Star date: 8th June 2016

BIOSPHERIC `URBAN GROWING CENTRE' NOW A WEED GARDEN

The Biospheric `urban growing centre', which Salford City Council commissioned at a cost of £300,000 just three years ago, is now defunct with its outer garden, valued at £30,000, a shocking mess of overgrown weeds.

The project, also funded with £100,000 from the Manchester International Festival, was supposed to run for around ten years and inspire the community to grow food but went bust with over £100,000 debts last year.

Full details here...

It was supposed to be an `urban growing centre' to show the community what food can be grown in cities. But the Biospheric Project, led by Vincent Walsh, is now defunct after £400,000 of public money was sunk into the scheme just three years ago.

The Project was commissioned by Salford City Council to the tune of £300,000 and £100,000 from the Manchester International Festival; while new Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett and Planning Lead Derek Antrobus were on its advisory board, the Salford Star understands.

The Biospheric Project went bust late last year with debts totalling £105,265, including £46,893 owed to Salford City Council, and amidst total acrimony from many of those who either volunteered or had dealings with the scheme (see previous Salford Star article – click here).

When it opened to great acclaim in summer 2013, inside the Project's HQ in Blackfriars was an experimental aquaponics system, complete with a productive roof garden – and outside was the `Blackfriars Forest Garden', valued at a cost of £30,000 by its director.

The Biospheric Studio's website boasts that the Garden was "designed to grow more than fifty species of trees and more than 100 plant species, including fruits, berries, perennial vegetables, medicinal plants, herbs and spices, edible flowers and other supportive species...

"Its location in a densely populated area of the city allows us to study how inner-city land may be modified and adapted for food production" it added "The forest garden has been created using agricultural processes such as alley-cropping, bio-trenching and guiding, resulting in a low-maintenance, high yield growth system."

Today, the `low maintenance, high yield growth system' is just a mass of tangled weeds and abandoned equipment with some unkempt leaf vegetables wilting in the heat. The shocking Salford Star photos show the `before and after' state of the patch which was supposed to produce a massive array of crops for the community...