Land access

I'm writing this in response to Rob Hopkins Transition Culture blog which asks whether Transition Towns groups can access land. Here in north west UK we have some opportunities for accessing land, although we are facing the usual obstacles:

Green Infrastructure  - it seems the north west have been leading in developing a regional green infrastructure. Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) have been involved with this, as well as local organisations such as Mersey Forest, and local council organisations (eg Liverpool Vision). Amongst the motivations for such a project of course are the usual suspects, to tackle dereliction and enhance economic growth, but climate change (mitigation and adaptation) and biodiversity (green corridors) also do get a mention.

Health benefits have also been highlighted - not only physical activity in greenspace, but also mental wellbeing from being in the natural environment, or even the therapeutic effect of seeing 'greenery' out of the hospital window (see NHS forest).

All of these initiatives are opportunities for community groups to get involved in growing food, medicinal herbs or to create relaxing places. An exciting development in Liverpool is the Greater Liverpool Food Alliance. A social enterprise: UrbanAg have been involved in linking together: people with land, people who want to grow, and people who want to sell with customers in Liverpool. The local health people, Liverpool Primary Care Trust have also expressed an interest in working with the alliance to improve people's access to fresh food (as I mention Liverpool PCT - they also support allotment growing in the city - so it may be worth linking with your local PCT). Transition Livepool's allotment could well be one of the suppliers to this food alliance, and there are plans to set up food co-ops.

Although I believe these are great possibilities, there are still the usual hurdles. I have recently heard how a community project that Transition Liverpool is working with to create a community growing space is having difficulty accessing the land. The project has been successful with funding, but now is in danger of stalling due to contractual wrangles over access to council-owned land. Issues such as security, liability etc can be sticking points for such projects, which require technical expertise and sensitive management. I've just seen a response to Rob's blog which describes toolkits that Community Council of Devon have created to tackle some of these issues.

Finally, my local transition initiative; Transition Village Eastham and Bromborough, has recently been working with the local adult day centre; Eastham Centre. Many great growing programmes have been run at the centre previously and they have several greenhouses on site! However, due to lack of capacity, these have mostly been stopped. The management are now keen for community groups, like ours, to get involved and use the facilities! So this is a great opportunity, and if some of our projects can also include clients at the centre - then everyone's a winner! The centre also links with local country parks, so we have even more growing opportunities.

Finally, finally, I just want to add something about connection with the earth. I remember some reference about connection with the earth being important for social structure in developing countries and growing cities. For transition in (small) towns food projects are relatively easy first 'hands-on' success stories. City transition finds it a little more difficult. But maybe it's even more important to regain that connection to the earth for dwellers in the concrete jungle and suburbia. The contraction of cities like Liverpool creates redundant spaces, however although we may dream of turning these into green oases, the obstacles can seem insurmountable. However, hopefully by linking different programmes, working with councils and private companies we can make progress and everyone can get a handful of earth on a regular basis!