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Rresidents have slammed the Town Hall for pulling the plug on a plant nursery at their Finsbury Park estate in the middle of the growing season.

Mick Duffy, a landscape gardener contracted to run the scheme 18 months ago as part of a resident-led development plan for the Andover estate, the borough’s biggest, has been told the project is being mothballed – though the council maintains it is committed to it long-term.

“We’ve created a beautiful place here,” Mr Duffy said. “We’re growing beans, tomatoes, cabbages, flowers, and last year we grew 80 kilos of tomatoes which we donated to a foodbank.

“We have a really diverse group coming here and the children love it and they learn a lot here. The project is just on the verge of actually becoming something but then to be told to wrap the whole thing up with two weeks’ notice is devastating. I’ve been asked to lock up on Friday and that’s it.”

Jamal Kanoun, 60, who lives opposite the nursery, added: “All the people around here want it to stay. My son loves coming here. We don’t agree with what the council is doing.”

The nursery was run by Finsbury Park Community Hub, which was independent of the council. After the hub was wound up earlier this year, the Town Hall took over the running of the nursery as a “temporary measure”.

It is sited on a disused sports pitch, where the Town Hall wants to build 13 townhouses for families living in overcrowded conditions. But it is still only consulting on the plans.

More than 50 people have written to the council objecting to the nursery closure, Mr Duffy said, adding: “All we’re asking for is to let us continue until they have some concrete plans for this area. They don’t even have planning permission yet.

“I’ve never been able to put my case. They don’t reply to emails and the residents of the estate have not been consulted and that’s wrong. I’ve always known the nursery would be moving at some point, but if you stop it now without an alternative space you will have to start again from scratch and that will cost a lot more money.”

Finsbury Park ward councillor Gary Heather, who chairs the Andover estate steering group, said he would be seeking a meeting with officers “to work out how to sustain the nursery going forward”.

He added: “I’m not making any promises but it’s an integral part of what we’re doing on the estate and it has impacts beyond the nursery itself.”

Last year, a row broke out after Andover residents accused the Town Hall of ripping up an £80,000 award-winning plan for the estate developed by residents over three years.

Richard Schunemann, a leading figure behind the 2014 development plan, said: “The idea was for the nursery to become self-sustainable as a social enterprise. But when Theresa Coyle [former Andover estate community centre manager] was chucked out of the hub and the council took control, there was no leadership left.

“Of course, when there’s no continuity the council decided to pull the plug.

“The other possible motive is that they want to erase everything to do with residents’ plans to improve things. They’ve come down like a ton of bricks on residents after consulting for four years and after we received an award for the development plan, but they decided to do it their way.”

The council said it is “fully committed” to the regeneration of the estate and maintains that aspects of the residents’ plan will be incorporated into a new scheme.

A spokesman for the Town Hall said it was “very grateful to Mr Duffy for his hard work”, adding: “This was always intended as a short-term interim arrangement while the council held discussions with potential partners to take over running the centre.

“We want to continue to provide a centre for community gardening and learning on the site, and are in talks with a potential provider. In the longer term we may seek to relocate the project to another site, as we consider how to build more badly-needed council homes for residents.”

The council is expected to apply for planning permission to build on the site in October, with building work potentially starting early next year.