Volunteers told to leave park by council

A volunteer group responsible for transforming a city's green space into a community park has been told to leave by the local council.

Hemp Garden Community Association (HGCA) said it had received formal notice from solicitors acting on behalf of Durham County Council requiring it to stop its work at Elvet Green with immediate effect and remove its equipment.

The organisation, which has cared for the former Durham bowling green since 2017, said the notice warned failure to comply could result in injunction proceedings.

But the Reform-led authority said it had received a number of complaints about unauthorised use of council-owned land by the group, including the hosting of public events.

It also said work was due to begin on replacing the nearby Baths Bridge and the site would be used to provide construction access.

"We have, therefore, asked the group to vacate the land to enable these essential works to proceed and to allow for the wider regeneration of the riverside area," a spokesperson said.

HGCA said volunteers had spent thousands of hours restoring the site, which had previously been associated with anti-social behaviour.

The group's executive director Simpa Carter said they had transformed the former bowling green into "a place that brings the community together and has become a source of local pride".

Carter told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the first the group heard of having to stop their work was from a formal notice from the council's solicitors.

"None of us ever imagined that caring for a public park would lead to the threat of legal action," he said.

However, the authority said it wrote to the group in July last year and again in October to advise it did not have permission to use the land.

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