A three-storey water tank in Botanical Gardens erected as part of a controversial maintenance yard plan at the park has been disassembled.

While construction of the maintenance yard was halted in 2015 after a public outcry, the water tower built on the site had remained intact and unused since then.

A spokeswoman for Take Back Our Park – a pressure group launched in an effort to cancel the plans, said the group was happy to see the tank removed.

“Take Back Our Park is glad that the unsightly water tower has finally been removed from the centre of the Botanical Gardens, albeit years after we initially launched our campaign,” she said.

“The water tower, which was never attached to any water source, has sat there empty and rusting away for several years until Government flew in outside workers in order to take it down.

“Given the overgrown and unattended state of the Botanical Gardens we hope the removal of the blight the water tower was to the gardens will be an impetus to Parks to ‘Take Back Our Pride’ and improve the state of our formally beautiful Botanical Gardens.”

The spokeswoman however questioned what would become of the water tower once it was removed.

“We were initially advised that the water tower was being moved to the golf course in St George’s but we have since heard that has been taken to the dump,” she said.

“It is something we would like clarity from Government on as it seems a waste of taxpayer’s money.”

The Government had sought to install a new maintenance yard at the site, replacing one which was damaged by Hurricane Fabian, but members of the public expressed concern about the nature of the project given its location in the heart of a national park.

An online petition against the project garnered about 3,800 signatures.

Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch, the Minister of Public Works, later revealed that the Government decided against moving forward with the controversial plan in 2017.