The future of a cherished community garden in the town centre is uncertain amid plans to regenerate the area with up to 1,100 homes and public squares, and an expiring lease for the land.
Lavender Place Community Gardens, which is run by charity Food4Families, was set up in June 2018 at the site of the demolished old Civic Centre next to Reading Town Police Station.
The garden is open to all members of Reading’s community, providing somewhere for people to come together to grow fruit and vegetables and to enjoy the green space.
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But with plans to turn the ‘Minster Quarter’ area – which includes the community garden site, the soon-to-be-vacated police station, and Broad Street Mall – into a mixed-used including up to 1,100 homes, offices, and public squares could spell the end of the beloved space.
The volunteers who work at Lavender Place Community Gardens are hoping they can be part of the regeneration.
Kath Burton, a volunteer at the community garden, said: “Getting that line of communication to the council is what we would like to achieve.
“We know this is potentially temporary but there is good stuff happening here which we would like to endure.
“I think probably in all honesty there will be some significant changes. We are sympathetic to the need for housing but people also need green spaces.
“Green spaces promote wellbeing, social benefits, and social cohesion. It would be really interesting to explore how we might re-envision this space as not just bricks and mortar.
“We want to have a conversation. We would like to be part of whatever emerges.”
The site is leased from Reading Borough Council (RBC) by Thames Valley Police (TVP) for a nominal fee of a flower per year, who have allowed Food4Families to use it for growing fruit and vegetables, but the lease is now expiring according to the police.
Ms Burton said: “It was the police’s idea. The guy that was in charge at the time set up a world café in the police station where all sorts of people across Reading came and brainstormed about what we could do in this space in Reading.
“The police took on the lease from the council and got Food4Families in to make the garden.
“The police took the view that it was much better used as a force for good rather than being vandalised. They saw it as a way of turning a public area into a benefit for the community.”
As well as growing fruit and veg, volunteers run gardening classes for people that are looking at horticulture for a career or want to increase social skills, Chi Gong and yoga sessions, and stone sculpting workshops.
Scupltor Andrew McAlistair Hood said: “I have noticed how international it is here. People come here for all their different reasons and they all seem to be getting their difficulties solved.
“I think this is a gem.”
Garden tutor Beth Scott said: “It is an important garden space in Reading that people value. It has been an important place during Covid for wellbeing and exercising. “
Many of the plots are used by the Nepalese community, who came down in 2019 and asked if they could use some of space.
Ms Scott added: “They have developed these quite small plots that they garden for themselves. Mostly they are retired Gurkhas and their wives and widows. They use this as their social place to gather.”
But what future does the community garden have?
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) contacted the police and council to find out their view on the future of the gardens.
A spokesman from RBC said: “The agreement for use of this space is between TVP and the community group using the site and so, in the first instance, it is more appropriate for the community group to liaise directly with TVP on their plans for this site in the future.”
Ms Burton said this was a “rather unimpressive response but sadly not an unfamiliar one”.
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Later, a spokesperson for the police told the LDRS: “TVP currently lease the land from Reading Borough Council on behalf of the Lavender Community Garden Group but this is only a short term temporary lease that will expire shortly.
“Because of this, coupled with TVP’s move from Castle Street, all three parties are liaising closely with regard to timescales and future plans.”
Responding to this update, Ms Burton said: “We have spoken with TVP and are looking forward to more three-way discussions about the lease.”
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