It has been two weeks since a metal fence went up around a small community garden in South Norwood.

The owner of the strip of land in Love Lane has now spoken out to assure residents that that they will not lose access to their treasured garden.

But despite pleas from the community the 1.8 metre metal fence is here to stay.

The land is owned by a Mr and Mrs Morris but what is known as an ‘option agreement’ means developer Global Acquisitions Group is in charge of managing the land.

The Love Lane Community Garden is a long strip of land by the footpath and just one part of the private land which stretches to the tram line.

A spokesman for Global Acquisitions told us that the decision to put a fence up was made after getting advice from a lawyer who said if anything were to happen on the land, Global Acquisitions would be responsible.

So the company, owned by Neyvan Markov, decided to put the fence up and ask the council to be the licence holder – This means that the council is responsible if anything happens on the land.

The spokesman said: “The reason we have done it is because of this legal issue.

“We’ve always maintained that we want the community to have access to the land but it is private land.

“We have been in conversation with the council since September about issuing the licence that has now been issued and signed.

“And through the council the community can still have access in and out of the garden for the foreseeable future.”

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The land is registered as an Asset of Community Value (ACV), which means if it were to be put up for sale the community would get a chance to bid to buy it.

It is also designated as Metropolitan Open Land, this means it should be protected from “inappropriate development”.

Councillor Paul Scott, cabinet member for planning and regeneration and representative of Woodside ward confirmed that the council now holds the licence for the land.

This means the council will take responsibility and he added that the gate will be left open for members of the community to access the garden when they want.

He said: “It means that the community garden will continue to be used by the local community.

“It is not great that we’ve got the fence there which the developer didn’t need planning permission for because of permitted development.

“I really don’t see why they feel that they need the fence, it is a really unfortunate situation and a lot of people are very, very upset.

“We are not happy about the fence but we are pleased we got the licence,” he said.

He added that ideally the council would want to buy the land, but only for a “reasonable” amount.