The terms of the original trust, set up to hold the fields for public benefit after the death of King George V, didn’t allow for cash to be borrowed to develop facilities using the fields as a security. 

Since 1985 additional land has been acquired for the playing fields by a newer trust not established under the law, Friends of the KGV, which has allowed the purchase more playing fields, sports equipment, erect floodlights, the Lord Taverners Pavilion, upgrades to the clubhouse, and office space for third sector groups. 

The KGV’s management “are of the view that the management and use of the site would be simplified if the statutory and non-statutory trust were consolidated by the creation of a new statutory trust,” said the then-Friends of KGV Ltd Chair Stuart Falla MBE, when he wrote to P&R in 2020.

Pictured: A map of the boundary of the clubhouse carveout.

The legislation has now been drawn up by the current P&R Committee and will go before the States for approval in September at the earliest, which carves out the clubhouse from the rest of the site under a new definition. 

The playing fields and other buildings would continue to be protected and held in the trust for the benefit of the public.   

The decision to remove the Bailiff as trustee was taken as it “could create, or be perceived to create, a conflict with their judicial responsibilities”. 

The historic trust was led by the Bailiff who can appoint two trustees as well as an unpaid management team. 

It was noted in 2020 that only ten percent of the hundreds of playing fields created in the UK to honour King George V after his death remain.