Rain gardens installed as part of a multi-million-pound town centre revamp have been branded a “disaster” by councillors.

Concerns were raised at a meeting of Farnham Town Council on Thursday, December 18, about the shallow planting areas built as part of Surrey County Council’s Farnham Infrastructure Programme (FIP).

Councillors said recent rain had turned the gardens into mud-filled holes which looked unattractive and narrowed pavements. Some, particularly the garden outside Boots in The Borough, were described as having become swamp-like.

Cllr George Hesse told the meeting: “Basically, we’ve been sold a pup. What we were told we were going to get, we haven’t got.”

Referring to the rain gardens outside Clarks and Boots, he added: “They are frankly a disaster already, and a disaster in the making.

“My position is that we should be saying to the FIP that they should be removed from the scheme in exactly the same way they removed a third one from outside Toni & Guy’s.”

Cllr Hesse said the muddy rain gardens had already affected town centre events, including the recent Christmas Market, when the council had to board over the one outside Boots to erect a gazebo.

“If we hadn’t done this, people would have trampled it, definitely,” he said.

He added: “What is the point of spending money, extending the construction time, disrupting traffic and having terrible effects on traders for something that we don’t want, will not work, and narrows the pavements that we’ve enjoyed for all these years?

“That is not the purpose of the FIP - it is to make the pedestrian experience better, not worse.”

Cllr John Ward asked whether “rain gardens is actually a synonym for quagmire”.

Town council leader Cllr Graham White said work on the project was still ongoing and had not yet been handed over.

“The rain gardens have shown up a design fault. There are various reasons for that, and I’m not going to speculate,” he said. “But one way or another, the method of the rain gardens working correctly has been ignored.

“What is clear is that Surrey are not going to dig up work that has already been done, which I understand means the contractor will have to find a solution.”

He said the situation needed to be acknowledged, adding that the next opportunity should be used to build a rain garden and demonstrate that it works.

Cllr Michaela Martin, who also sits on the county council, said she had originally been told the gardens would be manageable and provide value for money.

“They have turned out not to be so,” she said.

She said she had been told that if the rain gardens had to be redesigned, the FIP team still believed they were the best way forward. She was waiting for a response from Surrey County Council leader Cllr Tim Oliver.

Surface water currently had nowhere to drain, she added, contributing to the muddy conditions.

A motion was unanimously agreed to raise the town council’s concerns about the construction and design of the rain gardens with Surrey County Council’s project team, including the possibility of removing the feature.

The council also reported that a proposed rain garden outside Toni & Guy’s hair salon in The Borough was no longer going ahead.

Rain gardens are shallow planted areas intended to collect and absorb surface water runoff and, if working properly, are designed to reduce flooding and improve drainage.

Surrey County Council has been approached for comment.