National Trust Sacks Volunteer Gardeners for Not Being Inclusive Enough

According to the Telegraph, National Trust Isle of Wight has sacked some of its long-standing volunteer gardeners at Mottistone Manor, a property the Trust boasts of having “enchanting gardens”:

The 13 volunteers say they have been forced out, without warning, by trust managers who claimed their “attitude and values” did not align with the charity’s “respectful and inclusive culture”.

What exactly the gardeners are supposed to have done wrong has not been explained.

The decision appears to be the latest example of the trust’s pursuit of a ‘progressive culture’ which has included exploring properties’ links with slavery and colonialism and asking some staff to wear rainbow-coloured clothes and lanyards.

Your correspondent cannot help wondering how the right-on Trust lives with the patently non-inclusive name ‘Isle of Wight’.

On June 19th 2025, the gardeners were informed by email:

National Trust Isle of Wight is pausing all gardening volunteering at Mottistone Gardens.

Please do not turn up to volunteer at this time, we will be in contact to discuss the future of volunteer gardening at Mottistone in due course.

Bewildered, the hardy volunteers, who even kept the place going during Covid, were left hanging for a week until the Trust’s ‘visitor operations and experiences manager’ on the Island offered a brief explanation:

The decision to pause all volunteering in the garden was not made lightly. It is a necessary step to address serious concerns regarding the behaviours, attitudes and values exhibited by some members of the team. A culture where individuals feel free to act or speak without regard for others cannot be allowed to continue. This has had a significant impact on team cohesion and the overall effectiveness of our work… we believe it is the right decision given severity of the circumstances.

Just how severe the circumstances were was left to the gardeners’ imaginations until July 14th:

• Delays in completing mandatory training related to health and safety and garden procedures.
• Instances of behaviour, language or attitude that do not reflect the respectful and inclusive culture we strive for.
• Hesitancy to raise concerns or engage constructively with team members, including new staff, volunteers and managers.

The gardeners have steadfastly insisted they have no idea what the problem is. They protested to Tina Lewis, the Trust’s ‘director of people’, an experienced HR director according to the Trust’s own webpage. She replied:

It is the opinion of the property team that the values and standards expected of our volunteers, as defined in the Volunteer Charter, were not being upheld by some individuals within the Mottistone Gardens volunteer team. Specific examples are around completing mandatory training, compliance with health and safety law and volunteering within a team context to achieve the outcomes set by the property and the Head Gardener. It is also clear that there were some challenges around interpersonal relationships.

A further 1,500-word protest from the gardeners was met with a rebuff of 160 words from Ms Lewis who then said the Trust would not engage in any further correspondence. The volunteers of course, being volunteers, have no legal rights as employees, such as taking the case to a tribunal.

No doubt there is more to the story. There always is, but exactly what is far from clear.

The story is reminiscent of the one involving an Arts Society lecturer. This umbrella organisation accredits lecturers who are then hired by affiliated local arts societies to fill their annual programmes. The local societies are volunteer run.

Dr Anne Anderson was suspended in 2021 after allegedly using an unacceptable term to refer to the Duchess of Sussex (“the dreaded Meghan” and also “people of a colourful disposition”) during the lead-up to a lecture, following an anonymous complaint from a vigilant member who had been listening in and decided to take offence. Some other lecturers, horrified by this development, resigned rather than risk being apprehended by the Society’s Thought Police.

Anderson was cleared but lost 75% of her income and hasn’t been restored to her former position of ‘accredited lecturer’. Nonetheless, the Mail revealed in July that she is now being hired once again by arts societies regardless, after developments that the senior figures in the National Trust might care to note:

Anderson’s return comes in the aftermath of dramatic changes in the Arts Society hierarchy which saw its chief executive, Florian Schweizer, and almost all its trustees resign.

They had proposed a new system of governance which would have restricted the Society’s 60,000 membership to electing only a minority of trustees, rather than all of them, and would also have ended the voting rights of the 360 local societies in Britain and abroad.

The proposals were overwhelmingly rejected, with 70% of members voting against them at an extraordinary general meeting, prompting Schweizer’s resignation [he had accused Anderson of ‘racist language’], followed by that of almost all the trustees.

“If you sit by the river long enough,” said Sun Tzu, “the body of your enemy will come floating past.”

These two absurd sagas, which both exhibit the morale-sapping virtue-signalling codswallop seeping through this nation like mustard gas, show how far the crushing of free speech and even normal behaviour has spread and the willing complicity of organisations in achieving that. The National Trust is dependent on armies of volunteers, many of whom are elderly and retired. Treating them like enemies of the state may precipitate an existential crisis for the Trust.

However, there is more going on. The Trust has recently announced a 39% surge in Generation Z visitor membership (are these the ones whose sensibilities the Trust is trying to appease by shifting out older volunteers?) but this summer said it needs to find 550 redundancies (6% of its workforce) to help pay for the recent hike in employer National Insurance costs. That will make getting rid of volunteers even harder to weather.

The Telegraph’s piece about Mottistone Manor is worth reading in full.