Green petition to 'grow your own'

Mrs Campbell said people were fed up of buying vegetables

A campaign is under way to try and increase the number of allotments available to people living in Wirral.

A number of petitions were presented to a meeting of the borough council on Monday night and they will now be considered early in the new year.

Much of the campaigning is being led by Margaret Campbell from West Kirkby - a town where hundreds of people are on waiting lists for allotments.

She said that people want the chance to "grow their own".

"There was a time when allotments weren't very popular," said Mrs Campbell.

If you go into a school and wave some sort of vegetable at children and ask them where it comes from - they don't really know Margaret Campbell, lead petitioner

"But now I think people are just fed up of buying vegetables that have been flown across the world and sprayed in pesticides and they do just want to walk down to their allotment and pick their own fresh vegetables."

Mrs Campbell also said that keeping an allotment could be educational for children.

"If you go into a school and wave some sort of vegetable at children and ask them where it comes from - they don't really know. They think that food comes from a supermarket.

"If you do dig something up from your garden, it tastes better, costs next to nothing, and kids thinks it's fun and they enjoy it. I think we've lost touch with were food comes from," she added.

"The government says it wants people to eat more healthy, get outside, take exercise and do more family orientated activities.

"Here in Wirral we have hundreds of people wanting to do this on an allotment, but there aren't the plots for them."