Work to start soon on the new Wellington Parade Garden

The long awaited construction of the new Wellington Parade Garden is imminent after the city council signed the contract with the company who will build it.

The new layout has been through public consultation exercise.

The garden was closed and boarded up in 2018 at the request of local residents who were fed up with the anti-social behaviour of street drinkers that congregated in a large group and got drunk and misbehaved.

Lib Dem councillor Jeremy Hilton said: "I am delighted at long last the work to create the new garden is imminent. It was a long tortious process, which was delayed by the council making a grant application to the Great Western Railways Community Fund that was eventually turned down.

"The new layout has been designed to discourage people congregating there and getting drunk and misbehaving. I hope it works.

"The garden is a key focal point on London Road, which is in a conservation area and one of the main routes into the city centre.

"Last year at budget setting the Lib Dems secured funding for improvement to areas of open spaces across the city. The leader of the council wrote to me in September to confirm that funding had been allocated to create the new Wellington Parade Garden.

"The new garden will cost around £30,000 and the contract has now been signed between the city council and GSG Landscape and the work on site should start this summer."