Damage Caused To Festival Gardens

On Friday, September 30, visitors to the Festival Gardens on Crich Lane reported that flower beds had been vandalised.

A visiting dog walker, who tried to repair the damage, alerted Transition Belper.

In addition to this damage bird feeders have also been stolen.

The group ask that if anyone does see anything untoward that they contact the team here.

The Festival Garden in Belper opened in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain, a country-wide event held by the government to give British people a sense of recovery after the devastation of the Second World War. Built on top of an old bottle tip, the garden was intended to be a viewing platform from which visitors could see all the way across the valley.

Several years ago Transition Belper were asked to ‘adopt’ the Crich lane Festival Garden and put a team together to make improvements and carry out routine maintenance.

Transition Belper member and artist Richard Bett took over from Alice Russell as leader of the group and has been using his previous expertise in topiary to create living sculptures around the garden.

Transition Belper are currently conducting a survey to ask residents their opinions on the festival gardens which can be filled in below:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/R5FCW3C

The Crich Lane group are always looking for assistance. They meet from 11 am to 2pm most Sundays and all hands are welcome.

Photo: Claire Creed