Call to plant fruit trees in Glasgow's Games village

Monday 17 September 2012

Fruit trees should be planted in the Commonwealth Games village in Glasgow, campaigners have suggested.

John Hancox, director of community food organisation The Commonwealth Orchard, wants to see unused public land given over to people to grow food on.

He has submitted a petition to the Scottish Parliament, calling on the Scottish Government to encourage bodies such as the Forestry Commission, health boards and the Crown Estate to make surplus land available for growing.

Now he has suggested that the trees planted in the athletes' village at the 2014 Games should be fruit trees, leaving an orchard as part of the competition's legacy.In a letter to MSPs on the Public Petitions Committee, Mr Hancox suggested that fruit trees should be planted round new buildings being created by the Government."For instance, the various buildings and athletes' village for the Commonwealth Games could include fruit trees and bushes. If the landscaping budget was spent on buying fruiting trees, rather than fruitless amenity trees, this would make an enormous difference. The proposed Commonwealth Orchard would also create a great legacy to the Commonwealth Games."Publicly owned sports grounds and golf courses could include some fruit trees and bushes which could be used by the public and which local communities could help maintain, he also suggested.Mr Hancox has already called on the Scottish Government to "encourage ways to allow people to use land more intelligently".He has argued: "Making land available to poorer Scots offers them a way to grow healthy, accessible local food, and build skills and food security at a local level."In our urban areas such as Glasgow there is a lot of land which is largely passive and unused, while in rural areas, patterns of land ownership which concentrate land into relatively few hands also mean that availability of land for ordinary people is scarce."

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Call to plant fruit trees in Glasgow's Games village

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