REPORT
/ INTERNATIONAL NEWS
|
Previous Article | Next Article
Reclaiming a derelict site to create a community garden
Source: The Ecologist,ENN, Date: , 2010
The
story of how a group of dissatisfied residents pulled together, got
funding, and created a blooming community garden where the work, and
the rewards, are shared. Not far from the 2012 Olympic Village in Stratford, another local
regeneration project, albeit on a much smaller scale, has energised a
small residential street.
For years overgrown with
Japanese knotweed and littered with rubbish from flytipping, a derelict
site behind a wobbly fence on Bakers Row had been a constant cause of
neighbours' frustration. Tired
of looking at it, they pulled together resources, time and effort and
in just over three years reclaimed it as a thriving community garden,
anchored by an innovative artistic vision of how to weave culture and
community into regeneration. They
discovered that the site was protected by English Heritage and owned by
the parks department. As a scheduled ancient monument site, it held the
remains of the 12th century Langthorne Abbey. While it was protected
from commercial development, the upkeep of the site had fallen by the
wayside. As
a group, they applied for and won an UnLtd Millennium Award for social
entrepreneurs to help create a public communal space. ' The Award allowed them to create a website to
generate community interest.
Previous Article | Next Article
|
|