Gavin feared for reputation ahead of show

CELEBRITY gardener Diarmuid Gavin feared for his reputation in the run-up to last May’s Chelsea Flower Show, it emerged yesterday.

He threatened Cork City Council with legal action after it ordered a halt to work on his Sky Garden weeks before the event.

And he accused city officials of being “rude” and “curt” to one of his key staff members at his company, Diarmuid Gavin Designs (DGD).

“We don’t deserve this and we won’t accept it,” he wrote in an email to Valerie O’Sullivan, the city’s head of Corporate Affairs, last March.

He said: “As a garden designer, I am but a servant….we are certainly your servants but we are not serfs.”

However, as the stalemate over the release of public money to Mr Gavin remained unresolved, he wrote in another email: “I am seeking by court order to have the finances committed to the garden for Chelsea aspect of our project released immediately, in the light of the city council’s refusal to communicate and I am seeking to address the next meeting of the council to appraise them of the situation…”

Documents released under the Freedom of Information (FOI) yesterday show how Ms O’Sullivan ordered work on the garden to stop on February 7 last.

She said there were so many outstanding issues around finalising a design, a project management programme and budget, that work should stop to give space for the issues to be resolved.

She said she could not sanction the release of taxpayer’s money until the Cork-element of the project had been nailed down by DGD.

A week later, Mr Gavin said because of the funding issues, he was now bearing the entire cost of the project himself and he was worried about the financial implications.

One of the central issues was who would pay for the hire of a crane to suspend his garden’s signature ‘flying pod’.

On February 22 last, DGD’s office manager, Helen Jones, wrote to key figures in Failte Ireland and the council to say that they were committed to the project but that this had to be resolved.

She said DGD had to deliver a garden for Chelsea 2011.

“Should this project falter now, Diarmuid Gavin would never be allowed to enter Chelsea again. It’s that big a deal!” she said.

“If the Cork Sky Garden doesn’t happen in 2011, it will never happen”.

A week after the council called a halt to work on the garden, Mr Gavin emailed Spencer Botting, Failte Ireland’s investments officer, outlining the seriousness of the situation.

“We’re not in a position to wait another day to hear whether the garden at Chelsea goes ahead this year,” Mr Gavin wrote.

“Too much relies on that decision and if the project is insolvent, I have an obligation to stop all work immediately and to alert the RHS to the fact that our sponsors, despite prior commitments, have withdrawn support.”

He said he had been assured five months ago by William Gallinsky, former director of the Cork Midsummer Festival, that funding was secured.

“On that basis we proceeded and invested,” Mr Gavin said.

“The negative publicity which will accompany the decision which seems to have been made in our absence is a horrendous thought for me as is the financial liability incurred by me and others on behalf of the sponsors.”