Brighton guerrilla gardeners face eviction

A group of Brighton community activists is facing eviction from a community garden.

The team behind the Lewes Road Community Garden has transformed the derelict patch of land, which used to be an Esso garage, over the past year.

Now the guerrilla gardeners are urging people to join them on Wednesday for banner painting as they prepare for the next stage of their battle.

Legal proceedings to move them off the site have begun.

They originally brightened it up with the blessing of the site’s owner.

In August 2009 plans for the site received planning permission and the gardeners were set to move on.

But soon afterwards, it was revealed that one of the proposed tenants of the new shops would be the supermarket giant Tesco – and that the other was likely to be a bookmaker.

As a result a campaign – Say No to Tesco on Lewes Road – was set up.

Its Facebook group membership now numbers nearly 3,000.