European Social Fund in England

Hillside herbs giving Black Country residents green fingers

Residents of the St Thomas community in Dudley have been encouraged to get green-fingered thanks to an ESF funded project using land, which would otherwise become derelict.

Hillside Herbs - a £237,000 project run by St Thomas's Community Network, in partnership with BTCV - British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, trains unemployed and volunteers in different aspects of organic horticulture and wildlife promotion, in what was one of the regions most socially deprived areas.

Trainees learn a wide range of skills from rotation planting and wildlife encouragement techniques as well as organic methods of horticulture, while a food cooperative run by the volunteers provides organic, seasonal food, for the local community. Compostable waste is reused onsite and natural habitats supporting a variety of plants and animals species are sustained.

So far, over 100 people, including local residents, schools and other community groups such as Sure Start, the National Probation Service and the Emergency Services, have already participated in the wider project.