National Trust aims to get more tails wagging
New director-general still fielding flak after a messy start but seeks a break from past controversies
The National Trust is to become more dog-friendly, the new director general says today. The organisation is to examine how it can create a more consistent approach to access for dogs across its properties. This could see more dog-walking guides, caninefriendly holiday cottages and shaded areas at cafes and restaurants. Hilary Mcgrady, who took over as director general of the National Trust in March, talks to The Telegraph’s Chopper’s Brexit Podcast.
It was a throwaway remark which has defined Hilary Mcgrady’s first few weeks as director-general of the National Trust. Her rangers were spending too much time picking up litter and “dog poo” rather than conserving properties, she said. It was a nightmare.
Weeks later, Mrs Mcgrady is still fielding comments from members worried that the organisation’s policy on dogs is about to change. But they need not worry because the Trust – which bans dogs from some formal gardens and houses – is to become more canine-friendly, with more a consistent approach to pet access to properties.
This could see more dog-walking guides, dog-friendly holiday cottages and shaded areas at cafés.
“One of the most consistent bits of feedback since the last press is around dogs – a very big proportion of our members is passionate about being able to bring their dogs to us,” she says.
“I am keen to try to do more to be more dog-friendly – but again it is a two way thing because they need to be responsible and absolutely clear up after their own dogs.”
It is a lesson – if Mrs Mcgrady needed one – of the unique place and influence the National Trust holds on life in Britain.
Mrs Mcgrady is not a new arrival at the 125-year-old body. She has been with the Trust for the past 12 years, and chief operating officer since 2014 – which means the controversies that have beleaguered the Trust over the past few years were on her watch too.
There was the locally taken decision to force volunteers to wear rainbow lanyards at Felbrigg Hall as part of a “gay pride” initiative, and another to introduce beanbags at Ickworth House. And do not get her started on “air-brushing out” Easter from the events calendar.
Speaking at the Trust’s Georgian headquarters in central London to The Telegraph’s own Chopper’s Brexit Podcast, Mrs Mcgrady recognises that the Trust’s scale means that it will inevitably offend people as much as delight them. But she is clear that she wants a break from these controversies and to bring the Trust back to its core objectives.
Every new initiative will be judged against how it helps the Trust’s core charitable purpose: to campaign for conservation and for the countryside.
“I can see why people are getting confused and saying ‘why are you doing this, why are you doing that, that doesn’t relate to your charitable cause’,” she says.
“So I will make sure that everything is rooted back to our charitable purpose, which is making sure that the nation benefits out of these places.
“When you have got five million members and 200 million people visiting our properties it is pretty likely that somebody is going to have an issue with something.
“Members and visitors hold us to account, and that is good, that keeps us real. I have asked [members] to hear their views and they are sending me their views.
“The glory of the Trust is one day I am talking about flapjacks in a shop and the next day I am talking about climate change.”
Renewed effort will go into the way the Trust’s 500 properties in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are presented and how volunteers can help show them off.
She says: “We have some of our older loyal members who love our big houses and I love them too. I want to put more money into their presentation.
“I don’t like dumbing down because it implies you have to be simplistic and I find that quite insulting. I want to be able to understand the properties that I come to and learn a bit when I am there and it should be of a really high quality.
“Our really loyal visitors should feel as welcome and comfortable in our properties as someone who has never come to us before.”
The Trust is now working out how to accommodate its 60,000 volunteers who increasingly want to donate a few hours of their time – but not an entire day.
She says: “Volunteers are people like everyone else. They want to feel valued and recognised for what they do – but we could do more.”
Mrs Mcgrady, 52, a mother of three grown-up children, is the daughter of a roofer in a working-class Protestant community in Northern Ireland.
A key focus for her is building on the popularity of the Trust’s properties among parents who see them as an “antidote” to the lure of mobile devices for their children.
“What we do is ‘real experience’ and there is no compromise on that. Families want to come to us in a safe environment,” she says.
“All the work we have been doing is about reconnecting children to nature, understanding where the food comes from, how it works, all those basic things.”
Looking ahead, Mrs Mcgrady wants to see how the Trust can help towns and cities manage their heritage to increase the organisation’s relevance to urban dwellers.
And she sees leaving the European Union as an opportunity to “restore nature” and reverse a decline which she says has not been helped by the focus of EU farming subsidies on intensive food production.
“Brexit is an opportunity for nature. The public is passionate about this and Michael Gove [the Environment Secretary] has figured that out,” she says.
“The country realises that nature and landscape is a really big and important part of what defines this nation and we need to look after it. And we can definitely do more.”
The Trust is prepared to surrender millions of pounds of EU subsidies – it receives around £8.5 million a year – to help improve the environment.
She says: “We may well take a financial hit as an organisation on the back of this but that is good. We are cool with that because it means we will get benefits for nature.
“Love them or hate them, some of the protections through Europe were really valuable to the care of our environment. We don’t want to lose those – we want to build on them and Brexit does give us an opportunity to do that.”
‘I will make sure that everything is rooted back to our charitable purpose – making sure the nation benefits’