How urban planning can help protect community gardens

Planning policies play a critical role in supporting community food growing spaces in our cities. It’s easy to overlook the importance of understanding the world of planning and instead focus on the practical and social elements of maintaining a productive garden. However, having a better understanding of planning policies and how they can actively support your local food growing, as well as prevent threats to your space, is often overlooked.

In this online session, city planner, Gillian Morgan, will present her report and toolkit on planning and food growing, and explain how you can use planning policy to meet strategic objectives through community food growing as well as ideas around evidencing the impact of your garden for recognition from decision makers and funders. Gillian will take us through examples of planning policies around the UK that support community food growing to illustrate the link between food growing as a way of creating healthy communities, making the case for why these spaces should be better appreciated and protected.

Trainer bio

Gillian is supporting Sustainable Food Cities engage in the plan-making process to ensure that community food growing has been taken into account in their local plans. As well as being a planner who has specialised in the strategic planning and management of greenspace (from local level in London Boroughs through to national park level as planning director in the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads), Gillian is a passionate gardener.

She started volunteering for Capital Growth, meeting inspirational community food growers and has gone on to publish Sustain's guidance for planners on writing planning policies to support community food growing.