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No 6365

Wednesday 19 November 2014

Vol cxlv No 9

pp. 143–150

Reports

Report of the Council on a Garden Room for the Botanic Garden

The Council begs leave to report to the University as follows:

1. The Botanic Garden is a Sub-department of the Department of Plant Sciences and is governed by a Syndicate which reports to the General Board. The primary functions of the Garden can be summarized as follows: the provision of facilities for teaching and research (undertaken by staff of the Garden and cognate Departments); the education of non-specialists from within the University and outside; the training of horticulturalists; and the provision of an amenity for the University and the City.

2. The Botanic Garden’s education facilities were demolished to make way for the construction of the Sainsbury Laboratory. The provision of alternative accommodation in the Garden’s main administrative building at 1 Brookside has not proved successful, due to the difficulties of providing space for visiting school children alongside office staff in a building which is not designed for that purpose.

3. A proposal has been developed to construct a new eco-classroom for use by school groups visiting the Botanic Garden for teaching sessions and school gardening clubs, as well as by families and other groups visiting at weekends. The 123m2 eco-classroom will be a simple, single storey, energy-efficient building which will provide teaching space, toilets, and facilities for groups of visiting children. It is proposed to construct the building in the Schools’ Garden adjacent to the end of the garden belonging to the Superintendent’s House. Landscaping will be undertaken by the Botanic Garden once the building is in place.

4. The estimated cost of the project is £322,588, and is to be funded by the Botanic Garden. The project has been made possible by a donation from Mr Christopher and Mrs Sarah Adams, which when grossed up under the gift aid scheme amounts to £150,000. In recognition of this gift, the building will be named the Geoffrey and Eileen Adams Garden Room in honour of Mr Adams’s parents.

5. Drawings of the proposed scheme are displayed for the information of the University in the Schools Arcade.

6. The Council recommends:

I. That approval is given for the construction of a Garden Room for the Botanic Garden.

II. That the Head of Estate Development be authorized to accept a tender, within the available funding, for the proposed works in due course.

18 November 2014

L. K. Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor

Fiona Karet

John Shakeshaft

N. Bampos

Mark Lewisohn

Jean Thomas

Jeremy Caddick

Rebecca Lingwood

Evianne van Gijn

Anne Davis

Mavis McDonald

I. H. White

David Good

Susan Oosthuizen

A. D. Yates

Helen Hoogewerf-McComb

Rachael Padman

Andy Hopper

Shirley Pearce