Ex-National Trust chief says charity going ‘in wrong direction’

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The National Trust is going within the “wrong direction” and there are “serious flaws” in the best way the organisation is being run, a former chair of the charity has mentioned.

Sir William Proby mentioned he was reluctant to return ahead and criticise the organisation or his successors however has issues about the place the charity is headed.

His feedback come after a right-wing assume tank accused the National Trust of being “undemocratic” and fascinating in a “subversion of democracy” over modifications to voting at its annual assembly.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Sir William mentioned: “The National Trust has always attracted controversy. This is because of its importance in our national life and the passion which so many people feel for what it does. This is healthy and should be welcomed by the management and board of trustees.

“A truly democratic structure allows these issues to be debated, voted on, and the organisation can move on. Stifling dissent will only lead to a running sore of disaffected members outside the organisation, which inevitably will damage this great institution.”

Sir William added that he hoped the report would immediate the charity to revive its “democratic principles” and take one other have a look at its governance buildings.

The report, referred to as National Distrust: The End of Democracy within the National Trust, was compiled by Zewditu Gebreyohanes, a senior researcher on the Legatum Institute assume tank.

Ms Gebreyohanes can be the previous lead of Restore Trust, a National Trust members’ marketing campaign group that desires the charity to stay to its remit of the safety of historic constructing and away from “wokeness”.

The report criticises the brand new “quick vote” system carried out by the charity which permits members on the National Trust to vote for all of the management suggestions in a single go.

It claims this was introduced in with out the prior information of members, is undemocratic and was launched in 2022, only a yr after the Restore Trust was created.

“A recent National Trust members’ resolution calling for the abolition of Quick Vote was defeated only with the use of over 54,000 Quick Votes, meaning that almost 80 per cent of votes cast against the resolution were themselves Quick Votes,” it says.

“All candidates endorsed by Restore Trust – the grassroots campaign of critical members seeking to return the Trust to its statutory aims – would have been elected in both 2022 and 2023 had the results of each Trust-endorsed candidate not been inflated by over 55,000 and 72,000 Quick Votes in those years, respectively.”

It alleges that if a political celebration had been in control of drawing up the reforms, the general public would see it as “a significant abuse of power” and a “subversion of democracy”.

The report makes two suggestions: the primary is that Lucy Frazer, the secretary of state for tradition, media and sport, ought to introduce laws to stop anti-democratic measures; and the second is that the Charity Commission ought to open an inquiry into the National Trust, which is Europe’s largest conservation charity.

A spokesperson for the National Trust mentioned: “The National Trust is an independent charity, regulated – like all UK charities – by the Charity Commission.

“We have open and democratic governance processes, and are accountable both to our regulators and to our members. Our members firmly rejected a resolution suggesting government oversight in our work via an ombudsman at our AGM in 2022.

“‘Quick Vote’ was introduced following advice from our independent election services provider that it is standard practice for large membership bodies. We will continue to take advice on what is standard electoral practice from accountable, regulated institutions that are experts in this field, and which have their own transparent systems of governance.”