From Private Eye no. 1635 25 October- 7 Nov 2024 (page 17):
"The saga continues of the controversial plan to move the world-famous Kew Herbarium from the Royal Botanic Gardens to a site near Reading.
Last December Steve Reed (then in opposition and now environment secretary) shared on X/Twitter an accusatory open letter to his opposite number Steve Barclay about the planned move. The many staff at Kew who opposed the plan hoped this meant the incoming Labour Government would cancel it altogether.
The signs aren’t good so far. Last month, minister for nature, Mary Creagh, whose responsibilities include Kew, dined at the Royal Botanic Gardens with Kew’s Director Richard Deverell and trustees. They were joined by Edward Barker a senior civil servant at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) who sits on Kew’s “New Herbarium Project” committee.
The previous government had already paid £5 million via DEFRA for a feasibility study of the move, and the department committed a further £2 million to secure the proposed site.
The project was estimated to cost in the region of £200 million, but a further £300 million is thought to be needed to remodel and refit at Kew the vacated herbarium complex at Kew, where four of the seven buildings are grade 2* listed.
The remodelled Kew buildings, known as the “Science Quarter” project are envisaged to hold the remaining science collections and scientists, transferred from the Jodrell Laboratories complex at Kew.
The pretext for all this costly reshuffling is “threats to the plant collections” such as fire and flood, and the idea that space in the herbarium is running out – all of which is hotly contested.
Botanists around the world have criticised the decision, and a petition against the herbarium move has almost 19,000 signatures.
But Kew’s managers are pushing on. They begin the public consultation on the plans for the new building at the Thames Valley Science Park in the next few weeks, before seeking planning permission from Wokingham council. Kew bosses hope for planning permission by April. But will the government stump up the funds?"
Please support us scientists / curator botanists, at RBG, Kew to stop this crazy plan before the government decide to start wasting what will the first of at least £500 million of taxpayers money on an unnecessary shiny new building intended as Richard Deverell’s “legacy”. Please help us avoid calamity for R.B.G, Kew and the effort to discover the planet’s plant species before they become extinct. We need more names and comments on the petition. Please send the petition link to like-minded people so that we can get more attention from the decision makers to stop this proposal.
If you live in the UK, please consider raising this issue with your MP. If you have written already, please write again since the UK has a new Labour government and there is chance now of a definite cancellation.
Here is how to do this in 3 steps:
1. Go to https://www.writetothem.com enter your postcode and click on the displayed MP name.
2. In your own words, keeping it short and clear, tell your MP what you think about the planned move of Kew Herbarium & ask your MP to raise this with the DEFRA minister for Kew, Mary Creagh. Has DEFRA not got something better to spend £500 million of taxpayers money on?
3. Fill in your email, address and name and click on SEND.
Please, help us getting to 20,000 names by signing and sharing the link to this petition https://chng.it/vsDT2xmKXN to avoid catastrophe and Keep the Kew Herbarium at Kew!
For further updates also follow us on Twitter (X), Facebook or Instagram @KewKeepers.
Please help us stop this crazy plan
Curator Botanist savekewherbarium@gmail.com