Thanks for your interest in our plans for Bellahouston Nursery. By securing a Community Asset Transfer on Bellahouston Nursery we would be able to significantly increase the amount of local, sustainable vegetables produced within the city.
This would allow us to create new Living Wage jobs, create opportunities for others to grow and be enterprising, and upscale our oversubscribed Grow the Growers programme which provides training and support to aspiring new market growers.
As an established not-for-profit social enterprise with spades of experience in growing food, providing training, and getting local food on local plates, we hope you will give us your support in our latest plan.
We will use this page to give a bit of further information on our plans and post answers to questions which we receive over time.
If you have any questions please email us: bellahouston@glasgowlocavore.org
FAQs:
What do you plan to do with the site?
We have lots of ideas about how the site could be used. Below are some of the initial site uses we have planned followed by some which are more aspirational for the future and need further thought, research and permissions.
Initial site uses:
- Market gardening undertaken by Locavore as well as Tenement Veg and members of Saheliya with opportunities for more to join in time.
- Delivery of an extended Grow the Growers programme with plots and support available on small-scale organic growing on a year to year basis.
- Community plots which will be used to deliver weekly sessions and open days.
- Very small starter plots for individuals to try out food growing on a small scale in a supported environment.
- Delivering workshops on issues around food and sustainability, hosting visits from schools and interested groups.
- Associated and supportive uses including facilities to pack produce and carry out office functions.
Bigger Ideas for the Future:
- Creation of a kitchen which could be used for workshops, adding value to produce or running a cafe on site.
- Developing a classroom space or similar either within the greenhouse or externally. This could be used for hosting events, courses and school visits.
- There is potential for developing renewable energy on site which would support food growing. This may include investigating sustainable supplementary heating or lighting to the glasshouse from solar, biomass or CHP.
- Creation of a plant stall and farm stand.
- Developing facilities to carry out composting on site so that plant residues and food waste can be made into compost for use on site.
What’s a Community Asset Transfer?
A “Community Asset Transfer” transfers control or ownership of land or buildings from local authorities to a community group, such as a development trust, social enterprise or charity. Community groups must show that this will achieve a local social, economic or environmental benefit. Because of the community benefit, the sale or lease is usually below market value.
The Scottish Community Empowerment Act (2015) introduced the right for community bodies to request any land or building they feel they can make better use of and requires local authorities to fairly and transparently assess all requests they receive. Requests should be agreed unless there are reasonable grounds for refusal.