Dartington hit by new trustee exit – while gets the green light from regulatory probe

A corporate heavy hitter brought into Dartington Hall Trust to provide new thinking has resigned after four months, in a blow that has been softened by news that a government regulator has cleared the charity of any concerns over governance and management.

The departure as a trustee of David Lovett brings the number of Dartington board members to four, three of whom were appointed since June with the fourth being Lord David Triesman, the trust’s chair who is extremely unwell. Under the charity’s articles of association, it should have a minimum of five trustees to run its affairs in a legally compliant manner.

But in a positive note for Dartington, it has announced that the Charity Commission has ended a “regulatory compliance case” that it started against the organisation last December. The trust said the regulator had concluded that it is happy with the running of the organisation and will take no further action.

Dartington said the commission had acknowledged the organisation’s “commitment to strengthen operations …and we [the commission] are assured by the measures taken so far to achieve this“. While it is likely that the commission ended its inquiry before news of Lovett’s departure, it has presumably been mollified by assurances from Dartington that is at “an advanced stage of selecting and appointing further trustees” so as to return the number to at least the minimum required level.

A seasoned company restructuring expert with links to the entertainment and hospitality industries, Lovett joined the trustees in April as part of an effort by Triesman to inject more business knowledge into Dartington, so as to continue to strengthen its financial position.

Over the past two years the trust – which runs the historic Dartington Hall estate just outside Totnes – has been embroiled in difficulties. It has sought to restructure its operations to cut costs, increase revenues and so stave off what Triesman said in 2023 was the possibility of bankruptcy, induced after years of operating with large losses.

While the deficits had been at least partially plugged by sales of assets mainly land, Triesman has contended that the strategy was unsustainable and was simply postponing the time when the trust would need to act more radically.

Lovett worked for more than 30 years in senior positions at Arthur Andersen and Alix Partners, two big global “restructuring” consultancies advising companies and other organisations in financial difficulty. In discussing his exit – which took effect on 22nd August though was announced only on 1st September – the trust said that “owing to unforeseen factors related to his external business commitments and workload, David [Lovett] has decided to step down from the board”. It added that Lovett had brought “a great deal of relevant financial and turnaround experience” and had made an “extremely valuable” contribution.

For all these soothing words, Lovett’s resignation is likely to trigger speculation about what led such an experienced person to sign up for a stint in an important trustee position only to quit a few months later. Dartington trustees – whose role is to set the long-term strategy for its operations and act as a sounding board for managers – are normally expected to stay for a minimum of three years. Soon after Lovett’s appointment, Triesman showered praise on the new trustee, saying he “knows Dartington Hall well and lives in a neighbouring town. In addition, his extensive corporate experience and professional background as a chartered accountant is highly relevant to our plans for recovery and sustainability. He will chair our audit and risk committee”.

Lovett did not respond to a request to comment. His stepping down brings to 10 the number of trustees who have left Dartington over the past two years. Triesman took over as chair in March 2023. While some of the trustee exits have been triggered by internal disagreements, others have opted out as a result of their tenures ending after a long time, or by circumstances such as ill health.

The other current trustees apart from Triesman are James Gaisford and David Kempton, two veteran business people, and Georgina Allen, a Devon local councillor from the Green Party. In recent months Triesman has suffered from severe health problems which have impaired his abilities to operate at full stretch.

After a run of changes at the trust which have led to a large reduction in the charity’s employees, while have involved more businesses renting property on the Dartington estate for their own operations, the most recent controversy has concerned its highly rated gardens, considered one of the site’s biggest visitor attractions.

In recent weeks Dartington has decided to replace its in-house team of gardeners – who had at the beginning of 2025 included nine people including two part-timers – with an external firm of contractors best known for its work on trees and general maintenance but which has done little to publicise any expertise in horticulture.