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In 2002, Groundwork East Lancashire Trust (now Groundwork Pennine Lancashire Trust) was invited to manage the site on behalf of the
voluntary management committee. The Trust then secured funding to employ staff to manage the site.
Since 1997, Offshoots has built four eco-friendly buildings from different natural materials, installing them with wind and solar power.
The garden has been completely reclaimed from the many years of neglect, allowing small-scale rotational organic crop production. A
community composting scheme, collecting kitchen waste from local households, has been running successfully for five years: the
waste was collected using a solar-powered milk float for the first three years, but, with the backing of CRED (Community Recycling
and Economic Development fund) the scheme has since evolved into a bigger and better project and now boasts a biofuelled Ford
Transit van and state-of-the-art in-vessel composters. The tree nursery, which began with a few seeds in root trainers, now has
land - donated by Sir Simon Towneley - for mature trees. In January 2006, Offshoots won a Bura (British Urban Regeneration Award)
award in acknowledgement of the site and all the hard work that the community has put into it.
The site works with schools and colleges, visitors and volunteers of all ages and abilities. The project has not strayed from its
community roots and is there for everybody to enjoy and learn from, playing host to as many as 5000 visitors per year. It provides a
working example of how a successful garden can flourish using environmentally-friendly green technologies in this modern age.
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