Calls growing for £100k allotment makeover

Growers at Black Country allotments hit by floods and vandalism were today calling for a £100,000 investment in the plots.

Twelve people are on the waiting list for a pitch at the partly overgrown site near Junction 10 of the M6.

Gardeners say the 110-plot site in Reedswood, Walsall, is in desperate need of an overhaul including new secure fencing, maintenance of a brook through the grounds, rubbish clearance and more parking spaces.

The site, which is run by West Walsall Leisure Gardens, is bordered by properties facing the A454 Wolverhampton Road, a canal at the rear of Bloxwich Lane Industrial Estate and Lane Avenue. Twenty plots are unused due to their poor condition.

Newly appointed chairman Terry Edis said today that the site would require £100,000 for it to be modernised.

Plot holders were left devastated in 2008 when their harvest of fruit and vegetables was ruined after heavy rainfall combined with blockages in the nearby canal and brook led to severe flooding. Many sections were left under 3ft of water.

Mr Edis said: "We have had more and more people from all walks of life wanting to come in. As soon as one garden becomes vacant, it is filled. We could accommodate more if we were able to clear away the overgrowth and the rubbish which has accumulated over the years.

"It costs about £5,000 to hire a big lorry to remove some of it, because the waste has to be separated at the tip and there is a cost.

"To hire a man with a digger to tidy up the stream, which runs through here up to the motorway, costs £1,000 per day."

Mr Edis said the West Walsall Leisure Gardens committee was due to discuss funding bids with the help of Walsall Council.