Disappointed members of Highbridge Residents Association have this week been forced to re-think their plans to start a new community allotment project in the town.
The group, pictured above, had hoped to open a set of community allotments on unused land next to Queen Square, but the plans have fallen through.
The association’s Vice Chairman, Tina Gray, told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “We have been told by the Lottery Fund that we needed a five year lease in place to get the grant, but Sedgemoor seemed only to be willing to give us a year’s lease at a time.”
“What’s more, we have also been told that there needs to be a public consultation to make sure the residents of Queen Square are happy with the plans. It’s a great shame that the project cannot proceed here, especially as 300 has been spent on insurance already, but we are now looking at other locations.”
“There is a patch of land beside the new Co-Op store in Highbridge that would be ideal. We’d like to have 14 allotments in addition to a community garden there.”
She added: “There’s lots of demand for allotments in the town because there are so many people living in flats in the town who don’t have their own gardens. They can’t grow their own food.”