Hospice to build therapeutic vegetable garden

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Springhill Hospice is to build a therapeutic vegetable garden to provide therapy for their patients and provide fresh produce for their kitchen.

The garden needs to be accessible and close to the Hospice’s Day Hospice, hence the Hospice has approached Rochdale Council and asked if the Council would consider releasing a 20m strip of land on the southern boundary of the Hospice’s existing site. The land has previously been let as part of a grazing tenancy. However, the tenancy has recently come to an end and had not yet been renewed.

Planning consent would be required for a change of use of the land to a therapeutic vegetable garden, however, the Council planning department has said that in principle this use was acceptable in planning terms.

Rochdale Township Committee has given approval for the land to be released for disposal to Springhill Hospice for use as a therapeutic vegetable garden, on the condition that no trees are felled.

The approval is subject to confirmation that the Council has clean title of the land and further to the agreement of satisfactory terms and conditions being agreed with the Hospice.