'Guerrilla' council hatches plot to create more growing spaces

Mark Prigg, Science and Technology Correspondent
08.07.09

Abandoned car parks and guerrilla gardening tactics are being used by Islington council to boost the number of allotments in the borough.

The council is to convert an abandoned car park in Holloway into 15 allotments, and plans to distribute grow bags to residents.

More than 40 projects are under way in Islington, which has just four of London's 737 allotment sites, and a four-year waiting list for patches. Just two of Islington's 31 plots passed to a new user last year, and 350 people are in the queue for an allotment.

Council bosses hope vegetable patches on housing estates, schools and in parks could ease the backlog. Following in the footsteps of the capital's guerrilla gardening movement, where plants are grown in unusual places, grow bags are already sprouting tomatoes at some of Islington's community centres.

Councillor Ruth Polling, Islington's executive member for parks and leisure, said: "In a borough as small and densely-populated as Islington we need to be innovative in finding new green spaces for residents to use."

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