Lavender Place Community Garden to relocate amid Reading regeneration

The former Civic Centre in the Minster Quarter, where the garden is based, will be used as a construction service site for the development, which recently received £2m in funding from the Government.

Following a meeting with Reading Borough Council on October 26, Lavender Garden’s coordinator and designer Dave Richards said he felt “very positive” about discussions to relocate the site.

“There’s lots of opportunities for growing food in the centre of Reading that we’d like to be a part of and help to happen,” said Mr Richards.

Lavender Place Community Garden, Reading

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“As Reading does redevelop and it becomes increasingly Manhatten-like, we really do need to think about how we can create these community spaces that people want to go in and enjoy.”

No future sites have been named yet and Mr Richards believes the garden will likely be split between multiple areas.

“You just have to look at a map of the centre of reading. Having an equivalent area able to accommodate the same number of people – there aren’t any. So it’s probably going to be a number of sites. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Lavender Place Community Garden

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Up until now, Lavender Place Community Gardens has operated with permission from Thames Valley Police, who owned the land, but they are expected to serve notice as plans progress to move out of Reading Police Station.

A spokesperson for the council said: “The Council is fully aware of the benefits the community garden has brought in the interim period and the valuable work which takes place there, in collaboration with Food4families.

“The Council is committed to working with the group to explore options for an alternative site, whilst acknowledging the obvious constraints on both open space and available land in a town centre environment.”