Save Milton Country Park

history of the closure threat

07/07/05 - SCDC is capped

The Government announces that South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC) would be capped by £2.6 million. SCDC applies for a judicial review, but this is denied and Parliament confirms the capping decision on 20 July 2005.

12/09/05 - Country Park Advisory Group meeting

The then portfolio holder responsible for the Park, Cllr Deb Roberts, explains that in the wake of the capping she has to save 36% in her budget for the next financial year (i.e. April 2006-April 2007). Options considered include introducing car parking charges and sub-contracting management of the Park to an external organisation.

21/01/06 - Public meeting

SCDC holds a public meeting in the Park to discuss ways forward for future management of the park in the lights of the budget cuts. The Milton village web site carries a full report with pictures. The conclusion of the meeting, encouraged by Cllr Deb Roberts who was leading it, is that SCDC should keep the management of the Park in house.

04/05/06 - Local council elections

Cllr Vicky Ford is elected to SCDC and shortly afterwards joins the cabinet as the portfolio holder responsible for the Park, taking over from Cllr Deb Roberts.

14/09/06 - SCDC cabinet meeting

The Park is discussed at September's cabinet meeting. Cabinet agrees a number of items intended to increase revenue and reduce costs.

Cabinet unanimously AGREED to:

authorise officers to re-negotiate as soon as practicable this Council's agreement with Cambridgeshire County Council concerning their land in the centre of the park;
introduce a £1 per car compulsory parking charge as soon as possible, to be reviewed by Cabinet after six months;
establish a three-month trial partnership with the College of West Anglia for their students working in the park, reporting back to Cabinet in December 2006;
develop procurement options for the catering franchise in the visitor centre;
explore the development of a Trust to take on the responsibilities for the park in the medium- to long-term; and
review the appropriate future levels of staffing from April 2007.

Note item (e) which suggests a Trust is a "medium- to long-term" option.

09/10/06 - Country Park Advisory Group meeting

The meeting starts with a bang with Cllr Vicky Ford announcing that a further reduction in costs is needed in the next financial year as part of a round of budget reductions within SCDC. She then says "I do not want to close the park". She says that the creation of a Trust is now vital and is the top priority.

06/12/06 - SCDC cabinet papers

Papers prepared by officers for the SCDC cabinet meeting are published. They recommend:

a "super trust" option, which could manage both the Park and other country parks which will be created around Cambridge in the next few years, as the way forward for the long term
retaining 3 rangers
designating everything North of the 13th public drain into a Local Nature Reserve

08/12/06 - SCDC press release

SCDC issues a press release (copy online here). It telegraphs what the cabinet papers say and hence the decision that the cabinet is expected to make the following week. It announces a 75K funding gap (aka cuts) but Cllr Vicky Ford says that "I do not want to see Milton Country Park closed. Our longer-term options are to consider establishing a trust to take on the park".

14/12/06 - SCDC cabinet meeting

Cabinet ignores recommendations from officers and votes to close the park if no one can be found to take it on by 31st August 2007. The actual decision reads:

Cabinet AGREED to establish the medium / long-term future of Milton Country Park through:

Undertaking an Asset Management Review with the assistance of Cambridgeshire County Council, subject to the outcome of the 15 December 2006 meeting between the Head of Community Services and the Cambridgeshire County Council Head of Property Asset Management, and
Seeking an appropriate external organisation to take on by 31 August 2007 the management and possible ownership of the park, whether through a Trust or by another suitable agency, but if no suitable partnership could be arranged or appeared likely by that date, that officers be instructed to take the necessary steps to close the park.

They also decide not to renew the third ranger's contract nor to create the Local Nature Reserve as that "could affect the uses of the site and its attractiveness to organisations interested in forming a management trust".