26 May 2011. Councillor Pete West, the council’s cabinet member for the environment has promised an investigation of reports that the community garden at the Mound on Church Street in central Brighton has been trashed by the site's developers.
According to a report in Brighton and Hove News blog, the "community gardeners" complained that the developer who owns the site - Hargreaves of Little Hampton - has demolished vegetable beds, seed nurseries and a wildlife conservation area including a pond containing tadpoles and newts. despite a notice by the pond which explained that there were newts - a protected species - in the pond. "The sign was deliberately smashed up by the clearance gang.”
The land was a derelict eyesore before the community gardeners decided to brighten it up. The developers recently obtained a court judgement to develop the community gardeners from the land.
Cllr Pete West said: “If these reports are true it’s an outrage. I’ll be asking officers about whether there was any legal protection on wildlife there, whether any laws have been broken and if so whether anyone can be prosecuted.
“Even if no action can now be taken, the whole city will want to signal its disgust at such vandalism. In any case the developers will now be punished by a PR disaster of their own making.”
The community gardeners fear that the site will remain an eyesore for years to come. They said: “Since opening in January, The Mound had shown gardening films, had seed-bomb workshops, held free soup kitchens and been a mecca for locals and visitors to Brighton of a weekend. During this time there had been only positive feedback and the space had been 100 per cent trouble-free.”
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