Greenwich Council has begun sending men to dismantle the precious front gardens of the Vanbrugh Park Council Estate. Please sign this petition to help to save our community’s only access to personal outdoor space for growing flowers and vegetables, sitting in the sun and meeting our neighbours.

Background

Vanbrugh Park Estate is a modest 1963 council estate in Greenwich with a strong sense of community and residents of all ages and backgrounds. Designed by the architects Chamberlin Powell and Bon, our estate is bordered by three blocks of single-storey mews flats above garages. Although these single-story flats don’t have private gardens, they were designed with small hard-surfaced front gardens opening onto wide communal walkways which have been used by residents for bikes, benches and plants for 60 years. 

 

 

Above: Vanbrugh Park Estate front gardens in use by residents in 1964.

The front gardens are an essential and much-loved feature of the estate, providing residents of the mews flats with their only personal outdoor space to garden, dry laundry, socialise, and relax. They also provide wildlife habitats for birds and insects improving the biodiversity of the neighbourhood while creating shade in heatwaves and a level of privacy for residents whose living rooms can otherwise be easily seen into by anyone passing along on the communal walkway.

However, Greenwich Council is now issuing legal threats demanding all plants and benches in the front gardens are completely removed — reducing them to bare patches of asphalt. The council has begun sending groups of men to the estate to confiscate pot plants, benches and other items kept in the gardens. The council is claiming the front gardens are an urgent fire hazard but their own fire safety risk assessment from 2020, which identified risks on a scale of “trivial” to “substantial”, does not deem the gardens as a risk at all. The front gardens comply with all UK building regulations on fire safety and access and independent environmental health officers have told residents they can see “no fire safety justification to remove the plants and benches.”

The Residents Association has written to the council asking for meetings to discuss the matter and find a reasonable compromise. This approach has been supported by the local MP Matthew Pennycook who wrote asked the council to “engage in a constructive dialogue regarding the management of the communal spaces on the estate” and the borough’s cabinet member for housing Pat Slattery who asked councils staff to “organise a site meeting of local residents and ward Councillors” to explore a “proportionate solution”. However, so far all requests for a meeting have been refused as the council continues its campaign to remove the estate’s front gardens.

Ultimately the front gardens have functioned well for 60 years contributing to the uniquely strong community spirit on the estate. Their removal would be disastrous for the wellbeing of our community. Wealthier residents in the area are able to enjoy front gardens. Why should residents of council flats be penalised and denied the right to outdoor space? 

Residents are desperate to save the front gardens and are happy to explore a wide variety of reasonable and evidence-based compromises. We believe a fair policy, balancing good access and other needs is entirely possible and call on the council to halt its draconian attempt to destroy the community’s front gardens by force, and instead engage in evidence-based dialogue with residents.

Please sign our petition to save the Vanbrugh Park Estate front gardens!

 

 

Above: an example of the front gardens the council wants to destroy.

Ten reasons to save the Vanbrugh Park Estate Front Gardens

1. No Credible Fire Risk. Independent experts and Greenwich Council’s own fire safety risk assessment have concluded there is no fire risk posed by the pot plants, benches and front gardens. 
   
   
2. Massive Overreach. UK building regulations require at least 90cm of clear passageway between obstructions for communal access routes. The Vanbrugh Park Estate communal walkways are 160cm wide providing more than enough clear passageway to be compliant. The front gardens are a further 200cm wide meaning the council is demanding over three metres of clear passageway in front of flats – 270cm more than is required to ensure safe access.
   
   
3. Zero Consultation. The council claims it is acting in line with a new policy, however new policies require consultation with leaseholders and residents. The council has provided no information on how the policy was drafted or consulted on, nor what evidence it is based upon. To date there has been no consultation with the community on this issue while residents’ pleas for meetings to discuss the matter have been ignored.
   
   
4. Removing the front gardens will damage the health and wellbeing of residents, particularly of older people. Evidence that access to plants and nature is good for health and wellbeing is overwhelming. The charity Mind advises that “bringing nature into your everyday life can benefit both your mental and physical wellbeing. For example, doing things like growing food or flowers”. Greenwich’s own planning guidance emphasises the health and wellbeing value of access to amenity space. Destroying the estate’s front gardens will therefore severely impact the health and wellbeing of our community.
   
