Bumbling council gardeners accidentally mowed the wrong garden and destroyed an award-winning meadow.
Leaving only clumps of brambles and weeds untouched, the gardeners ruined the wildflower meadow at the Butts Community garden, a celebrated community space in Alton, East Hampshire.
And ironically, it took place on Friday May 13, during ‘No Mow May’, an initiative aimed at leaving some green spaces untouched to encourage wildflowers and pollinators.
There were also protective posts in place and a sign saying it was a wildflower meadow that were ignored too.
The wildflower meadow was planted last year by dad-of-three Gareth Hurd, a conservation worker who lives next to the space.
It was a part of an initiative from Councillor Ginny Boxall and the Alton Climate Action Network's nature group.
The meadow won the Pollin-8 award from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust back in 2021.
When 36-year-old Hurd returned from work, he was shocked to see the destruction gardeners had wrought onto what had been a space of beauty and nature.
He was left very disappointed, and said that the garden had been set back by around five years.
The dad-of-three told The Sun : “The space is intended to act as a display of what you can do in your garden which is more environmentally friendly.
“But the side that’s good for the environment was flattened. I thought lots of wooden posts would have given them a clue.”
And one of his neighbours was left equally baffled and distraught by the destruction of the meadow.
Rick Luke, 52, described what was left as a “complete eyesore” and described the “clump of weeds” as the only thing left there.
Cllr Boxall told local paper the Alton Herald : “Imagine our grief and horror to discover our flagship meadow has just been mown in error.
“All our hard work has now been put back and this year our meadow will look very bare of wildflowers.
“We will have to re-sow the yellow rattle in the autumn and hope our meadow will recover – all so much unnecessary extra work for our volunteers.”
A spokesperson for East Hampshire District Council said: “We are committed to encouraging wild-flower growth through our Community Garden scheme and are deeply upset to hear that this garden was cut in error.
"We have apologised to the community group for our mistake and offered to re-seed the land with wildflowers ourselves.
"To prevent this happening in future we have carried out a training session with our contractors and are improving the digital maps we use to show which areas are to be mown and which are to be left."
