Maryon Wilson Animal Park faces closure under Greenwich Council cuts

The much-loved Maryon Wilson Animal Park in Charlton faces closure under a new round of Greenwich Council cuts.

Cutbacks to adventure playgrounds and library opening hours are also planned while the council hopes to increase income with new controlled parking zones.

Next year’s cuts are smaller than had been feared, although the council is still wrestling with surging demand for social care and temporary accommodation.

While a £27 million shortfall had been predicted, an increase in government funding, extra business rates and more council tax revenue has whittled the gap down to £10.2 million.

A council tax rise of 4.99 per cent is planned to fill some of that gap. Once the increase to London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan’s precept is taken into account, the rise will work out at 4.8 per cent. 

But about 15,000 of the borough’s poorest residents will have to pay 20 per cent of their bills after the scrapping of an exemption which was introduced only five years ago. A cabinet meeting and full council meeting are set to rubber-stamp that move next Wednesday.

Of the cutbacks, which are meant to save £5 million a year by 2029, the closure of Maryon Wilson Animal Park will dishearten many locals the most – not least because it is only projected to save £60,000 per year. 

The proposal comes six months after the council agreed to spend £85,000 a year on hiring political assistants. 

The animal park dates back to the opening of Maryon Wilson Park in 1926, when what was then known as Hanging Wood was donated to the old London County Council by Sir Spencer Maryon-Wilson, whose family had lived at Charlton House and owned much of the land in the area. A few years later, Maryon-Wilson donated a small herd of deer to the new park.

There are now 93 animals in the park, including eight deer, five sheep, four goats and two pigs. There are weekly tours of the park where visitors can feed and stroke the animals, but these have recently been suspended. 

In addition, there are three horses belonging to the Riding for the Disabled Association, based nearby, which would stay in the park. 

It is the second time in 14 years the animal park has been under threat. In 2011 an attempt to spin the park off into a charity failed and the service was brought back under council control. 

“Following a similar approach to that taken in 2011, we will provide the community with a short window to prepare and submit a robust business case to operate the park independently from the council,” a council document says.

If no business case is put forward, the council will rehome the 93 animals, it says.

A petition against the closure passed 2,500 names at 10pm on Wednesday.

Greenwich also plans to review opening hours at its 12 libraries and outreach service, but says it has no plans to close any libraries. It hopes to save £337,000 a year by 2029.

“Not all our libraries are well attended, and it is necessary to review the current demand for library services,” the council says. “There is also the opportunity to trial new technology to allow some libraries, through an ‘express library service’, to give residents access to libraries when unstaffed on certain days, thereby increasing opening hours.”

A “review of the current adventure play centre provision” is expected to save £600,000 a year by 2029, although this will follow an £820,000 investment in existing facilities. The council also wants to save £70,000  by seeking sponsorship for its Sparkle in the Park and Together festivals.

This year’s Together summer festival in Charlton Park would be replaced with another Sparkle in the Park winter festival to allow staff to find the cash, with the next Together to be held in 2027.

Five “sustainable streets” schemes including controlled parking zones are expected to generate £1 million a year by 2029. No exact locations are given for the schemes, although the first will be in Woolwich. Expanding CPZs has been council policy since 2022, and the schemes will cost an initial £680,000 to roll out.

And traders at Beresford Square market in Woolwich will be expected to pay more for their pitches to generate an extra £75,000. 

The council also plans to spend £1 million on a “community energy fund … to provide grants to local projects that help us reach our goal of being a carbon-neutral borough”. 

Plans for the cuts will go before the council’s overview and scrutiny committee next Thursday, before they go to the cabinet and then full council next month. 

While this year’s cuts are less than feared, the papers warn that Greenwich is facing a £42.7 million budget gap for 2026/27, rising to £96.4 million by 2028/29.

Okereke said: “Our draft budget serves as a stark reminder of the financial realities created by decades of underfunding by the previous government. This damage cannot be done overnight, but we’re picking up the pieces through smart investments, sensible decisions and reimagining the way we deliver our services – we will continue to work with central government to secure fair, long-term funding for all councils. 

“The good news is that we’ve received a better financial settlement this year, which will help us continue improving services. We’ve also been successful in finding innovative ways to reduce the costs of temporary accommodation, which have been crippling other councils.” 

Matt Hartley, the leader of the Conservative opposition, said: “”The reality is that Greenwich Council dragged their feet for more than a decade on making the efficiency savings required – which has meant the cuts that Labour councillors are now having to make are deeper than they needed to be.  

“These new budget papers confirm that Labour’s cuts now include taking millions of pounds out of the pockets of the lowest income households in our borough, by drastically cutting the 100% Council Tax Support scheme that ipposition Conservative councillors secured five years ago.  Labour councillors should be ashamed that low-income residents are now paying the price for their decade of dither and delay on getting the council’s finances in order.”

To contact your local councillors or MPs about the proposals, visit writetothem.com.

🗣️ A petition against the Maryon Wilson Animal Park closure is on the 38 Degrees website. A public meeting against the closure will be held on Sunday, January 26 at 2.30pm at St Thomas Church, Woodland Terrace SE7 8EN, a few hundred metres from the park.

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Story updated at 11.30am with Conservative reaction and to include some of the spending plans, and at 5.15pm and 10.15pm with details of the petition, and amended on Friday to correct the planned saving to £60,000.