PLANS are afoot to bring a community garden to Park South.

Matthew French has prepared proposals to turn a disused allotment on Carstairs Avenue into a garden for the people of the area to use.

He has met with South Swindon Parish Council, which is considering his idea for the project.

Matthew is now appealing for any volunteers interested in gardening to get on board.

He said: “My aim is to do something to help bring back a sense of community to Park South and create an allotment for anyone interested in gardening.

“During the Covid-19 pandemic I came up with the idea because of the need we’ve seen for people to have access to food, and then also as a way to bring people together to foster community spirit.”

Matthew's plans include creating a vegetable patch, fruit trees and bushes, installing a polytunnel, a wildflower area as well as raised beds so that disabled people can have a place to enjoy gardening.

“It’s going to be as inclusive as it can be,” said Matthew.

“One of my primary aims is to get an area which people in wheelchairs can use to garden, because there is nowhere that I know where disabled people can do gardening in Swindon.“

“And it’s going to be as organic as possible,” he added.

“It’s going to be wildlife-orientated, with wildflowers to encourage the insects.

“There’s also a big oak tree on the site and we need to work out where the shaded areas are so we can plant the right things in the right places.”

Swindon Borough Council owns the land between Carstairs Avenue and Trentham Close, while the parish maintains it.

The latter will carry out a community consultation about the plans and Matthew is encouraging anyone interested to join his Facebook Group, Friends of Park South Community Garden Project, and contact him there.

“I want to call on the local people who are interested to get in touch on the Facebook group,” said Matthew.

“Once we have a group together sharing ideas, hopefully once this next Covid-19 lockdown is over we can go out and have a meeting on site with whoever wants to get involved.

“The more people who get involved the more likely it is to happen,” Matthew said.

“It’s going to be for the whole area really, not just Park South.

“The idea is that it’s there for the people of Park South and all locals to go and just do as much or as little gardening as they want. A little bit of weeding, a little bit of planting or whatever.

“But you don’t have to do gardening you can just come and sit and have a cup of tea,” Matthew added.

"It will be a space for everyone."