The Green Team have reinstated ten neglected and overgrown allotments at a site in Slough. This was thanks to a maintenance visit with corporate volunteers from SEGRO and CBRE and the Groundwork South Green Skills Team, where they were joined by Tan Dhesi, MP for Slough.
We are grateful to Jess Bampton, Green Team Leader from Groundwork South for describing the day.
“On Thursday 26th September twenty-eight volunteers from SEGRO and CBRE visited Cippenham Allotments in Slough. The allotment site contains forty-five plots, but prior to the volunteering day ten of these were unusable due to their overgrown state. With a waiting list of over one hundred people, it was essential to clear these plots to enable their use. The SEGRO and CBRE volunteers worked very hard using hand tools throughout the day to clear the majority of these plots, despite the rainy weather. We were also joined by over a hundred frogs who made their appearance once clearance on the plots started. Importantly we cleared a plot that is going to be used communally by the local community and will also provide a teaching space for schools etc. At lunch time we were visited by Tan Dhesi, the local MP in this area who was thrilled at the work being done to make these plots available to the local community. Following the corporate day members of the Green Skills Course visited the allotments to finish the work started. The Green Skills Course is a programme funded by SEGRO that aims to teach long-term unemployed people in Slough green skills so that they can go on and gain employment in the green sector. The current Green Skills Course is comprised of ten trainees who have been visiting green spaces across Slough to learn green skills and provide improvement works.”
Please rest assured that there is still plenty of frog friendly habitat on this site, which has areas of wet ground and forms a large oasis in an urban environment full of concrete, driveways, decking and closely mown grass. The allotments are both an amazing resource for local green fingered residents but also for wildlife such as these frogs, which will provide natural predation for allotment pests. Frogs (and Hedgehogs and Slow worms ) eat slugs – a much better solution to protect their allotment produce, than people using slug pellets).
More Information
These Green Skills Teams are organised by the Colne Valley Park Green Team from environmental charity Groundwork South.
Find out more here: Green Skills Teams
