Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

Finally, we offer a short case study of an attempt to set up a community garden as anillustration of some of the barriers in practice faced by groups of local enthusiasts, evenin an environment where support is forthcoming, in principle, from local government.As part of its promotion of ‘an active and healthy community’, GCCC promotescommunity gardens as a way of increasing food security in the city and has prepared aCommunity Gardens Start Up Kit for groups wanting to develop such a local initiative.Linked to this process of support, the Council has appointed a dedicated worker toliaise with local groups planning a community garden and a number of DivisionalCouncillors have allocated funds from their Divisional budgets to support initiatives intheir communities.One such group formed after their Divisional Councillor called a public meeting topromote the idea of a community garden in the Division. They were pleased to learnthat ‘..all we had to do was form a steering group and get 14 members signed up’,which they achieved quickly. However, they then learned that they would either have tobecome an incorporated body or exist under the auspices of a relevant existing body,such as a large community based, no-for-profit organisation. As the auspicing optionseemed most convenient they then approached a large national organisation with asignificant presence on the Gold Coast, who agreed to act in this capacity. They thenlearned that this body was deemed by the Council not to be primarily concerned withurban agriculture (however broadly defined) and hence unsuitable as the auspicingorganisation. The embryonic group then decided to incorporate, with the help of a localfood activist with experience of setting up groups.The newly incorporated group were offered two possible sites for their garden byCouncil, the with then Community Gardens support office saying of the preferred site,‘...it’s ready to go, you might need to talk to some of the users to say this is happeningand if you can get some support from the community that would be great’. However,they were then told that the site was no longer suitable and decide then to local at allpublic parks in the neighbourhood and choose those that seemed to best suit theirneeds and preferences.Having identified a preferred site, the group then began to work with the support officerto draw up plans for the garden itself,... so we were looking at our site and X had helped us draw up our plan andeveryone was getting very excited , it seemed very real and we were told – youknow you have to go out and quotes for all the different parts of the garden – sowe’d formed sub-committees that were looking at the price of a fence and all thebits and pieces and then we were told – oh no, sorry, you can’t have this sitebecause its Q100 flood zone and therefore you can’t have any built structures inthe area at all.The group then met with the Divisional Councillor and the latest support worker toreview all the suitable parks in the Division and identified one that appeared suitable,although with the added complication that it was a state park and would require adevelopment application. As part of this process the council wrote to local residentsnotifying them of the proposal to establish a community garden within the park:Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change 54