Dear Bristol: We Are Witnessing a Scandal in Plain Sight

The Cambridge Online Dictionary defines a scandal as:

‘An action or event that causes a public feeling of shock and strong moral disapproval.’

It defines a tragedy as ‘a very sad event or situation.’

Bristol Zoological Society’s Trustees have signed off on plans for the herbaceous border (pictured above) to be bulldozed to become someone’s multi-million pound private home and for 150 trees to be felled.

By those definitions, I believe the imminent sale of Bristol Zoo Gardens – the world’s 5th oldest zoo and one of Bristol’s three crown jewels – to a housing developer that is currently listed on the Financial Conduct Authority website with a warning that says: ‘You should avoid dealing with this firm and beware of scams’ – and intends to cut down 150 trees and bulldoze the herbaceous border to make way for a private housing estate, is both a scandal and tragedy, happening in plain sight and playing out in real time, before all of our eyes.

Bristol Zoological Society’s claims of a financial crisis caused by legal costs don’t stand up to serious scrutiny when looking at the evidence

I understand that all twelve of Bristol Zoological Society’s Trustees are aware of the FCA warning and the proposed destruction of the gardens, yet still intend to proceed with the sale of Bristol Zoo Gardens within a matter of weeks. What they are thinking is anyone’s guess, but if the sale does go ahead, it will be those twelve Trustees who bear ultimate responsibility for permanently destroying a large part of our city’s heritage and culture.

‘There is ecological vandalism taking place at Bristol Zoo Gardens RIGHT NOW, as Bristol Zoological Society’s Trustees have sanctioned the chainsaws to begin their destruction of our zoo gardens.’

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but please look at the facts

Bristol Zoological Society recently declared a financial crisis, attributing these issues to £300,000 of legal costs while defending a Judicial Review case. However, £300,000 is just 2.38% of the £12.589 million that the Society spent on governance and capital expenditure between 2019 and 2022 and is approximately 3% of the cost of the new gorilla enclosure. The claim that £300,000 has precipitated a financial crisis does not stand up to serious scrutiny.

Bristol Zoo Garden’s 2018 DEFRA Zoo inspection report obtained by FOI, described BZG as; “One of the leading zoological collections in the UK.”

A more plausible and fact based cause of the crisis would appear to be the loss of almost half a million annual visitors for the Society, following the closure of Bristol Zoo Gardens in September 2022. Whilst visitor numbers will undoubtedly rise at Bristol Zoo Project when the new gorilla exhibit opens at Easter, and throughout its first year of opening, there is no evidence to suggest visitor numbers will come close to the Society’s projections or be sustainable in the long-term. Therefore, the ‘crisis’ may endure and will be largely self-inflicted.

The SBZG campaign has only ever been about one thing, and that is saving Bristol Zoo. The debate about ‘NIMBY-ism’ and housing has become entangled in this issue but speaking for myself it’s very simple: Save the Site – Save the Society.

Publicly available documents show that since 2019, Bristol Zoological Society appears to have been planning to sell 41 acres of its Bristol Zoo Project site for housing.

Evidence Based Research

Today, the new Save Bristol Zoo Gardens website goes live. It showcases several years work and an unprecedented amount of research, with data mostly taken from Bristol Zoological Society’s own accounts which:

a) Strongly challenges the original reasons Bristol Zoo Gardens closed, and:

b) Demonstrates that based on all available evidence, the Society’s visitor number and financial projections upon which its future success is based, are very likely never to happen.

I have dedicated the past 4 years of my life to trying to save Bristol Zoo Gardens because I believe it is too important not too, for my family and for many other generations of Bristolians, past and present.

A very brief summary of the work:

Since announcing the closure of Bristol Zoo Gardens in November 2020, Bristol Zoological Society has frequently publicly described BZG as “not fit for purpose.” This directly contradicts a 2018 DEFRA Zoo Report which described Bristol Zoo Gardens as “one of the leading zoological collections in the UK” and “applauded” its commitment to conservation and education.

I have dedicated the past 4 years of my life to trying to save Bristol Zoo Gardens because I believe it is too important not too, for my family and for many other generations of Bristolians, past and present.

While BZS claimed unsustainable finances to justify the sale of BZG, the data tells a different story. In 2019, BZS reported a “£2.5 million increase in profitability” according to its own accounts.

