ALLOTMENTS have been brought back to life ahead of the planned re-development of the old Cashes Green Hospital site.

The first 15 grow-your-own plots have been opened in preparation for the project, which will provide 78 new homes on the long-abandoned land in Stroud.

TV presenter Kevin McCloud's company Hab and housing group GreenSquare have joined forces to deliver the project with landowners, the Homes and Communities Agency. It is the first scheme of its kind in the UK.

Before the building work starts, the allotments have been returned to the community.

They were closed in 1997 after Cashes Green Hospital was shut and mothballed for future re-development.

But consultations with Cashes Green folk revealed how they remembered and valued the orchard trees and former allotments, said Kevin of Channel 4's Grand Designs.

"It's genuinely exciting that we're now able to bring those allotments back into use, many months before we even begin work on the adjacent hospital site," he said.

Hab Oakus, as the partnership behind the proposals is called, have still to gain permission from Stroud District Council for the homes.

The plan includes 20 affordable homes for rent, 19 affordable homes for shared ownership and 39 properties for sale on the open market.

But in the meantime Mr McCloud said it was important to return a sense of community through the allotments.

"They are social places to bring your family, spaces where people share things, as well as grow food," he said.

"This is about the existing community. When the new residents move in they will have, rather than grass, spaces where they can grow things, hedges of raspberry cans and gooseberries."

New allotment holder, recently retired Jan Mead, said she looked forward to planting and working her plot with her children and grandchildren.

David Warburton from the Homes and Communities Agency said the allotments were another positive step forward.

"This shows that this project has the views of the community at its core," he said.