PENISTONE ward councillor Dave Griffin is rolling up his sleeves to boost a green scheme close to his heart.
He is touring the area putting up home-made signs to indicate the presence of Incredible Edible sites.
These are areas being brought back to life to provide fruit and vegetables for members of the community to gather.
With Barnsley now operating an Incredible Edible programme, Coun Griffin said: “We have been talking for some time about trying to start something up.
“In recent years a number of community gardens have sprung up across the town and villages.
“We are trying to get people to know they are there and realise they can freely pick the fruit and vegetables being grown at the sites.
“This is in no way to take over the community gardens, but to flag up that we have this set up and make the sites more visible to people who don’t know they are there.”
Just this week he has put up a sign near the children’s playground in Thurlstone and in Millhouse Green there is a temporary sign to say items are free to pick.
Working with environmental services company Twiggs, he said: “This is ongoing. Twiggs are busy looking for unloved and untended pieces of public land which can be converted to a place providing food for free.”
And if demand soars? “That’s good,” he said. “I hope we reach the point where all the fruit is picked.”
A community garden on council-owned land which would otherwise have been sold for housing has just been created at Millhouse Green and this is involved in the Incredible Edible movement.
Other sites are already up and running in Oxspring and Penistone and discussions about such a scheme have taken place in Springvale.
The project started in Todmorden with fruit and vegetables grown on public land and available to be gathered by the community.
Incredible Edible is funded in various ways. Coun Griffin says Barnsley Council have helped quite a bit along with Penistone Ward Alliance and other sources.
“It’s going to grow,” he said.
