Charges Proposed for Hampton Court Grounds

1.11.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 16th Apr 2003

The governing body - the Trustees - of the Royal Palaces has decided to impose charges on visitors to the gardens of Hampton Court Palace and a study has been launched into how this should be done.

There is already a charge for visiting the Privy Gardens (from which some residents are exempt on proof of identity). The Palace authorities justify the decision on the grounds that they need to raise revenue from the 200,000 annual visitors to the grounds in order to finance the £2 million maintenance cost of the gardens.

Vincent Cable, MP, was very critical of the decision and is making strong representations to the authorities on behalf of residents. "Simple arithmetic suggests that the charges would have to be very high to cover costs: a minimum of £10 disregarding administration costs and the inevitable fall in numbers. "

"A lot of the visitors will already have paid to visit the palace and the maze and will be asked to pay again".

"The public consultation needs to include some public examination of the accounts of the palace. I find it impossible to believe that one of Britain's leading tourist attractions with its additional income from the flower show, the festival and events on the Green can possibly be losing money."

"The experience of museums and art galleries is that soaking the public to pay for visiting the country's heritage can be seriously counter productive and has had to be reversed in some cases. I hope the palaces are preparing themselves for a strong negative reaction."