Scientists have been joined by celebrities and trade on the warpath to fight dramatic job cuts at Kew, Richmond’s world-leading botanical gardens, but they may be too late.
The Royal Botanic Gardens, a pioneer in conservation and science, faces a £5million budget deficit due to rising costs and reduced funding from both the government and the Kew Foundation.
An organisation-wide restructure to encompass 125 redundancies, focused in the largest departments of corporate services, public programmes and science, has already begun.
More than 50 Kew scientists were last week told they could lose their jobs, according to a BBC report.
An RBG spokesperson said: “In spite of the challenges ahead we remain incredibly optimistic.”
London singer-songwriter David Gray visits the gardens regularly and spoke out about the job cuts on his website after being alerted to the issue by a friend who works at Kew.
In an exclusive interview with SW Londoner, he said: “Kew can put a gloss on the loss of over 120 jobs but I feel that there is a different story and that the government should step in.
“It’s idiotic to be cutting jobs and demonstrates a total lack of vision – the ramifications are profound and, if anything, we should be creating more jobs.”
“We need every expert that Kew has working flat out to protect the natural world.”
He continued: “It’s basically just chopping off layers of expertise, it seems ludicrous to me when you try and square it with the situation that the earth and its resources are in.”
Gray said that with the natural world in crisis it was no time to undermine this world leading facility.
“We need every expert that Kew has working flat out to protect the natural world,” he said.
Sir David Attenborough also backs the cause.
The veteran broadcaster and much-loved icon said: “Kew has an absolutely crucial role in looking after our botanical heritage and our botanical future.
“The important thing to remember is that it is the premiere botanical gardens in the world scientifically.”
In June a petition with 100,000 names was handed into Downing Street in protest and Nick Clegg claimed in September that funding would be maintained until April 2015, reversing a £1.5million cut.
“The important thing to remember is that it is the premiere botanical gardens in the world scientifically.”
There was outrage last week after Boris Johnson pleaded ignorance to the cuts and Julie Flanagan, negotiator at the union Prospect, claimed he ‘must have had a memory lapse’ on the matter.
She said: “The government’s short-sighted approach to the institution’s funding is hypocritical given that its Heritage Act requires Kew to carry out its plant and fungal conservation work.”
The news comes following the discovery of a carnivorous plant previously unknown to science at Kew in late November.
The cockroach-eating plant had been growing at Kew for almost ten years when Dr Martin Cheek, who has co-discovered more than 100 species of plants, realised that it was a brand new discovery.
The pitcher plant, originally from the Philippines, was donated to Kew in 2004 and housed in a tropical hothouse.
Like the employees of the Gardens, this new addition to its plant family is under threat.
Picture courtesy of Jake Walters, with thanks
