London could be soon home to the world’s largest “edible park” if campaigners get their way.
Hackney council is providing funds to help develop Mabley Green into a place planted with fruit, vegetable, nut and herb trees and bushes for people to pick and eat the produce.
The council is giving £100,000 to pay for planting at the site near the Olympic Park, along with outreach programmes for school and pensioners’ groups and the salary for three years of a part-time officer to care for it.
However, many locals, including the Mabley Green User Group, are fighting to have a much bigger area for the edible park so that it would beat the current record holder, the seven-acre Beacon Food Forest in Seattle which opened in 2009.
“At the moment, Mabley Green is bleak, bare and barren,” said Damian Rafferty, chairman of the user group. “We want it to be a place rich with vegetation, where people can wander in and grab something to eat.
“It doesn’t have to be the biggest in the world, but it could be, and we want to instil local pride and excite people from all over the country to come and see it.”
The council will award final permission for the park to go ahead by the end of the year, and planting will begin next autumn, to coincide with the best time for putting in seasonal fruit and vegetables.
Mr Rafferty said that the edible garden would help tackle childhood obesity rates, of which Hackney has some of the worst in London.
He said: “If children can come into the park and forage for and interact with fruits and vegetables it will make being healthy fun for them.
“We also want Hackney mums to be able to say to the children, ‘Run to the park and pick some apples for the tea.’ It’s about bringing a bit of rural into an urban area.”
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Hackney councillor Jonathan McShane said that although the council would spend £100,000 on an edible park, he added: “Building the world’s largest edible park would mean losing sports pitches and taking away facilities used by young people.
“We agree edible parkland will help encourage healthy eating and support our commitment to tackle childhood obesity, which is why this has been included alongside sports facilities that help to tackle the same problem.”
