In March 2021 a new ‘community garden’ in Surrey Quays was launched with an ambitious programme, including new trees, a kiosk, a ‘community farm’ and even a ‘wildlife pond’.
Organised by local volunteers, the PNK Garden was going to transform a patch of land that has long stood empty outside a residential building on Lower Road, on the corner of Croft Street. A fundraiser – covered by the News – raised £23,000, of which £18,000 came from Southwark Council. Canada Water developers British Land gave £1,000, alongside smaller donations from many others.
It seemed like a great plan: local people commenting on the fundraiser welcomed the idea of using the strip of land as a space for residents to come together, with one person calling it “a brilliant community initiative”.
The only problem? A year since the grant funding came through, there still doesn’t seem to be much of a garden in place. Social media posts show the brambles were cleared in April last year, and there are some plants growing on the site. The garden, which was first going to be called Garden SE8, is open for a few hours once a fortnight, every other Sunday.
But the site still looks largely empty: there are no trees or proper fences, and no wildlife pond, kiosk or garden shed. Metal railings still line the edges.
Organiser Lara Salinas said that the volunteers were doing the best that they could, but that some momentum had been lost as people started concentrating more on their day jobs again.
Ms Salinas said that work was restarting in earnest and that fencing should be coming soon, followed by the trees and other plants. But the pond has been “put on the back burner”, while the kiosk is taking longer than expected because of planning delays.
“Everything has taken longer than anticipated,” Ms Salinas said. “In terms of progress we are way behind where we wanted to be. At the beginning we were making a lot of progress.
“But all of us are working full time. We were super busy at work, and after the lockdowns, life picked up again.”
She added that another problem had been that after being awarded the grant by Southwark, it had taken “several months” to be processed on the council’s IT system – apparently because the group did not have the right logo, among other administrative issues.
How is the money being used? Ms Salinas said that despite the fundraiser getting £23,000 in donations, the garden only got about £18,000 after the website administration costs and a deduction from the council. Pressed for a figure on how much of the £18,000 in donations has actually been spent over the past year, she gave a rough estimate of £5,000.