How Longford's community allotment came to fruition

The Longford Town Community Allotments were officially launched last week in a bid to encourage local food growing, as well as bringing people together through a shared interest in gardening.

Bernard Shea, Climate Action Coordinator and Senior Executive Engineer spoke about how the impressive space came about.

“We have a climate plan which runs from 2025 to 2029 and one of the actions is to work with local communities and to develop these kind of projects. So we had people from the town who were interested in an allotments project."

"We knew that this piece of wild ground existed. Now it's not great land for growing anything, but we managed to clear it and we got the topsoil going and thanks to LCRL, we managed to get a community group together and they've pretty much taken it on.”

Gary Brady, Climate Action Officer said they wanted to create something the community could take hold of and that the site in question was chosen to accommodate future development of the allotments, including raised beds wheelchair users.

"The plan is to develop it further over the next couple of years, to put a compound in place, to put in place raised beds for people with wheelchair access or disability access, and just to develop the site and make it more accessible for more community groups and more people within the town and the Longford town area.”

Added Brendan, “We made an application to the Housing Finance Agency Social Fund and they’ve grant aided us and that is what has made the project possible.”

Any doubts regarding the level of interest in the project were quickly dispelled by the strong response from the public once word got out that an allotment was possibly in the works.

Andy Smith, Chairperson of the Longford Town Community Allotments Committee, says the interest was immediate.

"Once the council put the word out that there were open meetings, there was a huge interest in it. Then people put themselves forward to be involved as growers and as part of the committee. This is what has developed out of it since.”

With discussions for the idea of a community allotment having begun in autumn 2025, a public consultation followed and a suitable council-owned site identified. Once site clearance began towards the latter part of last year, it was time to set about forming a committee and in February of this year, The Longford Town Community Allotment Committee was established with Andy Smith appointed as Chairperson. To create the space and bring the vision to life, landscape architect Gillian Ní Chaiside of Faoin Aer Landscape Studio was brought on board to develop and execute the design.

Plot holders began cultivating the site in mid to late May of this year and within months, the allotments had reached near-full capacity, with the first crops already now having been harvested.

The project, which is a collaboration between Longford County Council’s Climate Action Team, Longford Community Resources CLG and the Longford Town Community Allotment Committee, has a multitude of benefits for everyone involved. In addition to the allotments helping people grow some of their own food, it will also provide a shared space for skill-sharing, friendships and a way to learn more about seeds, soil, planting, and seasonal produce.

The official launch, which took place last Friday, was organised by the Longford Town Community Allotment Committee, chaired by Andy Smith, with support from Edel Kelly of Longford Community Resources and Bernard Shea, Aisling Murphy, and Gary Brady from Longford County Council’s Climate Action Team.

Individuals or groups interested in finding out more about the allotments can email [email protected] or [email protected] for more information.

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