Dumfriesshire veterans are fearful for the long term future of their garden project at the Crichton in Dumfries.
And they claim that having “their hands tied behind their backs” over ambitions for their base is adding to their mental health issues.
The Dumfries Veterans Garden’s hopes for a permanent long lease with the Crichton Trust – which, they say, was promised four years ago – have never been realised and has barred them from applying for large grants.
And from next week they will be going on to a month-to-month lease for the site they occupy.
Veteran Mark Harper, who heads the award-winning project, told the Standard that their current licence for the land expires on Thursday, March 23, and from then they on a short term contract which no longer includes some land they currently use.
He said: “The problem is that we have been trying to negotiate with The Crichton Trust but we are getting nowhere.
“Our hands are tied behind our backs.
“They say they are giving us some more land but, in reality, it is land we already use as a play area.
“Of the veterans that come here 90 per cent have PTSD and being here helps them but all this uncertainty is causing them distress – it is further impacting on their mental health.
“Some can’t face coming here now because of it and they have to be counselled at home.
“My sister’s first postion as a staff nurse in mental health was here at The Crichton and that’s what it was set up originally to help. All this isn’t helping anyone.”
An independent online petition urging people to sign up to “save the veterans garden” has brought the issue into the public eye with more than 1,000 signed up online. This has led to a joint statement from “The Crichton Trust and The Veterans Garden” being issued on the Crichton website, apologising for anyone being “misled”.
However, Mark has described the joint statement as “political” and is unhappy with some of the content in it. He has also defended the petition – but says they “don’t need saving”.
He said: “We had nothing to do with the petition but we understand it is the community trying to protect us and showing their support.
“They want to help us get what we were promised.
“It is Kingholm Quay Community Council who are behind it, not the Save Ladyfield Group, as people seem to think.”
Mark added: “All we want is what we were promised four years ago when we moved here. We need a permanent long lease so that we are settled and can apply for grants of more than £500 so that we can continue to grow with everything we do here, and not to lose the glasshouses.”
The trust’s chief executive Gwilym Gibbons said: “The Crichton Trust is passionate about and recognises the wellbeing and therapeutic value of gardening. Indeed, The Crichton has for over 150 years, helped individuals recover from mental illness through access to the soil and horticulture.
The trust has confirmed they have applied for permission to the council to take down the glasshouses and plan to preserve key elements to use in “new glasshouses built in their place, which will create new opportunities for the veterans and the wider community”.
