London may be one of the greenest cities in the world thanks to our enviable concentration of parkland and open space, but the problem is that those green areas are badly distributed. There are huge inequalities not just in the amount of open space available in poorer neighbourhoods but also in the quality, planning and upkeep of those spaces.

The blame, as far as I am concerned, lies with borough councils, many of which refuse to acknowledge the difference that well-planted green spaces can make to an area. Instead they see plants as unruly and unpredictable, expensive to establish and even more costly to maintain.

Planted areas that have been nurtured are immediately obvious and set a standard for all to strive for. Bonnington Square in South London is one such success story, but it was established by local residents and has had, at best, lukewarm support from Lambeth, the local authority.

Although Bonnington Square and the surrounding streets are a typical inner-London mix of the somewhat shabby and the quite gentrified, 20 years ago, when the gardens were first established, they were extremely bohemian and home to many squats. Draeyk Van Der Horn is a fully paid-up resident but originally squatted one of the local houses and was one of the founders of the Bonnington Square Pleasure Gardens.Over the past two decades or so, he and other local residents have created an inspiring and beautiful environment, transforming a harsh setting into something original that has become an integral part of the local community. It shows just what can be done if residents galvanise themselves, put their foot down and even break a few rules for the cause.

The project, named after the famous Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens that were a local feature for three centuries, aim to create a place open to everyone. The planting is a wonderfully enticing fusion of British classics alongside New Zealand natives [— an unexpected hangover from the many Kiwi residents that were living on the square when the gardens received their first significant funding in the mid-Nineties.

Having used guerrilla gardening tactics to establish the space — taking over a disused patch of wasteland before anyone tried to develop it — Van Der Horn has since, as chair of the Bonnington Square Garden Association, tried to create a dialogue with Lambeth council to keep the project going. “Overall our relationship is hit and miss,” he says. He adds that the council is more concerned with bureaucracy than biodiversity and has made some poor interventions in the local residents’ initiative.

Although successive generations of residents have continued to care for the gardens and expand them, the council is often regarded as unsupportive and sometimes interfering. “The high turnover of council staff means that once you build up an understanding with a council officer, they move on and it’s like starting over again,” Van Der Horn says. At the moment they have a weed-spraying truce — in the past the local authority workmen had been known to use weed killer on any plant in the street, be it weed or ornamental. Although there are no set rules, Van Der Horn is quite adamant that to green a space requires a strong approach.“If you ask first you’ll always get a ‘no’, but once you have a foothold it’s hard for the council to get heavy because everyone can see the benefits and they just don’t want the bad press.”

Could the square be used as a model to encourage other city residents to get growing together and create a stronger sense of community and a lush city to be proud of? The gardens receive more than their fair share of visits from other resident associations wanting to copy the work undertaken there and, if I woke up and had suddenly become Mayor of London, one of the first places on my list to see would be Bonnington Square.

What is the law on guerrilla gardening?

It is the illicit cultivation of someone else’s land, therefore it is a trespass. It is unlikely that a landowner could successfully sue for substantial damages, but they could obtain an injunction to prevent its recurrence.

How can you avoid getting into trouble with the law?

The guerrilla gardener must obtain permission from the landowner.

How much trouble can you get into? Will it give you a criminal record?

Trespass is not a crime, and it is doubtful whether the dislocation of soil and planting of flowers would amount to criminal damage. However, there is a number of potentially relevant criminal offences designed for the protection of the highway. For example, it is unlawful to plant any tree or shrub within 15 feet of the centre of a highway without permission of the highway authority. If the planter, served with a notice requiring removal of the plant, does not comply, he/she becomes liable to an offence. There are also relevant bylaws made for rivers, drainage, parks and common lands , with prohibitions against planting. Breach of these bylaws will be an offence.

Desmond Kilcoyne, is a barrister at 42 Bedford Row, WC1, specialising in property law

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