Ms Maeve Foreman:

In our situation, the land we identified was zoned residential but is an awkward, small site surrounded by houses. We had to get a petition signed by all the residents who were potentially going to be affected by having that site developed as a garden to show their support for it. The council wanted to know we were an organised group. We had to have a committee, a constitution, public liability insurance in place and a bank account. We had to prove our worth as an organised group before the council was willing to work with us.

When people approach Community Gardens Ireland saying they want to start a garden and have identified a potential site, we have loads of information on our website to help them get organised so they are an acceptable entity for the local authority to deal with.