Garden scheme gets the go-ahead

Kingsholm Liberal Democrats have welcomed a scheme to turn an overgrown and unloved patch of land into a community garden.

Councillors have agreed to back the project to transform the Wellington Parade Garden off London Road.

The garden will be maintained by people working with local charity, Emerging Futures, which helps those who are in rehabilitation from alcohol or drugs addictions.

The project will be funded by the city council after councillors decided to ring fence some money for community gardens in the city. It is intended that work will begin on site in the spring.

Councillor Jeremy Hilton, who represents Kingsholm & Wotton, said: "I am very pleased that at last the city cabinet has agreed to fund the improvements to the Wellington Parade Garden.

"It has been a long time coming. I have repeatedly pressed the administration to get on with the job of creating the new garden that has been through a thorough public consultation exercise.

"The dilly dallying over whether the council should fund the approved scheme has been unfortunate.

"The attempt by the administration to downgrade the scheme was rejected by me most forcibly. This garden must get the full makeover. It could have been reopened months ago.

"The new design hopefully will reduce the incidence of anti-social behaviour here, which is the reason why the garden was closed in 2018.

"Both Councillor Isabel Brazil and myself have been working on this project for some time. It is most important that the city council fully funds the works as already agreed.

"We don't expect a job done on the cheap."