Agm Minutes 2014

DRAFT AGM MINUTES 2014 Minutes of the National Trust’s 120th Annual General Meeting Held at Steam Museum, Swindon On Saturday 8 November 2014 _________________________________________________ National Chairman: Simon Jenkins Trust Present: Members of the Board of Trustees, Dame Helen Ghosh DCB (Director-General), other staff and some 430 members of the National Trust 1 DRAFT 1. Welcome Simon Jenkins, the Chairman, welcomed members to Swindon and reflected on his six years as Chairman. During this time the Trust had maintained financial stability, increased its membership to over 4 million and increased visits to properties by 30% to over 20 million. He was particularly proud that visits to the Trust’s wider estate, uplands and coast were now approaching 200 million a year, demonstrating the range and depth of the Trust’s appeal. Operating surplus had risen by a third which had enabled the Trust to spend more on its prime obligation – conservation. During the Chairman’s tenure, the Trust had acquired a range of different properties: Seaton Delaval in the North East, Tredegar House and Dyffryn House and Gardens in Wales, the delightful Asalache house in Wandsworth and Lord Nuffield’s eccentric lodge outside Henley with its collection of Morris Minors. The Trust had acquired the last white cliff of Dover and the exquisite Llyn Dinas under the flanks of Snowdon in North Wales. The beautiful Arts and Crafts Stoneywell Cottage was about to be opened in Leicestershire too. These were all fine examples of the special places now in the Trust’s care for everyone to enjoy. The Chairman paid tribute to his colleagues on the Board. He paid particular thanks to his two deputies, to Laurie Magnus who had moved on to lead English Heritage, and to Charles Gurassa, who had become the Trust’s longest-serving Trustee since the Board was established in 2005. He also thanked Helen Ghosh, Director-General, who had brought fresh ideas and innovations to the Trust since her appointment two years ago, and the staff. Visitors had begun to experience changes over the last few years – changes which found different ways of telling the stories of the properties and the families and their staff who lived and worked in them. The Trust had brought properties to life, making them more welcoming and helping visitors feel they were in someone’s home instead of an ancestral museum. Ropes and teasels had been removed, fires had been lit in grates, billiards was being played, and visitors encouraged to play a piano or a game of croquet on the lawn. The Trust had also made some controversial decisions about presentation, such as the restoration of Avebury Manor and the display of Elton John’s furniture at The Vyne near Basingstoke. The opening of the Big Brother house in London, which the Trust did not own but was undertaken as a partnership event, contributed to debate about modern taste. Not everything within the Trust’s offer was to everyone’s liking, and some of the new ideas did not work, but it was right to continue to push the boundaries of aesthetic taste and presentation. Many visitors had commented on the new warmth of the Trust’s welcome and the sense of engagement they were offered, and for this all thanks went to the property staff and volunteers, on whom most of the burden of change had fallen, for the work they had put into making this happen. These changes had been paralleled by internal changes at the Trust. More discretion had been delegated to property managers, and specialist expertise had been concentrated into a central consultancy. Improvements were constantly being made to cafés and shops and other visitor facilities, all within a very competitive market. 2 DRAFT The Trust was also looking at the way it was run to see if any refinements were needed, a decade on from the constitutional changes that were introduced in 2005. While the Trust was in a financially stable situation, and there was a proper framework for conservation as far as the built heritage in its care was concerned, this was not now true of the countryside which had never been so threatened. Britain was among the most crowded countries in Europe, yet it had succeeded in safeguarding rural areas and maintaining their condition, including greenbelts around the cities. As a major landowner the Trust had a responsibility to protect these places, through its campaigning to save the forests, restore peat bogs, re-wild the uplands and co-operate with the government to fight Ash die-back. The Trust pursued a vigorous renewable energy policy but had had to defend its land and boundaries against inappropriate wind turbine developments such as those near Lyveden New Bield and the Bristol Channel. Then in 2010 the government attempted to simplify planning regulations by introducing the National Planning Policy Framework which attempted to circumvent half a century’s town and country planning regimes, opening the door to development potential on greenbelt land in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In alliance with others, the Trust fought these proposals with some success, yet the government’s relaxation of control was unprecedented in planning history. The countryside that the Trust was charged with defending topped every list of what people most valued about Britain. Octavia Hill founded the National Trust to preserve places of beauty and to help city dwellers find somewhere green and open in which to find refreshment. The Trust would not have been doing its duty to its founders, or to the public, if it had ignored this responsibility. The Chairman urged the staff and volunteers to continue to uphold this legacy. 2. Minutes The minutes of the meeting held in Cardiff on 26 October 2013 were approved by the meeting and signed by the Chairman. 3. Director-General’s review of the year Dame Helen Ghosh, the Director-General, thanked Simon Jenkins for his support as Chairman during her first two years in post, during which time she had visited over 170 properties. The Trust continued to be a successful organisation, thanks to the work of its staff and more than 60,000 volunteers as well as the support of its members, donors and supporters. The Trust was committed to looking after the places in its care for ever, and this is where most of its funds were spent. In 2013/14 £62.6 million was spent on property conservation projects alone. Some of these were on a grand scale, such as £3.5 million on roof repairs at Dyrham Park, of which it was hoped £0.5 million would be raised through a fundraising appeal. Just as important, a major investment programme had begun on the residential let estate which included over 5,000 tenanted properties. 3 DRAFT Looking after so many places had an impact on energy. The Trust was exploring how to harness the power generated by nature to help reduce its energy consumption by 20% by 2020. A new hydroelectric turbine had been installed at Hafod y Llan in Snowdonia; carefully crafted into the landscape, it generated enough energy to light up all of the places the Trust looked after in Wales, including eight mansions, three castles and 45 holiday cottages. Power from this hydro scheme was sold to the Trust’s partner, Good Energy, the funds from which went straight back into conservation. Many properties had been affected by flooding and coastal erosion during the year, such as Birling Gap in Sussex which saw seven years of erosion in just two months. Learning how to adapt to these environmental extremes was increasingly important – 60% of the 742 miles of coastline in the Trust’s care was at risk as sea levels rose. The Trust had been working with partners on a catchment-scale flood management project at the Holnicote Estate in Somerset using natural processes to retain and slow upstream water. As a result, the villages of Allerford and Bossington had avoided flooding this year, despite suffering badly in the 2007 floods. This was one example of findings that could be shared with other organisations at a national level. Members could expect to hear more about the coastline in 2015 when the 50th anniversary of the Neptune Coastline Campaign would be celebrated. The Director-General expressed concern last year about the decline in biodiversity and the gap in the quality of the natural environment. There was abundant evidence to demonstrate that land and biodiversity should be major conservation priorities in future. As custodians of over 247,000 hectares of land, the Trust wanted to help find solutions to better land management that worked for nature and helped people connect with the outdoors. This needed to be done in partnership with tenants, local communities and other organisations to make a difference on a landscape scale. Fingle Woods in Devon was a good example of how this could work well – this had been a joint acquisition with the Woodland Trust and there were plans to restore the woodland, re-establish habitats and improve public access to this part of Dartmoor. Providing access to special places was important. We ended the year with 4.1 million members and over 20 million paying visits to properties. We also had an estimated 200 million visits to outdoor places and ran another successful season of ‘50 things to do before you’re 11¾’, from rolling down a big hill to pond dipping. About 50% of children never visited the countryside, so the Trust’s partnership with the Wild Network was helping the next generation engage with nature to ensure that the countryside remained protected and enjoyed.

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