Brogdale Horticultural Trust Refuses to Communicate
November 13, 2007 by fruitforum
With great regret it is necessary to report that the Brogdale Horticultural Trust refuse to answer any questions that the Friends have put to them in the form of letters, nor does the Trust make any attempt to take part in any dialogue that would advance the interests of the Friends. As these questions involve the constitution of the Friends, this is a very serious matter indeed.
This does not enhance the reputation of the Brogdale Horticultural Trust and it is a very sad state of affairs for those who have the interests of the National Fruit Collections at Brogdale at heart.
Simon Brice (Friend of the Brogdale Horticultural Trust and also Chairman of the Friends of the National Fruit Collections at Brogdale)
One can but wonder what the Trust is trying to do. Its proper objective is clear enough. The reason for its existence is the maintenance of the National Fruit Collections. So why all this reticence? Is it trying to hide something? And if it is, is it still fit to be entrusted by Defra with the curation of the Collections?
There is an interesting corollary to this: what would happen to the recent legacy if the Trust lost the control of the Collections and went out of existence?
Ian Harrison has written to Fruit Forum with the following comments.
I share Simon Brice’s dismay at the lack of communication between the Trust and its Friends and turn to Fruit Forum to air my own frustrations.
By any standards 2007 has been an exceptional year in the life of the Friends of the Brogdale Horticultural Trust. The year has seen the Trust moving off the farm at Brogdale, a dearth of activities for the Friends and the end of ‘Fruit News’. A Special General Meeting of the Friends was convened and its aims were opposed by the Trust. Yet, on this, and on so many other matters the Friends own Management Committee has fallen silent.
I would have expected the report of the S.G.M. made by the retiring Secretary of the Friends to have been copied to all Friends. Instead we received a hostile report from the Chairman of the Trust! What is happening?
We learn from Fruit Forum of County Court Judgements against the Trust. From the local press in Faversham a pathetic defence of this state of affairs comes from the Chief Executive of the Trust.
The Trust, in the position of the Chief Executive, has made statements of its policy in relation to the move from Brogdale Farm to the farming and horticultural press and BBC Radio 4 ‘Food Programme’. But the Trust systematically denies the Friends of the knowledge it has shared with the press and BBC Radio.
Now we read in Fruit Forum of the substantial legacy left to the Trust by a long-standing Friend. We see that the use Trust has put some of this legacy to is, at least, questionable. Yet again the Friends Management Committee is silent!
Ian Harrison