A COMMUNITY garden project costing £50,000 was on the brink of being scrapped by a town council.
In an extraordinary meeting held at the Old Woollen Market on Wednesday, October 12, town councillors debated whether to ditch the Haverfordwest Community Garden altogether after months of wrangling over the plans for the project.
Town councillors were left furious saying good money was being thrown after bad and that there were still no clear plans explaining what was needed to begin work at the site – set on a plot of land between Freemans Way and Cambrian Place.
Eventually deputy mayor Jill Owens put everything on the line, proposing the council scrap the project.
It looked doomed as five councillors voted in favour of Cllr Owen’s proposal, however the project roared back to life with seven councillors voting in favour of carrying on.
Cllr Owens said the project needed to be pulled completely.
“Quite frankly this is going to be such a drain on the public in Haverfordwest,” said Cllr Owens.
“I personally have got to the point, how is this benefiting the people of the town? There is no organisation it is just shambolic.”
Cllr Tom Moses hit back saying the benefits of the garden in the long run will be immeasurable.
“The mental health benefits Haverfordwest could get are huge,” said Cllr Moses.
“The need for the project is larger now than it’s ever been with the cost of living crisis. It seems madness to me to consider pulling away from this.”
While it is an eye-watering sum of money being given to the project, Cllr Moses emphasised it was external funding from the National Lottery with no burden on taxpayers.
He described it as one of the very few pots of external money the council has brought to the town while Mayor Buckfield emphasised this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for the community.
“If we turn this money down we will not get a second chance to use it,” said the mayor.
“We have invested time and money into this, we have the governance in place, I think we should push through and keep going.”
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