Volunteer gardener upset outdoor area is left like ‘jungle’

A MAN has called on the council to maintain a shared residential outdoor area, which he used to do voluntarily.

Now aged 93, Leslie Milton, looked after the area, which runs at the back of his house in Bramber Mews, Caversham, for five years after it was left overgrown.

The site, off Caversham Park Road, is owned by Reading Borough Council, the highways authority.

Mr Milton stopped maintaining the land after the work became too physically demanding. He suffers with back problems and doesn’t want to over-exert himself.

He said: “I’m an old codger and it got to a point last year when instead of taking me half a day to clear, it was taking two or three days.

“I now find that getting into that bending pose and pulling up weeds just affects my back like mad. It now looks like a jungle.”

Mr Milton moved to the area with his wife, Nora, about 60 years ago, when the neighbourhood was just being developed.

He said that the idea behind the development was to design a walkable space away from roads, meaning many paths lead along and behind the houses. A brochure for the development from the 1970s said the area was an example of architects and planners adopting “a new and exciting village layout” which “catered for a Village with a community life of its own.”

Small play areas were also integrated into the development, such as the space behind his home. In a brochure from 1969 which included a model layout of the development, these play areas appear as neat spaces behind rows of houses.

Mr Milton, whose career was in commercial lighting, said: “I had four children, so the space was always very busy with kids playing with a ball.

“I also have five grandchildren who, when they were younger, used to play in that area.”

About 20 years ago, the council paved over the area and, in so doing, accidently broke some of the slabs by driving over them.

These broken areas were then covered with asphalt, which Mr Milton said created “a real mess”.

For the past few years, Mr Milton estimates he has rung the council once every six months to ask them to look after the area.

Mr Milton said that the council always responds by email to say that the issue had been transferred to its parks department.

He added: “It seems that it’s just being passed from one person to another and nothing happens.”

A spokesman at Reading Borough Council said: “We can confirm this is highway land, maintainable by the council, which is inspected on a cyclical basis as part of our routine highway inspection programme.

“Where issues are identified on vegetation overgrowth, trees, or other obstructions that may affect the safe use of the pavement, these will be recorded and any necessary maintenance work will follow.

“The council intends to visit this site shortly to identify if any maintenance works are necessary and action accordingly.”