A disused piece of land on the Woodchurch estate will be transformed into allotments encouraging householders to grow their own food.

A plan to turn the site, behind New Hey Road and Poolwood Road, is the brainchild of Paul Smithurst, who has been involved in several similar schemes across Wirral.

Margaret Greenwood MP for Wirral West visited the site to hear how the plans for the scheme were progressing.

“This is a very exciting development,” she said.

"This piece of land is a real oasis, offering plenty of potential for local people to grow food and relax in a community setting.”

Paul has persuaded other agencies to get on board with the scheme, including Magenta Living, Your Wirral, Recovery Wirral and Community Spirit Wirral.

Ms Greenwood added: “Allotment schemes are an excellent use of land and provide many community benefits such as healthy food, opportunities to exercise and the chance to get together with people who live nearby and who share a common interest.

“Paul has an excellent record of getting schemes such as this up-and-running and it is great to see so many other organisations already involved to offer advice and help.

“I look forward to seeing this scheme take root on the Woodchurch.”

Although the site is ‘landlocked’ by houses it still needed to be maintained by social housing landlords Magenta Living and the allotments project was seen as being an ideal solution to this.

Magenta got on board with the scheme from its early stages and has provided a five-year license to the allotments group, which has received £2,000 to develop the site through a “Your Wirral” grant.