THE new man taking charge of a city's parks has been revealed, as has his lucrative salary.

James Cross, the former boss of Natural England, has been named as the first chief executive of the newly-created Newcastle Parks Trust.

He will be paid an annual salary of £85,000, which is higher than than £70,000 salary that the job was expected to command.

It had been hoped that the trust, which will take over the running of the city’s parks and allotments from the cash-strapped Newcastle City Council, would have appointed a chief executive by June of this year.

However, council bosses had to spend £18,000 on a headhunter after failing to recruit either a chief executive or a chairman of the trust’s board through their own recruitment process earlier this year.

Jim Beirne MBE, chief executive of Live Theatre, was selected as the chair of the trust in July.

Mr Cross said: “The parks, allotment and green spaces in and around Newcastle are amazing and enhance our lives by providing a place right in the heart of our communities to improve our physical and mental wellbeing, to play sport, to practice our hobbies or to spend time with our friends and family.

“I am over the moon to be able to work alongside the people of Newcastle to find new ways of strengthening these connections, forging new ones and investing in the parks future.”

Mr Cross resigned earlier this month after four years as chief executive of Natural England,  an advisory body working with government that is responsible for the creation of National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Beauty and National Nature Reserves. He is also a board member and trustee of the University of Teesside.

Newcastle is the first major metropolitan authority in the UK to hand over its parks and allotments to an independent charitable trust, after its parks budget was slashed by 91 per cent from £2.58m in 2010/11 to less than £1m last year.

The trust is expected to take control of 32 parks and more than 60 allotment sites in the city in April 2019.

The council is spending an initial £9.5m to set up the trust, but insists it should become self-sustaining after ten years, saving up to £110m.

Mr Beirne added: “I am delighted to welcome James Cross on board as chief executive of the Newcastle Parks and Allotments Trust, he brings a wealth of experience from Natural England, to compliment the local and business experience on the board, to drive the trust forward as a truly innovative partnership.”

Coun Kim McGuinness, Newcastle City Council Cabinet member for Culture, Sport and Public Health, said: “The experience, passion and dedication that James has shown throughout his career, and his experience leading Natural England make him the perfect candidate to drive forward our vision for this innovative charitable trust.

“Our parks are valuable assets and loved by our residents. They are a big part of what makes Newcastle a brilliant place to live, work and visit and the board of trustees will work closely with James to keep parks at the heart of our city.”