Fencing ‘looks like detention camp’

Shoppers say a new fence around a popular garden centre makes the area look like a detention camp in Calais.

New palisade fencing has been installed by the Longacres group, which took over the Bybrook Barn Garden Centre in Kennington in August.

The family firm has already started making changes inside and outside the centre, including removing a Victorian glasshouse which had been part of the original garden centre because it had become unsafe.

Now the new fencing is believed to have been installed to put off boy racers from entering the car park at night.

It follows Ashford Borough Council’s decision to lock the gates to car parks in Tannery Lane to prevent anti-social behaviour in September last year.

But Kennington resident Ted Prangnell said the new fencing makes the garden centre look like the infamous approaches to Calais, where miles of fences have been put up in a bid to stop migrants getting into lorries and trains.

He said: “The high steel fence around the huge car park has been puzzling local residents. It has a large and rather wide sliding steel gate for vehicle and pedestrian access.

“It is beginning to look like some sort of detention compound, or perhaps like those fences in France which are designed to keep asylum seekers away from the approaches to the Calais port and the tunnel.

“Could they be about to create an animal safari park, or start charging for admission? Just what are they up to?”

Longacres Garden Centre was unavailable for comment.

What do you think? Write to Kentish Express, 34-36 North Street, Ashford, TN24 8JR or email kentishexpress@ thekmgroup.co.uk

Ashford Bybrook Barn Garden Centre has fitted new security fencing, which some people are saying reminds them of barriers in Calais to keep asylum seekers from the infamous Jungle camp out of the port

Ted Prangnell - ‘it’s beginning to look like a detention compound’