Since the culmination of the Urban Farming project in September 2007, Middlesbrough Council has committed to extending and expanding the project, which has, in turn, inspired similar sustainable urban food production initiatives across the UK.
Armed with Andre viljoen and Katrina Bohn’s map of Middlesbrough’s edible landscapes, the local authorities have a clear vision of how the project might progress.
Middlesbrough Council has secured £150,000 of development money for the project, and the commitment has sparked interest from as far afield as Sydney, Australia.
Since the Urban Farming project, the number of people on the waiting list for allotment space in Middlesbrough has gone from zero to 150. In response, the Council’s Regeneration Programme team has secured 17 new allotment sites, with negotiations underway for at least two more. In addition, a further quarter acre of allotment land will be managed by the town’s homelessness action group.
With over a dozen community groups, 31 of Middlesbrough’s 51 schools and 4,000 people now involved in the project, it has generated plenty of ideas. Early suggestions include a newsletter, helpline or mentoring scheme for urban farmers, a wider variety of crops and timetabling the schools’ harvest to avoid clashing with the long summer holidays.
Middlesbrough citizens are also establishing community owned and run food co-ops to supply the council’s proposed community restaurant project.
Designed to inspire and engage disadvantaged young people and the long-term unemployed, the restaurant would provide training and employment opportunities.
Council officers in the Regeneration Programmes team are already in talks with a local college to set up an NvQ1 course to complement the hands-on experience offered by the restaurant itself.
All this would be made possible, affordable and sustainable by the expanded Urban Farming project’s food co-ops – with any profit from the sale of produce to the restaurant being re-invested in future growing schemes.
The wider impact
News of these developments has spread. Since September 2007, both Glasgow and Portsmouth city councils have contacted Middlesbrough’s Regeneration Team to find out more about the Urban Farming initiative.
A spokesperson for Middlesbrough Council said: ‘The Urban Farming project created a tremendous partnership across the council, external agencies, the community and voluntary sector and the public and private sectors.’ ‘It exemplified our strong belief that design had something to offer.’
Since 2007
Local authorities in from Guildford, Birmingham and Scotland have all asked David Barrie, the designer from Urban Farming, for more information about the Middlesbrough experience.
In Middlesbrough urban farming has now become embedded in the local authority's work – the project is being repeated, developed and expanded. Over the next three years they aim to involve 10,000 residents - 7% of the population - in developing sustainable methods of growing, composting and recycling.
The Tees Up urban farming initiative will be delivered by a dedicated project coordinator and work with the community and voluntary sector and junior health trainers to:
- Deliver the Middlesbrough Meal as an annual event and a series of other initiatives e.g. local community meals involving street parties and other local healthy living and food related community events with the ultimate aim of becoming a sustainable town.
- Facilitate the setting up of a Food Policy Council – the RDA has indicated that it wants Middlesbrough to be the first town in the UK to have a Food Policy Council, bringing together the community, public, private and voluntary sectors with a commitment to source food from within 50 miles of the town
- Develop new, and re-introduce presently unused, allotment sites back into the community including the development of existing derelict sites thus enhancing the physical environment
- Develop more activities for compositing and recycling, lowering emissions etc ensure that schools are actively engaged in the process, maximising the opportunities for outdoor play and early years development through gardening and open space use, as well as developing strong links to the school curriculum, local community and extended schools
- Develop further education opportunities including NVQ linking to horticulture
- Support the development of a restaurant like Jamie Oliver's Fifteen which linked people not in education, employment or training with jobs in food.
- Develop a healthy ‘meals on wheels’ service for the elderly and disabled provided by young people and junior health trainers
- Explore the development of the ‘Havana Model’ of growing food in the public realm, requiring commitment from the local community, urban and public policy makers and planners
- Encourage community cohesion and using imaginative ways of bringing together older and younger people to foster respect, encourage communication and address misconceptions through an all encompassing initiative to cut across barriers such as the prevention of violence and extremism, as well as age, race and disability.