Outrage as Botanics bosses reveal £5 admission fee plan

Published on Sunday 7 November 2010 17:19

BOSSES at the Botanic Garden have been urged to drop plans to charge visitors an entrance fee of up to £5.

The popular visitor attraction is understood to be considering the charge after being warned it could lose a quarter of its government funding.

The Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh (RBGE) is also expected to reduce opening hours, cut back on research and conservation and shed dozens of jobs if it is hit with a budget cut of more than 2 million.

The 340-year-old institution says visits for school pupils and students, and the holding of art exhibitions are also likely to be axed.

There is already local opposition to the plans, with some warning that charges would badly affect visitor numbers.

Former Lord Provost Lesley Hinds, councillor for Inverleith, said she would be writing to management at the gardens calling on them to reconsider the charges. She said: "They should be looking at how to make other savings before thinking about charging the public.

"My own view is that charging would be unacceptable because the Botanics have been publicly funded over many years. They should be looking at other options, rather than this knee-jerk reaction."

The most drastic savings in the gardens' recent history are being considered after civil servants warned the charitable body that runs the Botanics to prepare for a cut of up to 25 per cent over three years.

The 8.8m grant RBGE gets from a Scottish Government agency represents almost three quarters of its income.

Managers are to try to retain as many of the workforce as possible amid fears that the loss of researchers, scientists and horticulturalists would damage its global reputation.

However, the number of international projects RBGE is involved in is likely to be vastly reduced unless alternative funding can be found. Professor Stephen Blackmore, Regius Keeper at the Botanics, admitted it had no option but to prepare for cutbacks.

He said: "We are rated one of the top four gardens of this type in the world, along with Kew Gardens, New York Botanical Garden and Missouri Botanic Garden.

"All of these charge admission and I think it would be reasonable for us to do that as well, as long as it was a reasonable charge, such as 5."

Britain's second-oldest botanic gardens, the attraction has been based at Inverleith, since 1820, having started life as a "physic garden" for growing medicinal plants in Holyrood Park in 1670.

Visitor numbers have soared by about a third this year, to more than 600,000 since the opening of a flagship 16m visitor centre.

But the entire garden may be forced to close an hour earlier next year to cut the staff overtime bill.

The introduction of an admission charge is being considered only a year after a previous move was shelved, despite being recommended by the trustees.