Community farm named in memory of former mayor (From Droitwich Advertiser)

Community farm named in memory of former mayor

3:40pm Thursday 12th July 2012 in News

A COMMUNITY farm has been named in memory of a popular former Droitwich councillor.

A site used by Festival Housing tenants to grow vegetables, fruit and flowers has been named in honour of Don Lawley.

Councillor Lawley’s widow, Maureen, travelled to the site at Top Barn in Worcester to officially open and name Lawley’s Land in memory of her well known husband.

Cutting the ribbon, Mrs Lawley said: “I am very proud to be launching this lovely project. Don loved his garden and he would’ve enjoyed seeing all of your hard work in progress. I look forward to coming back and seeing how your growing is getting on.”

Lawley’s Land is a project created and funded by Festival Housing for tenants of the housing association. People have been encouraged to apply for a piece of land on the farm and have been provided with transport and training so they can gather skills in order to grow vegetables, fruit or even flowers and then take these skills back to their local community and their own gardens.

Clare Huyton, executive director at Festival Housing, said: “We are amazingly proud of our tenants who have worked so hard to get Lawley’s Land up and running. We wanted to name the farm after our dear friend and colleague Don who loved gardening and also put so much time and energy in to the development of Festival Housing.”

Don Lawley was the first chairman of Spa Housing Association and Mr Lawley served Wychavon District Council between 1969 until his death in 2011 with only a short break between 1995 and 1999. He was Droitwich mayor four times, and consort to his wife during her two mayoral terms.

Clare Huyton added: “We hope this project will continue to flourish through the winter and that more tenants will join us in making Lawley’s Land a success.”