Coton Hill Allotments – Making an Impact

13 Feb

By the time of my visit at the end of January, I could see a huge amount of progress even though there were not any plots quite ready yet.

The site when it was taken on was overgrown with nettles, and there were several trees and hedges that needed cutting back quite severely. Some of the old tree were taken out, as they were not in great condition anyway.

A more difficult task was the dismantling and clearance of a dilapidated shed structure, which had some bonded asbestos sheeting. This then required the lower area of the site to be carefully examined and scanned for other asbestos. Simon and a fellow colleague from an environmental and engineering consultancy, based in Shrewsbury, undertook this work with great professionalism, and carefully bagged up the collected materials for appropriate disposal.

In order to get the site underway, there needed to be some basic infrastructure. So a water pipe was brought to the lower part of the site, an access road was constructed down a fairly steep old track using brick rubble, and new fencing/hedges were put up around the boundaries.

Finally, a community shed was erected on a concrete slab foundation.