Our sponsorship may save the Sunken Garden 

Bedding plants in the Sunken Garden may have been saved once again by the Friends after Merton’s latest decision to axe such plants borough wide.   

The Council has cut £60,000 from the annual parks budget, half to be saved by replacing  traditional bedding. However the Friends Committee have offered to sponsor the Sunken Garden from our reserves for four years to help towards the costs of retaining this essential part of the Grade 2* English heritage listed garden. 

In 2005 we helped overturn a similar proposal by the previous Council. A compromise agreed in the Management Plan 2006-11 protected the Sunken Garden while bedding plants at the Main Gate and the Dutch Garden were to be replaced by hardy shrubs - inevitably in view of climate change.      

This time, Merton was proposing to retain only the central eight beds of the Sunken Garden, planting the terraces with more shrubs. Cannizaro House Hotel has declined to help with any funding despite the business benefits it enjoys from the Sunken Garden, adjacent to it.

Parks Head Anne Lippitt said the Friends’ sponsorship offer would  certainly be welcomed. Details will now be discussed as the amounts available from the Friends' reserves will cover only a limited part of the costs.

When news emerged that Merton Council was to revive its predecessor’s plans to abandon bedding plants, Friends Chairman Tony Matthews contacted David Williams, Council Leader, reminding him of Merton’s pledge to retain the Sunken Garden. He was simply referred to a standard letter sent to parks friends groups.

This reads: “We have two challenges on our hands for future years. The first is ensuring that all our practices as a Council are sustainable and as such ensure we consider use of resources such as water.     

“The second is balancing the competing needs of the budget…....You will be aware of the challenges in the parks service caused by the drought last year…….It is the role of the Council to consider fully how to meet the ongoing challenges of climate change in the coming years and to therefore take a community lead in this regard.                           

“Likewise, to present bedding which cannot be sustained does not provide a high quality visual benefit…..A proposal being considered as part of the budget process is to take a more sustainable approach to our bedding by reducing slightly the total amount of bedding plants used and replacing a small amount, at the rear of displays, with more sustainable, long lasting plants of equal visual benefit…...   

"The public will not experience a reduced service, our practice will be more sustainable as we will select plants that are more hardy and require less   water and there will be a net contribution to the Council budget process of £30,000 for 2007/08.”