   For older residents this is a particular concern. Much of the estate does not benefit from step-free access so some older residents cannot move far from their flats unaided. For many, this means that sitting in their front garden is effectively their only meaningful access to regular outdoor space and keeping pot plants their only access to greenery. The removal of their ability to keep benches or plants in the front garden would sever their access to the outdoors entirely. Depriving elderly residents of access to a green/seated area outside their property when they are unable to walk without assistance to another space is deeply unethical.
   
   
5. Removing the front gardens will cause dangerous overheating. Global warming means Britain is set for hotter and hotter summers. Garden plants typically cool the air by 2-3 degrees C and surface temperature by 10-15 degrees C. During heatwaves, Vanbrugh Park Estate’s front gardens provide essential shade, especially for the more exposed south facing blocks, that prevent flats from overheating. Removing the gardens will increase the risk of overheating and related dangers. Recently, for example, a window in an unshaded mews flat shattered from overheating in direct sunlight with a baby in the front room.
   
   
6. Removing the front gardens will damage the privacy of residents’ homes. Residents of the Vanbrugh Park Estate mews flats suffer from a general lack of privacy caused by large front windows which face onto the communal walkways that run immediately in front of their homes. Currently the estate’s small front gardens provide an important buffer between the communal walkway and the flats themselves, allowing residents to use plants and benches to create a modest level of separation between their living rooms and passersby. This helps residents to feel more comfortable and safe at home as they are less easily seen from outside. Removing the front gardens will severely erode the privacy of residents meaning any passerby will be able to easily see into the flats forcing many residents to live with their curtains permanently drawn.
   
   
7. Removing the front gardens will erode community cohesion. Unlike many places in London, Vanbrugh Park Estate benefits from an unusually strong community which has matured in part thanks to the front gardens which provide space for residents to meet their neighbours, chat and get to know each other. Removing the front gardens will have an extremely detrimental effect on community cohesion, removing opportunities for residents to socialise.
   
   
8. Removing the front gardens will harm the Blackheath Conservation Area. The Vanbrugh Park Estate estate sits within the Blackheath Conservation Area and a world heritage site buffer zone. The estate is included in the conservation area because it is a rare example of the work of acclaimed British architects Chamberlin Powell and Bon who went on to design the world-famous Barbican Centre. The front gardens were intended to be used by residents for pot plants, benches and other garden items and have been used in that way for 60 years. Removing the gardens without any heritage assessment or consultation would not be in-keeping with the conservation area and would harm local heritage.
   
   
9. Air quality and biodiversity. Air pollution in Greenwich currently exceeds the World Health Organisation’s guidelines, however plants are effective in increasing local air quality as well as promoting greater biodiversity. Air Quality in Greenwich: A Public Guide for Health Professionals recommends a “greater number of trees and vegetation”  in order to improve air quality as well as to reduce risks from localised flooding, contribute to urban cooling and help to contribute to reducing the urban heat island effect; provide shade to enable people to keep cool and out of direct sunlight in sunny weather and to improve mental health and wellbeing. 
   
   The Vanbrugh Park Estate front gardens improve local air quality and support biodiversity by providing habitats for birds such as bluetits and great ties, and numerous insect species such as butterflies and bumblebees. Residents have even seen bats, drawn to the insects which feed off the estate’s plants and flowers. Destroying the estate’s front gardens would make air quality worse and would deplete local biodiversity.
   
   
10. Many positive alternative solutions are available. Residents have identified numerous potential compromises which could meet the council’s stated aim of ensuring good access to flats and protect the health and wellbeing of residents, the biodiversity and heritage of the area and prevent overheating. For example:
    
    
    • An agreed access route of a set width through the front gardens could ensure a minimum width of access route is kept clear at all times.
    • If small pot plants are considered a tripping hazard, rules about minimum size or materials of secure planters could be agreed.
    • If liability is a concern, the council could negotiate a change of lease boundaries so that the front gardens are clearly residents’ responsibility.
    • The council could build secure planters in-keeping with the character of the neighbourhood as an alternative to pot plants. 

Given numerous positive compromises are available, the council is wrong to only be pursuing the total destruction of the front gardens while refusing to negotiate with residents.

 

 

 

Above: Flowers in the Vanbrugh Park Estate front gardens attract pollinating insects and help make the area more biodiverse.

 

 

Our objectives
We, the undersigned, call on Greenwich Council to take the following actions:

1. End its campaign to remove the front gardens of the Vanbrugh Park Estate mews flats
   
   
2. Enter into constructive dialogue with residents on the estate to agree a fair and holistic future for the front gardens which takes into consideration health, wellbeing, overheating, biodiversity, air quality, community cohesion, privacy, access and heritage.