A COMMUNITY garden has been neglected for the best part of a year and is now starting to attract rodents, residents have claimed.
An event has not been held at the Wilderness Garden in Elgar Avenue since December despite hundreds of pounds been ploughed into the project to maintain it as a community space.
Now the area is dramatically overgrown and has been rendered unusable with grass more than three feet tall.
Some residents who live directly behind the plot said they had seen more rats and mice in their gardens during the last few months.
One man from Martin Close who did not want to be named said: “I have seen a lot more mice lately, we find them dead in the garden.
“There have always been a lot of rats around here because of the stream at the back but I think they are coming closer to the houses now because it is all overgrown at the back.”
He also said he had been forced to cut wild brambles which were growing over and through his fence into his garden from the area.
Malvern Town Council owns the plot but had handed responsibility over to volunteers from the Wilderness Regeneration Group, although a formal lease could not be drawn up because the land is a statutory allotment site.
But the group has faced numerous challenges in the last ten months, with the main problem being a lack of people willing to come forward and maintain the garden.
Last Tuesday (September 9) the council’s Operations Committee moved to take the garden back so it could be looked after properly.
Coun Patrick Mewton, said: “Local people down there don’t seem to be interested. They will turn out if someone else puts an event on but won’t come down to help with the maintenance.
“The area hasn’t been touched in nearly a year and there has been no events this year. In order to make the place look tidy again and turn it in to usable land we should take it back.
“If the community then want to have a party or whatever on there they can apply to the council.”
Charles Porter, the council’s operations manager, said it would not cost a lot of money to move in and mow the grass down so the land could be used as a seating area.
But he added if another autumn and winter was allowed to go by the costs to bring the garden back up to standard could spiral.
