HREOD Burna Urban Forest group are on the hunt for a new lawnmower to help clear and ready the allotments at the site.

The green open space is on the site of the former allotments at Pickards Small Field and Kembrey Grass in Gorse Hill, which was threatened to be lost to housing in 2012.

Since then the group, which achieved charitable status earlier this year, has been working to develop the site, which includes several allotment plots.

But before the plots can be offered to residents they must be cleared. However the group has been finding it difficult to find a mower suitable for the work.

“We’re not begging, we do have funds for a second-hand mower,” said Steve Thompson, one of the trusteees of the new charity.

“But because of the nature of the place we need a particular type of mower, an auto scythe which has reciprocating blades like hair clippers.

“We can't afford a new one and we cannot find a good secondhand one.

“Delays in getting the allotments off the ground has meant a ferocious growth of weeds on the allotment area. We need this type of mower to cut them down and also for our proposed wild flower meadow and paths.

“The weeds are about three feet high.”

During the past few years the group has been working to secure the land and develop the open space as an assett to the local communiy.

Mary Farragher, a long-standing member of the Hreod Burna Urban Forest group, is another trustee urging the public to help where they can.

The Gorse Hill resident said: “We want people to get involved with the project because it belongs to the community. It’s somewhere to be outside, it’s somewhere to go walking with the family, with the grandparents and with the grandchildren.

“It’s just a lovely place to be and sometimes you can see the deer and I’m sure there are badgers there and bats which you could spot. It’s just a lovely open space which is there for the community to use.

“But timings are important, we have the allotments but nobody can have them until they are cleared.

“We had spent a long time clearing them and digging them out and weed-killing them.

“But as time has gone by and we’ve been waiting for other things to fall in place it’s all grown back, and we need the mower to help clear it again.

“Ideally we’d like a new one becuase then you have a guarantee and you know it should last a long time but we have got enough money to be able to afford a second hand one.”