The Mayor of Hackney has apologised to the owner of a community garden in Shoreditch after it was destroyed by the council without their knowledge.
Louise Downe, whose preferred pronoun is ‘they’, said they only found out last Thursday when they saw maintenance workers digging it up.
Mayor Philip Glanville said he was “so sorry this has happened” and later admitted the issue had been “insensitively handled”.
Mx Downe started using a patch of land outside their flat on the Whiston Estate 18 months ago to grow plants and vegetables but has struggled to establish their right to use it. They have lived in Hackney for five years, and in their current flat in Haggerston with their wife for two years.
They did not own the land, but said they conducted an “extensive search” before harvesting it which revealed “no clear ownership.” They grew vegetables all year round, with beans and peas in the spring and root vegetables, squash and potatoes in the summer and autumn.
Mx Downe told the Hackney Post: “We had about eight or nine people whom we would regularly give veg to and people would stop by on their way to the shops.”
They said last Thursday they looked out of the window to see the garden being destroyed by council workers, with the housing officer they had previously been in contact with in attendance.
Mx Downe tweeted: “18 months of hard work have come down to a notice on the fence that was hidden from view. No phone calls. No emails. And not one single councillor replied to my emails last year.”
Mr Glanville replied: “That’s awful, I don’t make individual decisions like this and have backed estate community gardens from the start. I am so sorry this has happened and will investigate what has gone wrong.” In another tweet, he said: “I thought I’d been involved in trying to preserve this.”
That's awful, I don't make individual decisions like this and have backed estate community gardens from the start. I am so sorry this has happened and will investigate what has gone wrong. Can you send me the details if I don't have them? Philip.glanville@hackney.gov.uk
— Mayor of Hackney (@mayorofhackney) March 7, 2019
The mayor later issued a full public apology to Mx Downe, saying: “At the very least we should have contacted Lou – we knew this patch of council land was being cultivated by her – to give her the chance to harvest what she had grown.
“What makes it worse is that I am a huge champion of citizen action and I celebrate Lou for what she was trying to achieve: a better, greener more pleasant outdoor environment.”
Mx Downe claimed a small sign of notice had been placed behind a rose bush away from the garden.
They received an outpouring of support from community groups in Hackney Wick, Dalston and Daubeney Fields.
Wow this is what @hackneycouncil reallly think of urban greening. Just come back to find my community garden completely destroyed. @mayorofhackney i was told this was your decision? pic.twitter.com/ZXq8dqlH4X
— Lou Downe (@LouiseDowne) March 7, 2019
Some of those who responded referenced similar things happening to their community gardens around the borough. Ver Ena tweeted: “Having gone through a similar experience, urban gardening is one emotional roller coaster. In the case of Lady Eve (London Fields) someone parked his van on it for 2 weeks!”
Mx Downe was warned last year their garden would be removed after someone complained about it. On a blog post where they documented the process, they wrote that they had received an email saying the plants constituted “trespassing” and they would be prosecuted in ten days unless they removed them.
The mayor claimed housing officers had had numerous complaints from residents of the estate. He said officers were unhappy Lou, who did not live on the estate, had set up the vegetable patch without their backing.
But Mx Downe denied this. They claimed they had asked the housing officer in charge and the numerous complaints turned out to be just one resident. “Our neighbours are shocked, they are very sad. There were at least five people in Debdale House [the estate where the garden was located] who were actively supporting the garden.
“I never got to find out what the reason for the complaint was.”
Mx Downe also said it seems the department that dealt with urban greening at the council has been shut down and the email address to send requests to for community green spaces to be approved is not operational. A council spokesperson told the Hackney Post the service is still available.
However, Mx Downe said the council have decided to keep the area their garden previously occupied as grass. “Even if residents wanted to turn it into a garden they wouldn’t be able to, but the council said there is another plot next to it that they would be able to use.”
Responding to the mayor’s apology on Twitter, Mx Downe tweeted: “Since the garden was destroyed four days ago, this is the first public statement they’ve made and they still haven’t explained why the garden was destroyed.”
Oh @hackneycouncil this is not how you apologise for destroying a community garden.
I really appreciate the apology, but the accusations in this are slanderous and completely incorrect… https://t.co/dhuWnNqLa6
— Lou Downe (@LouiseDowne) March 11, 2019
“Despite having my phone number, email and name and my proactivity to rearrange a meeting, Hackney Council did not engage me in conversation but decided to destroy it with notice given only by a sign they knew I would not see.”
In a further tweet Mx Downe added: “Also, try using the right pronouns,” referring to the council using ‘her’ and ‘she’ rather than ‘they’ in their apology.
Mx Downe told the Hackney Post: “Overall they have apologised for ruining the garden without permission. They have realised that the way they dealt with the issue was a problem, but no-one has been able to deal with the root cause of the problem.
Hackney council have since offered to find a new site for the garden. Mx Downe said: “It doesn’t make up for the fact they destroyed a legitimate community’s hard work and plants without notice or an inch of consideration for allowing those things to be harvested before they were destroyed.
I think it’s highly unlikely that it will be near my flat. They have talked about finding somewhere in a local park but my renting situation is as perilous as anyone else living in the capital, I don’t know if I’ll still be here next year.”
Mx Downe has documented the process of trying to get approval for the community garden, its removal by the council and the aftermath on their blog: www.louisedowne.com.
