Council quickly steps in to help after plants destroyed outside Lewes restaurant

Town councillor and deputy mayor Stephen Catlin said while out for a walk this week he was delighted to see contractors of the county council repairing brick planters outside the restaurant in Friars Walk, after raising the issue back in January.

But when he got up close, he noticed the broken and damaged bricks had just been dumped on the plants – causing even more damage.

“It was worse than it has ever been. I just thought, what have they done?” he told the Express.

“I really don’t know why the same truck that brought the contractors could not take the bricks away!”

Mr Catlin contacted the county council, which owns the brick planters, and it quickly stepped in to rectify the situation.

A county council official told Mr Catlin that he had spoken to the council’s maintenance contractor, who had admitted that it was down to the ‘thoughtlessness of its operatives’.

The contractor apologised for the damage caused to the town council’s plants and said it was aiming to finish the repairs by the end of the week, and it would gladly reimburse the costs of new plants.

Karl Taylor, assistant director of operations at East Sussex County Council, later told the Express: “We appreciate a lot of time and effort goes into maintaining the planters in Friars Walk, and are sorry for the damage accidently caused to the plants by our maintenance contractor as they carried out repairs.

“We have been in contact with cllr Catlin and offered to reimburse him for any plants damaged beyond repair once the work is complete at the end of this week.”

In response, Mr Catlin said: “Every cloud has a silver lining! I am delighted with the kind and generous response from the officer at the county council.”

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