Does “Parks Trust” need an apostrophe?

Question

My home town has a charity which maintains our parks - called the “Parks Trust”. I recently got involved in a Facebook debate as I’ve always maintained that it should be “Parks’ Trust”. My main opponent argued that as the parks belonged to the trust (which I’m not sure they actually do) rather than the other way round the apostrophe wasn’t necessary. Was either of us correct?

Answer 1

Both are acceptable. Historically, noun adjuncts, or attributive nouns, were often singular, but gradually they have been replaced with bare plurals. The plural Parks Trust is the style I would prefer, except in circumstances where a possessive is required, per the examples given in that Wikipedia article:

• Irregular plurals such as men’s clothing, not *men clothing, nor (typically) *man clothing

• Numbers such as two days’ work and one week’s pay, not *two day work, nor (typically) *one week pay

So in your own writing it comes down to a matter of style preference or style guide recommendation. As for precedent, the plural style is common among other conservation organisations, cf. Natural Lands Trust, Wildlands Trust, Gardens Trust, Parks Administration (which administers parks), or County Parks Society (which, uh…societs them).

I don’t think there’s a clear semantic difference between Parks Trust (a trust for the parks) and Parks’ Trust (a trust of the parks) without more context; either may mean that the parks themselves are properties held in trust by the organisation, or that the trustees are in charge of a trust fund for maintaining the public property.

And anyway, when it comes to a proper name, if that’s the name, then that’s that.