Do you want to turn a disused piece of land, a verge, a corner of a park or a planter that has been left empty for years into a lovely place where some vegetables, fruit or herbs can be grown for you, your friends and family or anybody can enjoy?
If the answer is yes, then you need to ask the owner and get permission. Unless the land belongs to a private business, the likelihood is that it belongs to the Local council. By getting permission you will avoid getting into a spot of bother and wasting all your hard work. That permission may not be anything formal, like a signed document, it could just be a chat with the right person to get the go ahead – it’s amazing how sometimes bureaucracy can disappear when you know the right person!
By working with the local council, they could support your group in what you are doing and potentially get access to additional support from other agencies, or materials, tools, small grants/ pots of money etc. In the long run, it is really worth developing a good working relationship with a couple of people within the local council.
Working with your local council can be the easiest or the hardest thing, it can be extremely rewarding and you can get loads of support, or it can be quite frustrating, but it is by no way impossible. If you don’t already have a group constitution, you might need to get one to work formally with your local council as they need to engage with an entity rather than an individual or group of individuals – have a look in the Get going: a guide to doing something Incredible section for information on this.
Across the UK there a different local government arrangements with different functions being dealt with at different levels of local government. We are using the term local council to refer generally to the local government system in your area. A quick internet search will help you understand who the players are in your area.
