Residents of a Manchester alleyway garden have accused workmen of destroying five years of community planting after a 30-metre stretch was stripped of trees, flowers and wildlife habitat without warning.
The green space behind homes between Stanhope Street, Gordon Avenue and Delamere Road in Levenshulme had been transformed from a fly-tipped passage into a communal garden, complete with fruit trees, picnic benches and a mature grapevine.
But neighbours returning from work on Friday found men in high-visibility jackets using strimmers to clear much of the planting. Residents said they had not been told that any work was due to take place.
Tom Marrett, a 37-year-old local designer who helped start the project in 2021, said he was “genuinely speechless” when he went out to put his bins away and discovered the garden had been flattened.
“We had hedgehogs, bats and countless other insects and birds using this space,” he said in a Facebook post. “This wasn’t just a patch of weeds. It was an established little ecosystem as well as a genuinely valuable green space for the people living around it.”
Mr Marrett described the clearance as “short-sighted and heavy-handed”, and said the loss was not limited to the plants themselves.
Four households were closely involved in maintaining the garden, while about 15 other residents helped from time to time. The area had hosted street gatherings, children’s parties and shared meals, helping neighbours build relationships in the densely populated part of south Manchester.
Resident Dylan Leggett, 28, said the garden had been an important meeting place since he moved to the area last year.
“The garden has been used for street parties and other events where people have brought along nice food,” he said. “It was a brilliant way of making connections with local people and building a sense of community.”
The project had also received about £1,800 in grants from Manchester City Council’s Neighbourhood Investment Fund. Mr Marrett said the money had been spent on plants, timber, picnic tables, tools and protective equipment.
He estimated that at least £500-worth of plants had been removed, calling the loss an “extraordinary waste of public resources”. Although some raised planters elsewhere in the alley were left intact, he said the value of the residents’ time and effort was impossible to calculate.
It remains unclear who the workmen were working for or who authorised the clearance. Local councillors Basat Sheikh and Zahid Hussain said neither of them had been informed of, or approved, the work.
In a joint statement, the councillors said they were “deeply saddened and appalled” after visiting the site and speaking to residents. They said senior council officers had been asked to establish who ordered the work, why the community had not been consulted and why the planting and facilities had been removed.
They added that the clearance “should never have happened” and called on the council to help residents restore the garden and introduce safeguards to prevent similar clearances elsewhere.
The incident has caused particular frustration because residents had received a council leaflet just days earlier encouraging them to “take ownership” of alleyways and turn them into communal spaces.
One woman involved in organising the garden said the workmen appeared to have treated the area as though it were simply an overgrown waste ground.
“The garden was beautiful,” she said. “But the workmen just turned up with their strimmers one day and ruined it. It’s like they didn’t know anything about plants or the environment and have acted like waste disposal workers.”
Mr Marrett said residents now planned to launch a GoFundMe appeal to help rebuild the Levenshulme community garden, while awaiting the outcome of the council’s investigation.
