Thank you to everyone who participated in our community engagement on the Community Garden Policy review.

Between 30 March to 5 May 2023, we received a total of 79 contributions on our draft Community Garden Policy review. Contributions included 54 online surveys and 25 social map contributions suggesting locations for community gardens completed via Have Your Say.

Support and a few concerns:

There was strong support recorded for streamlining community garden requests (70% supported) and for Council-run community engagement on new community garden proposals (65% supported).

Participants were generally supportive of the Policy overall, with a majority (80%) responding that they liked the policy or thought it was OK.

Concerns were raised by a some (15%) respondents, including the language of the policy being difficult to understand, the use of toxic weed killers and the closure of gardens if they become neglected.

What we’re doing:

Based on the feedback received, the Policy has been amended to reflect the community sentiment and importance of community gardens being accessible to all, having a positive environmental impact and having a focus on produce or food growing. The Policy will be presented to Council with a recommendation that Council adopts the Community Garden Policy 2023.

Find out more about the community engagement results.

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Next steps:

Council will consider community feedback and the draft Community Garden Policy for adoption at the 18 July 2023 Council meeting.

Council meeting, Tuesday 18 July, 6.30pm

• Read the agenda
• Ask a question
• Request to be heard at the meeting
• Watch the meeting