We have some 3/4 acre of former nursery but now over grown ground in a corner of a field in our small East Northants village. The owner has said he would be happy for it to be developed as allotments (it could probably offer five or six reasonable sized plots and there is a communal shed already there. Is there any possibility that we could raise funds to clear and develop the area either through the council or any Government department?
Hello! Firstly, I would talk to your Parish Council - they may already manage allotments on your patch and sometimes will make funds available.
And other funding could be available to you - there are schemes such Local Food (comes from BIG Lottery funding) which will provide money to help improve access for local people to healthy food. There are others too, for example Grassroots Grants might be a possibility. BUT you will need to either form an organisation (with a constitution, bank account, etc) or find an organisation that will head up the project. You're going to need to work out the budget for what you want to do. And you are also probably going to need to get some form of lease from the landowner - if someone is going to fund a project, they will want to know the landowner isn't going to change his mind after 12 months.
There is some useful information on the following website if you want to set up an organisation http://www.voluntaryworks.org.uk/cvsmidandnorthbeds/DevelopingYourOrganisation.asp
and if you navigate round the site there's lots of information on funding too.
Hope that helps - best of luck, Jane
Hiya, denischam, welcome to the site ;D
www.farmgarden.org.uk/ari/
hope the link works, they might have some ideas :)
We got a grant from the national lottery when we were getting our lottie shop up and running 5 years ago. £2000 I believe. They were keen to support new initiatives.