Events
RHS Forum 2006
What future for urban gardens: Eden or Extinction?
Those lucky enough to have a garden attractive to developers may be surprised to learn that without you 
knowing, developers can apply for planning permission to demolish your home to make way for high-density housing.
Photo (left to right): Ken Thompson, Kirsty Walk, Fisher Tomlin, Ian Hodgson, Lowry Turner, Paul Bettison and Jason Prior.
This was the startling admission by Councillor Paul Bettison, Leader, Bracknell Forest Council, at the RHS Forum: ‘Eden or Extinction - What Future for Urban Gardens?’ held at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 8 November. When pressed by moderator and Newsnight presenter Kirsty Walk, Councillor Bettison admitted that he, and other local authorities, did believe gardens were important to people and their well-being, but added that with high housing targets and diminishing space, “the government doesn’t make it easy for us”. He also admitted that some residents in Bracknell had been given grants to pave over front gardens for parking, as the streets cannot accommodate all the vehicles.
Other guest speakers at the event arguing the case for the demands of social housing versus the importance of private gardens, included urban designer, landscape architect and environmental planner Jason Prior, who emphasised the need for foresight in planning to incorporate changing trends in lifestyle. During his presentation he also outlined the need to educate the property-buying public saying that the majority of planned housing today was “dreadful stuff”.
Ken Thompson, a senior researcher at the University of Sheffield, achieved a round of applause from the audience for stating that gardens were much richer habitats for wildlife than the “arid desert” of the green belt.
DIY SOS TV presenter Lowrie Turner, speaking at the event, said, “I’ve lived in 10 houses over 15 years and only now have I realised how essential my own personal outdoor space is, particularly when you have children.”
Greg Clarke MP was present to reiterate the thinking behind his Bill to remove gardens from the brownfield classification, which has failed at three previous parliamentary hearings, and urged audience members to support his campaign via an online petition in advance of the Bill’s fourth hearing when parliament reconvenes in 2007.
Garden designer, Andrew Fisher Tomlin, detailed the plethora of needs of today’s private gardens as outdoor rooms just as much as places to grow plants. He added that it should not “be a sin to want a patio” and urged for a solution to urban gardens not to be based on guilt, leaving out the needs of many urban dwellers”.
The audience voted overwhelmingly that the law citing gardens as ‘brownfield’ should be revoked. The audience was split that the allocation of gardens be legally enforceable and the majority felt that if only one option were available, future city dwellers should be allocated private garden space instead of communal green space.
Find out more about the forum, the issues raised and those who took part
Have your say
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Save our Gardens campaign
Garden Organic has set up the Save our Gardens campaign - the national campaign against garden grabbing.
Visit the Garden Organic website and find out more