Lewes Road Community Garden V Tesco, Brighton

Gar­den­ers and res­i­dents on Brighton’s Lewes Road Com­mu­ni­ty Gar­den face the bailiffs in the next few days. THE GARDEN IS OPEN despite sub-con­trac­tors Ter­rins lock­ing up the front gates today (June 30).
More bod­ies the bet­ter over next few days. Gar­dens By The Com­mu­ni­ty For The Com­mu­ni­ty — Fuck the Cor­po­rates…

Lewes Road V TescoGar­den­ers and res­i­dents on Brighton’s Lewes Road Com­mu­ni­ty Gar­den face the bailiffs in the next few days. THE GARDEN IS OPEN despite sub-con­trac­tors Ter­rins lock­ing up the front gates today (June 30).
More bod­ies the bet­ter over next few days. Gar­dens By The Com­mu­ni­ty For The Com­mu­ni­ty — Fuck the Cor­po­rates…

On Mon­day (June 26) 200+ peo­ple protest­ed out­side the site after the gates were locked by the gar­den­ers to com­ply with a court pos­ses­sion order. This was done to keep a com­mu­ni­ty activist from cough­ing up £7,000 in costs.

A day lat­er the gar­den had been re-occu­pied and opened up. It is cur­rent­ly open hav­ing been cleaned up and watered. Main con­trac­tors Gilbert-Ash are expect­ed on Thurs­day July 1 with sub-con­trac­tors Ter­rins sched­uled to clear the site and put up hoard­ings on either Fri­day or Mon­day.

Mean­while a legal and plan­ning bat­tle con­tin­ues over lack of con­sul­ta­tion and flawed plan­ning process involv­ing Brighton Coun­cil, main devel­op­ers Alburn Minos Ltd and Tesco.

Since May 2009, when gueril­la gar­den­ers took over a derelict Esso garage, the Lewes Road Com­mu­ni­ty Gar­den has pro­vid­ed a meet­ing space and green haven along the busy, traf­fic-clogged Lewes Road. It has been enjoyed by thou­sands of peo­ple, pro­vid­ing a venue for com­mu­ni­ty events and bring­ing togeth­er local res­i­dents many of whom don’t have gar­dens them­selves. There is a food waste com­post scheme, veg­etable grow­ing and Fairlight school-kids have their own ‘pot up a plant’ project.