A Japanese garden created by a Bahrain resident more than 30 years ago was bulldozed yesterday (March 30) to make way for a new public park.

Hundreds of trees and plants were destroyed on the 300 square metre garden in Hajjiyat, which was developed over three decades by British florist Steve Vlajic, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

He hoped to save the garden and claimed the former Central Municipality granted him the plot, but he has no documents to prove it and has received repeated warning letters to vacate the grounds.

The final letter was received on Sunday afternoon and the Southern Municipality, which took over responsibility for the area after the Central Governorate was dissolved last year, sent in the diggers yesterday.

Vlajic, aged 64, said plants, swings and a slide that cost him thousands of dinars were all destroyed and could not be saved because he had only one day's notice.

“I was planning to invite the Bahrain Garden Club to come and take the plants, but unfortunately there was not enough time for them to come,” he told the GDN.

“I received a warning letter on Sunday at 4.45pm that said they would demolish the garden and woke up the next day very early trying to save some of the plants, but found workers at the garden's doors at 6.30am.

“They waited for the municipality's officials to give them the orders and started bulldozing it at 10.30am.

“The most exclusive bonsai trees are now destroyed and it's too late to do anything about it.

“The slide, swings and everything is all broken and thousands of dinars have been wasted.

“I am very upset and even one of the area's residents told me he couldn't believe they did that after more than three decades.”

The land has been earmarked for a 3,000sqm park that includes a football field and a children's play area.

Works, Municipalities and Urban Planning Affairs Ministry engineer Lamya Al Fadhala claimed that Vlajic's refusal to relocate sooner, despite the warning letters, had cost the ministry thousands of dinars due to delays faced by contractors.

She added that workers had been instructed to bulldoze all of the trees, but set aside all of Vlajic's flower pots.

“We have been warning him to remove his plants so many times because this is public land, which is now earmarked to serve residents,” she said.

“He has caused a major delay and now the ministry will have to pay thousands of dinars to compensate contractors.

“Most of the residents in the locality have been asking us to remove the garden because it is fenced and always closed, which meant children had to climb to get in and sometimes fell and hurt themselves.

“The trees he planted are also illegal in Bahrain and cause problems with sewage.

“However, we gave him all his flower pots so he can keep them somewhere else.

“We also noticed that he has grown vegetables in the garden for his own use.” - TradeArabia News Service