East Ayrshire Provost Stephanie Young recently opened the Gauchalland East Community Gardens in Galston, a project carried out by the local Tenants' and Residents' Association who identified and developed the project in liaison with the Council's Planning and Economic Development Division, and Cleansing Services.

At the Tenants' Conference in 2007, Frank Dawson, Chair of the Gauchalland East Tenants' and Residents’ Association, spoke about seeking to develop local community gardens. Representatives from Cleansing Services were at the conference to promote home composting amongst other waste minimisation initiatives and following the conference, they got the agreement of WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Plan), the Council's partners in promoting home composting, to work with the residents’ group in a pilot opportunity to promote home composting with a local community group. WRAP agreed to provide their expertise and advice in designing and developing the community garden project.

-- Advertisement --

Significant quantities of compost, to enrich the soil, has been supplied for the project by the Council via the Compost To Go scheme, in which green garden waste collected through kerbside collection and at Recycling Centres is turned into an accredited compost product.

The Tenants' and Residents' Association secured significant funding through the Community Planning Partnership and the Scottish Government Community Regeneration Grant Fund to purchase tools and equipment for the project and they carried out most of the physical work themselves.

Provost Young said: "The gardens look wonderful and really seems to be taking shape. The residents' group has clearly put in an extraordinary amount of work to get this project up and running and I congratulate them on all their hard work. I hope that all local residents will enjoy having this garden as a new part of their community."

(GK/JM)