Gavin’s €2.3m Sky Garden — what a load of hydraulics

MAVERICK garden designer Diarmuid Gavin’s controversial €2.3 million taxpayer-funded ‘flying’ garden is set to be grounded by health and safety concerns.

Tenders were advertised internationally yesterday for design consultants to oversee the inclusion of his Avatar-inspired garden, which has already cost taxpayers over €500,000, in a redesigned Fitzgerald Park in Cork.

But the signature element of the Chelsea gold-medal winning garden — the pod which hung from a crane 80ft above the ground in London — will not be allowed on Leeside.

It is likely to end up perched on hydraulic jacks, or on stilts a few feet high.

Handrails will have to be installed along the garden’s paths and its ponds will have to be fenced in.

The latest twist in the long-running saga emerged as Cork City Council, which is overseeing the 83% Fáilte Ireland-funded project, yesterday released thousands of documents relating to the garden under the Freedom of Information Act.

The documents show:

* Materials, labour, the flying pod and the return of the garden to Ireland cost taxpayers €494,384.46.

* Diarmuid Gavin Design’s fee was €49,438.45.

* City officials ordered work to stop on the garden weeks before the Chelsea Flower Show because of concerns about paying out public money without a contract in place.

* At least two Government ministers intervened on Mr Gavin’s behalf in a bid to break the funding deadlock.

* City Hall refused to pay out until Mr Gavin agreed design terms for the garden’s relocation in Cork.

* Mr Gavin threatened the council with legal action and feared for his reputation as the funding controversy dragged on.

* His company emailed City Hall dozens of times pleading for a resolution and accused city officials of lying and of incompetence.

* Mr Gavin proposed spending €700,000 buying a crane to ‘fly’ the garden’s pod before it was ruled out.

* Despite the controversy, the Chelsea phase came in at €82,000 under budget.

* Correspondence between both sides is now in the hands of solicitors.

Despite these issues, city officials will issue Mr Gavin with contract documents inviting him to amend his garden so that it can become an integral part of Cork’s Fitzgerald Park.