Councillor Shaheen, cabinet member for culture, leisure and public spaces at Hounslow Council, officially launched the new allotment at Faggs Road North in Green Man Lane in Bedfont.

Once blighted by fly-tipping and littering, the Council, Lampton Greenspace, and Scheffel Landscape Architecture have transformed the site into a brand new allotment site, including a community growing space and ecology zone.

It is the latest site in the council’s first-of-its-kind Grow for the Future programme.

The space includes new allotment plots and a communal growing space that will allow community groups or forest schools to host growing sessions, share learning, and increase biodiversity efforts within it. 

 The launch event included seed ball making, tree planting, gardening activities, and herb planting with community groups such as Let’s Go Outside and Learn, Heron Way Allotments, Health Means Wealth, Heston Action Group, Cultivate, and Creative Spaces London. 

John Patterson from Accessible Allotments highlighted the transformation, he said: “When I first visited this site, it was overgrown with lots of rubbish. This is the first time I have been back in two years, and the space is incredible.

“It will be amazing to see the wider Feltham community benefit from this green space.”

Councillor Salman Shaheen highlighted the benefits of this space for the local community. He said, “It was my great pleasure to officially open this site and see this wasteland transformed into a wonderful community garden and allotments that benefit Feltham residents. “

Revitalising this space is part of the Grow for the Future programme to transform neglected spaces into places where people can grow their food and learn about healthy living.”

Grow for the Future turns unused and unloved land across the borough into new allotment sites, community gardens and orchards to grow food in a cost-of-living crisis and teach urban children and adults about healthy living, sustainability and biodiversity.

In 2023, the scheme received government backing and £165,000 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). It has also won praise from Downton Abbey’s Jim Carter. This transformation was also part of the wider Allotment Improvement Project.

For more information on the Council’s Grow for the Future scheme, click here.

 

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