I'm raising £3500 to save Wilmot Gardens Community Green

Organised by Frank Hartkopf
Plymouth ·Gardens and environment

Story

Update July 2025: the initial planning permission has been quashed and Plymouth City Council have been ordered to pay our legal costs, however we are continuing to raise funds for a possible next legal challenge in case PCC grants planning permission again.

We are raising £3,500 to legally challenge Plymouth City Council's decision to allow our community green at Wilmot Gardens, with its mature trees and hedgerow, to be destroyed for the sake of 5 new homes. There's no alternative space for children to play on in the area. Read the full story in this Plymouth Live article.

We successfully got the council first to have this plan decided by elected councillors on the planning committee rather than just internally by unelected officials. We then successfully got the decision deferred as we showed a number of flaws in the application to the planning committee.

They claimed that the development would lead to an increase in biodiversity overall (Biodiversity Net Gain), but had used the wrong calculation for that. In fact, there will be a biodiversity loss of 47%.

However, in October the Labour majority on the planning committee decided to build on this land.

We want to challenge this decision because we believe the decision was based on incorrect advice by planning officers.

We've found lawyers who are experts in this field and willing to help, but we need to raise funds to cover all costs this challenge incurs.

Plymouth City Council have been shown in court to get things wrong before with Armada Way. A court order is the last chance we have to stop our community green from being lost forever.

About fundraiser

Frank Hartkopf
Organiser

Donation summary

Total
£1,650.00