West Lancashire Council for Voluntary Service

Click here for the March edition of the Dig It Newsletter

West Lancs Community Food Growing Project

The West Lancs Community Food Growing Project aims to get more people involved in growing their own food and eating more healthily. We will be working with local communities and schools to set up community food growing initiatives and providing help in finding the land (and funds) that might be needed.  This project, run by West Lancs Council for Voluntary Service (CVS), is co-funded by the NHS Central Lancashire and the West Lancashire Local Strategic Partnership, and will run up until March 2012.  Additional funding has been provided by the County Council’s Extended Schools Service and the Red Apple Community Trust Ltd (who operate a not for profit social enterprise nursery in Newburgh), to provide raised beds and training for up to 20 schools in the West Lancashire area who want to set up their own school food growing projects.

Allotment Provision in West Lancashire

A new report has found that West Lancashire is very poorly served by the provision of allotments, with the Borough only having 2.5 plots per 1000 households against a national average of 15 plots per 1000 households. The report, commissioned by NHS Central Lancashire and carried out by the Wildlife Trust in 2009, also found that there are waiting lists in most areas and particularly for allotments in the Skelmersdale area (where there are over 100 names on the waiting list). The 107 current plots on the 9 sites identified by the Wildlife Trust report in West Lancashire are as follows:

Since the report was commissioned, a further small site in Aughton has been identified along with potential sites in Skelmersdale, Roby Mill, Hesketh Bank and Newburgh. It is hoped that over the course of this project these sites, and others, will come on stream as Community Food Growing areas.

Schools Programme

It is hoped by the end of 2010 that twenty schools in West Lancashire will be provided with help to set up their own community food growing projects.  Schools have already been expressing their interest in becoming involved with the scheme through the County Council’s website portal and work is hand to buy in the materials and equipment (soil, raised beds, tools etc) required to set up their projects. The work is being lead by the Red Apple Community Trust, with part funding being provided by the County Council’s Extended Schools Service. Each school will also receive training in the technicalities involved in setting up and running their project.  For more information, contact Tom Canavan at Red Apple Community Trust: tel: 01257 463012 or email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Small Grant Fund

The Community Food Growing Project has a small amount of grant money provided by NHS Central Lancashire to promote health and well-being (£11k in this financial year, plus £8k in each of the next two years) to use for ‘implementation activities’ at community sites.  This money will be used to provide small grants to groups wanting to set up new allotment / community food growing projects or to those already running sites - to help them encourage more people to get involved in growing their own food and / or make their sites more productive.  Applications for funding (up to £2,000 for new sites and £1,000 for existing sites) can be made by completing a simple application form which is available from West Lancs CVS.  Telephone Martin or Debbie at the CVS on 01695 733737 to discuss your ideas and to be sent a form.  The first phase of funding will be allocated by the end of March 2010 and the deadline date for entry for this first phase of funding is Saturday 13th March.

West Lancs Community Food Growing and Allotment Day – 13th March

The project is to hold a Community Food Growing and Allotment Day on Saturday 13th March, 1pm-4pm in the Ecumenical Centre in Skelmersdale, to provide practical help and guidance to all those involved in growing or wanting to grow their own food.  We have invited a number of guest speakers to talk on matters of interest to allotment growers and it is hoped that local societies and organisations will put on small exhibits to demonstrate their activities.  Presentations will cover all aspects of setting up and improving sites as well as the Borough Council’s Allotment Strategy (including the waiting list position) for 2010.  Confirmed attendees to date include the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners, the Allotment Regeneration Initiative, the Red Apple Community Trust, Groundwork, Lancashire Wildlife Trust and the Borough Council’s Officer responsible for Allotments.