upkeep of the park.

The local authority imposed limits on what events could be held in the park, following an outcry from neighbours after the This Is Tomorrow concerts.

Following the festivals row, the council said that it still had “every confidence in Urban Green”.