Creators of a community garden at a village church that is now ready for residents to visit are baffled by a decision not to open it to the public.
Pinchbeck Baptist Church members proposed that a piece of wasteland could be redesigned as a community garden and volunteer Charlotte Kehlan-Kebbell has spent two years making it happen along with assistance from the Community Land Trust.
The project is now ready to open in the spring, however it has been claimed that the ‘leadership of Pinchbeck Baptist Church has stated that it is no longer able to host the community garden’.
Pinchbeck Baptist Church community garden
Charlotte Kehlan-Kebbell said: “We had a meeting with members of the church there two years ago – I remember clearly as it was just after the Queen had died.
“We hashed out what they wanted from the project and they said they want it to be for the community.
“It was their idea and they insisted it wasn’t going to be just a church garden but a community garden – and it got labelled as that.”
Pinchbeck Baptist Church community garden. PHOTOS: SUBMITTED
Charlotte, who has a diploma in garden design, went ahead with planning how to clear the wasteland, finding a greenhouse and apple trees in the process and enlisted help from volunteers.
She said: “Since then my team moved in and cleared the land which was like a jungle, it really was that bad.
“We did fundraising and raised money from the community who donated funds, items, plants, flagstones – it all came from the community.
“We managed to achieve this without costing the church a penny and now all the community can see is they’ve ‘nicked’ our garden.”
Charlotte and her team were awarded £900 towards the project from the Co-Op Community Champion Grant and £1,000 from the Community Land Trust (CLT) – a not-for-profit organisation.
John Smith director at CLT said: “Unfortunately the community garden won’t be opening – the church has decided they can’t support it going forward.
“CLT has put a lot of effort and donations in and we don’t know what the problem is.
“What is galling is that there has been no process of consultation to see if there are any other solutions.”
The volunteers were hoping for an official opening of the community garden with the cutting of a red ribbon in May but are now waiting for a response from the church about why the garden is closed.
A spokesperson from Pinchbeck Baptist Church said: “There are legalities and we will provide further comment at a later date.”
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