A family who have endured a three year ‘battle against nature’ have been promised a solution.

Trees, bushes and all kinds of weeds have forced their way into the back garden of the Halil family home in Bellestaines Pleasaunce, Chingford.

Crushing fences and destroying the boundary of the garden the greenery from the overgrown allotment next door has turned the garden into a jungle.

Eren Halil contacted the council to help him out after he realised that it is actually the site of the council-owned Mulberry Allotments which were abandoned over 20 years ago.

“I contacted the council and they put me through to the team that deal with trees and they never got back to me.

“I have probably spent a week out here trying to clear it but it is a constant battle.

“The house was in a real mess when we bought it and so was the garden, but the purchase took a long time to go through. We didn’t actually realise how bad it was until we moved in. I think the man who lived here before just gave up trying to fight it.”

Mr Halil who has now lived in the property for three years was inspired to contact Iain Duncan Smith MP for Chingford and Woodford Green when he saw an article in the Guardian about the Hawkwood Allotment site in Drysdale Avenue, Chingford.

Today, councillor Roy Berg announced that a solution had been found and that the council had agreed to help clear the land and put the allotment back into use.

Iain Duncan Smith said that he was surprised at the situation with the ‘grow-your-own’ culture emerging in the UK at the moment.

“I am glad that my intervention and the work of the councillors has helped to find a solution, but this should not have had to happen” he said.

“The way it should happen is people contact the council and something is done.

“This seems to be happening too often with allotments. People are bending over backwards to try to grow their own vegetables now and get an allotment for themselves, so it doesn’t make sense to have any out of use.”

Councillor Roy Berg said there will be a meeting in October to discuss clearing the site and finding the team to maintain it, although access may prove to be a problem.

The council has proposed to lease the site to a voluntary sector organisation for three years and within that time the VSO would be required to clear the site, prepare the soil and generally remediate it prior to handing the site back to the Council.

There are currently around 460 people on the waiting list for an allotment in Waltham Forest.