Move to reopen old Wolverhampton allotments closed 20 years ago
Steps are being taken to reopen a council-owned allotment that was closed down more than 20 years ago and has remained unused and fenced off since.
The half-acre site, on Goldthorn Hill, Blakenhall, is adjacent to the derelict former Severn Trent Water Pumping Station – a Grade ll Listed Building that was built for the city’s old Waterworks Company in 1851.
Now ward councillor, Dr Paul Birch, is looking to generate enough interest from residents living in the area to get a public consultation together and hopefully restore the allotments to their former glory.
“We have until the end of the year to see if there is enough public demand for us to put together a consultation,” he said.
“We don’t have any allotments in this part of Blakenhall so it would definitely be an asset to the community.
“I would like to see it run as a co-operative, that would be my ideal model and the simplest way of managing the site.
“In this way it would be managed by the users who have actual hands-on experience, rather than being controlled by a large organisation.
Crops
“There’s very little open land in this part of the city that we can actually do something productive with, and this would be a great way for people to cultivate their own crops and make them available to the wider community or just grow them for their own personal consumption,” he added.
“Who knows – with the way the country’s going at the moment an allotment could well end up as one of the safest places to be.
“If we can generate enough public interest, we might even get Jeremy Corbyn down here to open it.
“After all, he’s not doing anything for the next six weeks.”
Councillor Birch said his area of Blakenhall had a tendency to score bad results when it came to public health, and that the addition of a dedicated allotment in the area would be a very positive step as well as being highly beneficial to the local environment.
“I have lived here for 40 years and the site has certainly been dormant for a very long time.
“In fact, I can’t ever remember it being open, so it could have been inactive for a lot longer than 20 years,” he added.
Anyone who is interested in seeing the allotments restored can email paul.birch@wolverhampton.gov.uk
