IDEAS are being sought to transform unused land on Oxford’s estates as part of a council project.

Oxford City Council is seeking applications for its Garden Revival Scheme, run by its tenant involvement team.

It aims to create shared spaces of which residents will be proud and use for growing flowers, vegetables and to relax during good weather.

It has spent £177,278 designing and building new community gardens in Rose Hill, Lye Valley and Cowley.

  • Our top stories

Ashurst Way, Rose Hill, was a run-down piece of land with a washing line, patchy grass and uneven concrete paving slabs.

Now it has been repaved, the grass resown and has a raised flower bed and new flower baskets.

Ashurst Way resident Allison Connell helped apply for the project and went on to complete a seven-week gardening project under the scheme.

She said: “We saw it in the tenants’ handbook and contacted them and it snowballed from there. We wanted to have somewhere nice in the area to spend time in.

“The difference is amazing. It was never used before, it was just rubble.

“I have been using it and I have planted flowers and put ornaments in it.

“And we can grow winter veg there, so it can be used all year round.”

Ed Turner, a councillor for Rose Hill and Iffley, said: “As a landlord we [the city council] should care about garden areas around council properties, and here we have used money from council tenants’ rent to put in place improvements which tenants themselves identified.

“These are great projects.”

City council board member for housing and estate regeneration Scott Seamons said: “Our blocks of flats and sheltered housing have some very generous shared garden spaces, but little investment has been put into them.

“This can often mean that they are under-used.

“The purpose of the Garden Revival Scheme is to put investment into these spaces, so that our tenants and their children will want to spend time in their shared garden spaces.

“We are also keen to introduce areas for tenants to be able to plant flowers and vegetables.”

  • Call Kieron Keeble on 01865 252662 to learn more.

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.