Food fight: ABC gardening guru Costa Georgiadis weighs in on urban street food controversy
Updated
ABC gardening personality Costa Georgiadis has offered to come to the Sunshine Coast to consult with the local council as debate grows over an urban street food project.
Residents involved in Buderim's Urban Food Street grow fruit and vegetables on the sidewalk, and share the produce between themselves.
However, locals have recently received letters advising them of the need to get permits and $20 million public liability insurance if they wish to continue growing, after a complaint was made about the appearance of the street and the safety of the verge gardens.
Mr Georgiadis said Buderim's Urban Food Street was "internationally significant" and that the Sunshine Coast Council should be working to support the project rather than impose retrospective restrictions on it.
"Councils and governments employ people to activate communities," he said.
"To have a project like this handed to them, they should be saying 'How can we support this, how can we replicate this, and how can we give others in the community this opportunity? because we've been handed the golden goose'."
As for how the Sunshine Coast Council should deal with complaints, Mr Georgiadis said it should support what the majority of the community wanted.
"As the council did in my area — I had one person complain — and they said 'Well, we'll do a survey', which they did," he said.
"In this case, it's not even worth doing a survey. You have all the residents in favour.
"What needs to be addressed in situations like this is that one complaint doesn't have the power to dislodge a project that's been developed slowly and organically over eight years."
Mr Georgiadis said the Sunshine Coast Council's requirement that individuals obtain their own public liability insurance for verge gardens is 'just passing the buck'.
"There's very little there that is dangerous," he said.
"That's where we have to draw the line between common sense and a legal filter that just goes beyond what's fair and practical.
"If we apply a legal lens to everything, no-one would walk down the street."
Buderim resident Janice called in to ABC Sunshine Coast's breakfast program to point out that even before the gardens were created, most of the streets in question did not have paved footpaths and were too uneven to walk on.
"The council is talking about litigation, well, they might have got litigated before with the roughness because you certainly couldn't walk on it," she said.
State Member for Buderim Steve Dickson posted a video to Facebook in support of the project.
"I want to make it very, very clear — the people are right, Urban Food Street is right," he said.
"I think we all need to cohesively come behind Urban Food Street.
"Local, State and Federal Governments need to make sure this is not only happening here in Buderim but right across the whole country."
Mr Georgiadis said he was not trying to be adversarial towards the Sunshine Coast Council, and said he had experience working with local and regional councils.
"I'm not against the council. I'm against the default position, and that's what we have to change," he said.
"And this is where I think the Sunshine Coast Council has the ability to flex and bend in such a way that they do become the leaders."
He said he is eager to help the council come up with a strategy for how to deal with the Urban Food Street, or future verge gardens.
"I am so willing," he said.
"I'm happy to come up there off my own bat to talk to them."
Topics: food-safety, health, food-processing, rural, vegetables, agricultural-crops, fruits, fruit, community-development, buderim-4556
First posted
