Community garden gets new 99-year lease

The garden has four polytunnels on the 3.5-acre site

A community garden in Grimsby has been granted a 99-year lease securing its future.

North East Lincolnshire Council has agreed to the lease in return for a peppercorn rent of £1 a year.

Green Futures is a charity run by volunteers which delivers projects for schools and vulnerable groups.

The site at Vanson Centre, on Bradley Road, was a former plant nursery used by the council for its bedding plants and trees.

Now the 3.5-acre site has polytunnels, a workshop, woodland, wetland, orchard and classrooms.

Volunteers grow produce and maintain the site which is also being used by dementia groups and offers other activities such as yoga and soft ball.

Carol Blakeley from Green Futures told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “This is, of course, brilliant news and will help to ensure our community project can continue for many years into the future.

“Once everything is complete we can look to gain capital funding to improve the building and the space even further so that more people can utilise and enjoy the space.”

The plant nursery charity has run a community garden from the site since March 2009 to promote gardening and horticulture activities.

The charity aims to “help to improve our collective quality of life and empower and enable people in the wider community, particularly those who live in areas of social deprivation”.

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