“I’d like this Environmental Committee to take this up and hopefully secure an arrangement whereby some of these sites could be turned into allotments, run by the council,” recommended Cllr Tom Shortt whose proposal was backed by Cllr Kieran O’Hanlon, who is a keen gardener in his spare time.
A committee member of the board of the Limerick College of Further Education, Cllr O’Hanlon suggested that the college be approached to include classes in the growing of vegetables.
“I know the Parks Department is stretched but in the area of Park on the Dublin Road, there’s a long tradition of supplying vegetables for the whole city – we should be getting some courses going and not for flower arranging but for vegetables, which we could put on our own tables, in these hard-up times.”
Quick to point out that Southill has a flourishing crop of allotments, Cllr Orla McLoughlin said:
“People there are growing fruit as well as vegetables and flowers too – money from the Dormant Accounts has helped to get these up and running and people are loving growing their own fresh produce.
“What is the criteria for making grants available for this purpose to housing estates not yet taken in charge,” she asked the director of services, Caroline Curley who said:
“Taking into account the economic downturn and our restricted budget, we do give some help for allotments to groups interested in developing and maintaining them and there is sound advice available from our Parks Department staff, but we don’t have the money to help people produce window boxes,
“I’m asking you the councillors to encourage the people in your localities to take part actively in the National Spring Clean, not just now but to become more aware of keeping their areas clean all year round. There is a lot of assistance freely available from City Hall’s Environment Department for this.”
