A LONG-RUNNING campaign to buy the last green oasis in an East Dorset town has failed.

Wimborne Town Council had been trying to buy popular Crown Mead Gardens for more than a year to prevent the site being developed with shops and flats.

But it now looks as if negotiations have ground to a halt.

Chairman of Wimborne in Bloom Anthony Oliver, who spearheaded the campaign to transform the wasteland into gardens when he was mayor in 1992, said: "It is very sad but it looks as if the council won't be able to proceed with the purchase.

"All the pieces of the jigsaw are not coming together. Much of it resolves around access rights."

Since 1994, after the riverside site had been transformed by the 2nd Wimborne Scouts and Wimborne in Bloom, it has been used by hundreds of local people, as well as tourists as a quiet area and picnic spot. When Mike Griffiths bought the nearby Salamander shop he was informed that he had to buy the Crown Mead land too.

He agreed to keep the gardens available for public use until October last year.

A planning application for redevelopment has been turned down in the past, but the land has long been earmarked for development.

Mr Oliver added: "We have asked Mr Griffiths if Wimborne in Bloom members can clear up the site ready for judging in the summer."