Emir may withdraw pounds 1m gift to London Zoo

FEARS that the Emir of Kuwait will withdraw his pounds 1m gift will be aired at London Zoo this afternoon when officials face a rowdy meeting for the 2,000 members of the Zoological Society of London.

The members of the zoo's parent body will be told by managers that eventual closure is inevitable despite the gift. Dissenters will argue that a concerted campaign and a new style of management could keep the zoo open.

The management is working to an official closure date at the end of September, although the Emir's money may delay that by a few weeks. Redundancy notices to staff have been suspended for 90 days, and Sir John Chapple, the society's president, is not expected to make a final decision until September.

Attendances at the zoo have been between 40 per cent and 50 per cent higher than expected over weekends since the closure announcement. Then about 800,000 a year were visiting the attraction. The London Zoo Survival Group - made up of zoo staff and some Fellows of the Zoological Society of London - argues that just over a million a year would be sufficient to cover running costs. The management would then have more confidence in seeking support from industry or the Government to cover long-term expenses such as the maintenance of its listed buildings, the group says.

John Edwards, a member of the zoo's council, who is passionately against closure, said: 'My view is that the extra money should at least plug the deficit into 1993, and possibly until the summer of 1994. It seems to me there are a number of people on the council that can't be bothered to keep the show on the road. On Monday, the Fellows will be furiously angry.'

Mr Edwards is upset about what he sees as the management's defeatist attitude. He also pointed out that the Emir's cheque is dated Wednesday 15 July: 'I could quite see him stopping the cheque.'

The mood at a meeting of the zoo council last week was dismal. The consensus was that despite the Emir's gift, closure would have to go ahead: the zoo has estimated it would face a loss of some pounds 1.1m by the end of the financial year.

The survival group has called an emergency meeting of the Fellows for 29 July at which it will demand the resignation of the members of the zoo council and management it believes are responsible for the zoo's financial crisis.

The Zoological Society is considering three plans to keep the zoo open. One, from New Zoo Developments, is for a pounds 61m project at the Regent's Park site which critics fears would turn the zoo into an expensive 'theme park'. The second is less ambitious, and comes from members of the management committee.

The third proposal is from the London Zoo Survival group. The group says the zoo should sell itself as the Kew Gardens of the animal world, focusing on its value as a conservation centre. It intends to put pressure on the Government to support the zoo under the treaty on biodiversity which John Major signed at last month's Earth Summit meeting in Rio.