One page amidst a 906 page planning document augurs well for Ireland’s community gardeners and those aspiring to have one in their area, because it for the first time obliges local authorities to support such initiatives. Since last year, Ireland has a renewed Planning and Development Act which officially defines community gardening for the first time.

Now all councils must include the following in their development plan, according to the Act:

“Prepare a strategy for the creation, improvement and preservation of sustainable places and communities” which includes “the reservation of land for use and cultivation as allotments and prescribed community gardens and the regulation, promotion, facilitation or control of the provision of land for that use”.

Community Gardens Ireland, a fully voluntary network, played a starring role in ensuring community gardening was covered by the Act. (Allotments were already covered by legislation since 1926).

As Molly Garvey of Community Gardens Ireland, writing on Linkedin, said: “Now it’s in law, and it’s up to community groups to make it known to their councils that this is something they are looking for.”

“This is for anyone who wants to give food growing a go with other people. Local councils are a resource to support this, from land access, to facilities (water, leaf mulch), to funding. However, not all councils are the same at the moment, and not all councils have supporting food growing in their sights.

“That’s why we at Community Gardens Ireland thought that it would be good to give them a wee push. All councils are required to create development plans on a rolling basis. These development plans are guided by the Planning and Development Act. We thought community gardening support should be a requirement, so we got it added into law,” said Molly.

“We need to provide for community-managed spaces alongside our new housing sites so that our houses can become homes and our homes can become neighbourhoods. Community Gardens and allotments are one of the many ways of doing this,” she added.

According to a 2020 Local Government Management agency report, eight local authorities in Ireland did not provide any allotments or community gardens.

This year, on April 26, President Michael D. Higgins called directly for more community gardening:

“While it is heartening to see interest in community growing projects increase in recent years, it is a matter of some concern that Ireland currently offers one of the lowest levels of provision for allotments and community gardens in Europe.

“Community gardens, allotments, neighbourhood plots, and shared growing spaces are not only places of cultivation, they also contribute in real and measurable ways to the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals, advancing sustainability, social cohesion, health, and food security,” he wrote.

Official definition of community gardening

Ireland agreed last year on an official definition of community gardening.

The Planning and Development Act 2024 now defines a “community garden” as meaning “an area of land that— (a) is let or available for letting from a local authority to members of the local community for collective gardening purposes, and (b) is used or intended for use— (i) wholly or mainly for either or both of the following: (I) the production of vegetables or fruit mainly for consumption by members of the local community; (II) the propagation of plants for environmental or decorative purposes in the local community, and (ii) otherwise than for profit.”

Source: page 127 of the new planning Act. Allotments are also defined on the same page.

You can access the full document here: https://bit.ly/PlanningDevtAct2024