Kiran Vaidya, a gardener from Beckenham, has been left feeling upset and frustrated after finding his guerrilla garden destroyed by Bromley Council contractors for the second time.
Kiran, 41, decided to brighten up the land in Southend Road in Beckenham in 2016 and has been running a small community and ecologically focused garden ever since.
However, Council-contracted workers are said to have crushed the garden in February after dumping tree debris directly onto the plants during the Storm Eunice clean-up.
Then, in mid-June, the green space – which is named Hefty’s Garden - was destroyed again after further work was done to the damaged tree, which the Council now says must be entirely removed.
A spokesperson for Bromley Council has said that “it was unfortunate that the initial damage occurred following Storm Eunice and the clear up work.”
The guerrilla garden “changed Kiran’s life” as it was the start of his career as a gardener - which is why he is so passionate about its upkeep.
He now feels like he is “in limbo” as he has not been told when the tree's removal will be complete and does not want to restart work on the garden with the risk of it “just being trashed again.”
Bromley Council told the News Shopper that the removal of the tree stump is set to begin next week, and a spokesperson said they have “agreed to help with the replanting work” once the tree is removed.
Kiran says that he has not been provided with any update regarding the tree stump’s removal.
Guerrilla gardening is gardening without permission on land which is not your own, usually in unused and neglected spaces.
Kiran told the News Shopper: “I started that garden at the front with no intention of becoming a gardener whatsoever.
“It was literally just to make it look nice and help the bees out.
“Basically, I was just out there one day and a lady walked past and she said, oh, this looks really beautiful. Can you come and do this for me in my back garden?’ and literally that that started my whole business and now I've got a really successful business of qualified as a garden designer.”
Despite the first instance in February, Kiran decided to clear up the mess and start the garden again with some support from the community.
He says the garden could not have been misjudged as just a normal piece of land because of the number of plants, signage and decorations there.
However, he decided against putting in a complaint to the Council as he figured that the storm was “exceptional circumstances” and thought that the contractors may have been in a rush.
Kiran said: “The community response was amazing when I asked for some help getting the garden started again.
“I basically asked for £50 on GoFundMe because I just thought, if I can just get £50, then at least I can start to replace some of the plants and get it looking nice again.
“The first person donated £25 and then basically, by the end of the second day, it was up to about £230 or so.
“So, I actually ended up turning off the donations because there's only a certain amount of plants I can buy.”
After getting the garden back into a good shape, he was upset to discover that the garden has been destroyed by Council contractors again in June after further work had been done to the damaged tree.
Kiran explained: “They left a giant mess everywhere.
“So not only did they come and do that to the tree, not only did they trash all of my stuff, but then also just left like all detritus everywhere, all the sort of sawdust kind of stuff from putting it into the chipper.
“It was just a sea of sort of brown sawdust all over the top of the garden, fallen branches, twigs and rubbish everywhere.
“I wasn’t given any notice or chance to dig up and move any plants, and they didn’t attempt to be careful or even bother to clear up showing a total disregard for my hard work and the plants.
“It was really disrespectful and just completely careless.”
Kiran said that he had reached out to Bromley Council - who provided an apology and explained that they would try and compensate him for the damaged plants.
Kiran added: “I asked if they were able to give me any kind of kind of guarantee that it's not going to happen again and then, unfortunately, the reply to that wasn't quite as positive.”
He claims that he was then directed to a generic insurance claim form.
Kiran says he feels that the destruction of the Guerrilla Garden goes against the Bromley Biodiversity Plan 2021-2026.
He said: “By ruining my little garden they've done exactly the opposite of what these guidelines and stuff were saying.
“It said things like local residents should be encouraged to engage with their kind green spaces and there was a list of threatened plant species.
“They were saying, we need to look after them and protect them and I literally had to have the two of the plants off that list in the little garden that I bought specifically implanted specifically.”
A spokesperson for Bromley Council said: “We are happy to work with residents to help green our borough and this is one such example.
“We have already agreed to help with the replanting work in discussions with the resident, when we were approached a few weeks ago.
“It was unfortunate that the initial damage occurred following Storm Eunice and the clear up work.
"The summer weather means it is not the ideal time to plant and when work to remove the tree stump is completed, which is anticipated to take place next week, we will be in a position for replanting to go ahead.”
Idverde, Bromley Council’s green space contractors, have been approached for comment.
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