Here is the online version of the article from the UK daily press over the break. The hardcopy came out the next day. A great present.
Sarah Knapton, Science Editor, Daily Telegraph online version 23 Dec 2024
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/23/kew-gardens-exodus-scientists-move-dreary-reading/
Kew Gardens is facing an exodus of scientists over a controversial proposed move to a “dreary” science park in Reading.
In 2023, the Royal Botanic Gardens confirmed it would be moving its priceless library of dried specimens, known as the Herbarium, to a new site in the Thames Valley.
Now the results of a six-month impact survey carried out by the Prospect union, and seen by The Telegraph, show that 61 members of the science staff – a third of those questioned – have said that they will have to leave their jobs if they are forced to carry out research in Reading.
Staff have complained that the move is “disastrous” and will effectively “mothball” the collection because it is too far away for staff based at Kew, in south-west London, to visit. Some have estimated it will mean a round trip costing £50 a day.
One member of staff wrote on the survey: “I could not continue my research if the Herbarium is moved from the Kew site as, to collect samples, would involve a day out to Reading and then back. Where am I to live?”
Employees described the new site as a “shoebox, surrounded by motorways and flats” and said being forced to work there after Kew Gardens would be detrimental to morale.
Another added: “I do not relish the prospect of visiting the dreary Thames Valley Science Park” while one said: “At Kew we have a lovely environment with gardens and greenery, there we will have a warehouse next to a busy road.”
One member of staff, who did not want to be named, told The Telegraph: “The Prospect union survey results are fascinating, and paint a true picture of what staff think.”
Kew’s Herbarium, which dates from 1853, was founded from the collection of Sir William Hooker, an English botanist and the first director of the gardens,and holds more than seven million specimens dating back to the 17th century.
The Herbarium houses 90 per cent of the world’s plant diversity, gaining around 30,000 new additions each year. Many specimens are still to be classified. Prize specimens in the collection include a Galapagos fern collected by Charles Darwin and plants from the East India Company that launched the tea trade.
Kew said moving the collection would help to preserve it, but scientists argue that the current Grade II listed building has housed the plants for 170 years without any detectable deterioration, and say there is still room for another million specimens.
The move has attracted widespread condemnation, with Alan Titchmarsh saying there was “no possible advantage” to the scheme and Sir Ghillean Prance, the former Kew director, branding the plans ridiculous.
More than 19,000 people have now signed a petition calling for the plans to be abandoned.
Staff reported on the survey that the “brain drain” had already begun, with three employees handing in their notice and moving to other institutions in advance of the move.
One employee wrote: “I don’t even use the Herbarium very much, but the communication and management has been so awful that it’s entirely turned me against the whole idea.
“Gagging orders on all staff not to discuss the project speaks volumes and smacks of dishonesty, lack of integrity and bullying from the highest level.”
Kew Gardens said staff wellbeing was a priority and said there had been extensive engagement with employees who would be offered support and help with potential relocation.
They argued that only a fraction of staff had completed the survey, saying the results represent only about 35 per cent of the science staff. However, employees pointed out that it was only sent to members of the Prospect union, and did not go out to all staff.
A spokesperson from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, said: “The project to deliver a new herbarium is proceeding, with backing from Kew’s leadership, senior members of the scientific community, and the active involvement of the herbarium staff and volunteer teams.
“We recognise that change is unsettling for some and there is a range of views.
“We continue to emphasise that the project is still at a very early stage and not likely to happen for several years. We are working through the detail, including which roles and how many may need to relocate in part or in full.”
In 1873 the Herbarium faced a similar threat, after it was suggested that it should be merged with the National History Museum’s collection in South Kensington, London.
In a public letter to William Gladstone, the prime minister, more than 50 of Britain’s most well-known scientists, including Charles Darwin, argued why it was crucial the library remained at Kew.
Writing in The Gardeners Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, they said the move would be “highly detrimental to the progress of science and injurious to all those interests that depend on it”.
They continued: “It appears to us that it is absolutely necessary that a great botanical garden like Kew should be in close connection with as perfect a herbarium and botanical library as possible. Such a combination of living and dead specimens is requisite for the complete study of plants.”
Staff have also written to Mary Creagh, the nature minister at Defra, asking her to reconsider the move.
Please support us 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”. 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. 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!
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.
For further updates also follow us on Twitter (X), BueSky, Facebook or Instagram @KewKeepers.
Please help us stop this crazy plan
Curator Botanist savekewherbarium@gmail.com