Overgrown allotments are being transformed by town council

The ownership of the site at Austin Street in Lostock was taken over by the council from Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC) in April 2013.

There are seven allotments on the land, a number the town council hopes to increase to between 15 and 20 following the improvements.

CWAC gave £2,500 towards the revamp, which paid for the removal of asbestos buildings and sheets which were lying around.

The town council has spent £5,000 on the site, and has received a major boost for the project in the form of a £9,700 grant from Awards for All, part of the Big Lottery Fund.

The town council plans to replace the damaged boundary fence to the site, put in a new pathway leading to the plots, install two new water points and tidy up the site.

Boundary fences between the allotments are to be removed, and the council is clearing debris from the land.

“We’ve already taken off six skips full of rubbish, including the shell of a Reliant Robin car which had been on there for years and was covered in shrubs, and probably have about eight more skip loads to come off,” said town council clerk Chris Shaw.

“Some of the allotments have become overgrown and unusable, and we want to bring the whole site back up to the standard of our allotment sites.

“The next stage includes repairing a leaking pipe, removing dead trees and shrubs and boundary fences, and after that we hope to start marking out allotment plots and getting people on there in the spring.

“We have a waiting list, which we are hoping to wipe out by these additional allotments, which could be available for use in March or April.”

The town council has four allotment sites, Vickersway, Winnington, Austin Street and Queensgate, with the Queensgate and Vickersway sites managed by allotment associations.

The council manages the Winnington allotments, and wants to make the allotments and the Austin Street site association-managed.