A convoy of shopping trollies planted up with vegetables and flowers salvaged from a demolished community garden back in May took to the streets of Brighton on Saturday (July 9). Shoppers were encouraged to grow their own and support local independent grocers and boycott Tesco and Sainsburies who are taking over the city centre in a supermarket war.
The Mound community garden – 15 veg beds – was destroyed by Littlehampton-based developers Hargreaves ltd on May 19. They cynically avoided all contact with gardeners, ignored clearly signposted wildlife conservation areas and actually dug over a pond containing newts and tadpoles.
Out of all this the Mound gardeners collective have stayed together and kept various plants and flowers saved from the garden which are now being stored in the mobile trollies at a secret location.
Saturday’s action was in support of the Wildcatz Community Centre – a recentlly occupied empty mobile phone shop which is now a free caff & shop/debating & anti-cuts chamber – and the No More Supermarkets in Kemptown campaign.
After a pitstop outside the Churchill Sq-based Wildcatz the trollies – seven in all – dodged their way through crowded high streets to the newly opened Sainsburies in Kemptown where a pro-local food and anti-supermarket demo took place for the rest of the afternoon.
The gardeners are calling for Brighton’s ‘green’ council to put their money where their mouth is and withdraw Hargreaves planning permission and in doing so promote green spaces in city centres
People before Profits Gardens before Supermarkets!
http://brighton-mound.org.uk/