While BZS claimed a long-term decline in visitor numbers to justify the sale, Bristol Zoo Garden’s visitor numbers from 2005 through to 2020 when the pandemic hit, were between 500,000 – 600,000 annually, making it Bristol’s most visited paid-for visitor attraction.

The strategy for Bristol Zoo Project is a huge gamble, relying on visitor and income growth that is unprecedented in the UK zoo industry based on all available evidence. BZS projects a jump to c.810,000 annual visitors by 2026/2027—a 138% increase from projections made in 2023, requiring BZP to overtake attractions like the Eden Project, Hampton Court and Longleat.

While the new site is promoted as 136 acres, only about 25.78 acres are actually usable for animal exhibits due to heritage and environmental restrictions.

According to publicly available documents, since 2019, BZS appears to have been planning to sell 41 acres of its Bristol Zoo Project site for housing, which according to independent professional advice could raise somewhere between £9.5M to £12M for the Society.

Vision for a reimagined Bristol Zoo Gardens

There is a huge amount of evidence to suggest that reopening Bristol Zoo would be the best option for Bristol Zoological Society and for conservation. (Please read Section 7 of my report).

The fully costed vision for a reimagined Bristol Zoo Gardens, which is published today, has been developed and supported by zoo industry experts and many former Bristol Zoo staff. It was publicly launched at an event on 21st January and is now available for anyone to view online.

Bristol Zoological Society’s current leadership have made it crystal clear they will never reopen Bristol Zoo Gardens. This plan therefore, comes hand in hand with a call for new leadership of Bristol Zoological Society, to take the charity back in a more positive direction, where Bristol Zoo Gardens once again serves the community, the people and the city of Bristol. The vision can be very briefly summarised in two bullet points:

• Amazing and endangered animals from around the world, hand-picked to match Bristol Zoo’s size & scale
• Fabulous gardens
  

  Small animals, big stories: A future for Bristol Zoo Gardens we could all be proud of.

Legal Intimidation

This work was originally intended to be published in April last year, but as a consequence of trying to hold an organisation and powerful people accountable, I have been subjected to legal intimidation to try to silence me to stop me exercising my democratic right to campaign.

This followed the controversy over the cancelled zoo meeting which was due to be held at Bristol Beacon. Following a Subject Access Request, private emails revealed that hours before the meeting was cancelled, Bristol Zoo CEO Justin Morris, emailed the Beacon’s CEO, Simon Wales, claiming most of my statements were “false” and mentioning that BZS and Acorn were “taking legal advice.”

My work has been checked many times over by myself and a professional accountant, but if Bristol Zoological Society can demonstrably show that anything specific that I have published is provably false, I will happily retract and apologise.

Bristol Zoo Gardens – an amazing place through all the seasons – must be the latest in a long line of institutions in our city that have been saved at the eleventh hour.

Legacy

Pre-Covid, it would have been unthinkable that the world’s 5th oldest zoo, this living, breathing institution, a botanical garden in the heart of Bristol, part of the fabric of the city, welcoming over 90 million visitors in its illustrious history and surviving two World Wars in the process, would be sold off to become a private housing estate and it is shocking that as a city, we have let this get as far as it has. I believe that the media bears some responsibility for not covering this issue anywhere near as fully or accurately as it should have. There are, however, many examples of Bristol doing the right thing on the eve of doing the wrong thing, and it is this hope that we must hold onto at the eleventh hour.

Pre-Covid, it would have been unthinkable that our 200-year-old botanical zoo gardens would be sold off to become a private housing estate.

What can be done?

1. Please visit the Save Bristol Zoo Gardens website, read my work, look at the vision for a reimagined Bristol Zoo and make up your own mind.
2. Please join the imminent public demonstration with a placard on Wednesday 11th March, outside Acorn’s Bristol Office – 50 Clifton Down Road, BS8 4AH.
3. I ask any individual or organisation with a current association to Bristol Zoological Society, to read my evidence-based work and to subsequently re-evaluate their relationship with the Society, whilst the strategy to sell Bristol Zoo Gardens remains in place.
4. I appeal to wealthy individuals and organisations who have an interest in Bristol’s heritage and history who would like to see Bristol Zoo Gardens saved, to contribute to a significant donation for Bristol Zoological Society. This donation would be conditional on new leadership that retains and reopens a reimagined Bristol Zoo Gardens.
5. If you support the SBZG campaign, please sign the petition and donate. Whilst I continue to campaign on this issue by myself, I do so on behalf of the many thousands of people who I know support this campaign.