Page 2604 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 June 2011
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provide clarity and introduce the one-stop shop, I will propose that an amendment be made to schedule 1 to the planning and development regulation. The amendment will specifically exempt community gardens on unleased land from development approval, subject to the licence complying with the relevant general and zone development code provisions and other specified conditions.
In relation to community gardens on leased land, in some situations there will be proposals to establish community gardens in these circumstances, for example, on land held by churches. No change to planning controls is proposed in relation to setting up community gardens on land that is already leased. In many cases the leases may be concessional and the operators of the gardens would need to comply with the requirements of section 266 of the Planning and Development Act.
In relation to selecting suitable future sites, the interagency working group has developed a specific set of site selection criteria for community gardens and I take the opportunity to table these draft selection criteria for the information of members today. I present the following paper:
Community gardens—Draft site selection criteria.
The criteria will be used to assess future community garden applications for licences. The site selection criteria address matters such as location, safety, accessibility and other matters.
Turning to the issue of improving the existing standard licence arrangement for the Department of Territory and Municipal Services and developing a model agreement for private leaseholders, the government supports the continued use of the existing TAMS standard licence arrangement. It has been prepared in consultation with the Government Solicitor’s Office. This can also be made available for use by private leaseholders. TAMS can provide a licence template modified to remove references to “ACTPLA” and replace references to “the Custodian” with reference to “the Lessee”. However, the standard conditions must remain in order to provide both the lessee and the licensee with sufficient protection and clarity.
Turning to the issue of the exemption of an application fee, currently the prescribed licence fee for a community organisation is approximately $1,500. It is proposed to waive the licence fee for applications for community gardens. This exemption is a practical demonstration of the government’s commitment to facilitating the establishment of more gardens.
In relation to item (c), facilitating group insurance provisions for operators of community gardens, the ACT Insurance Authority has advised that it can assist a community garden group in finding a suitable insurance broker but has advised that Volunteering Australia and AON Risk Services have devised an insurance package tailored to volunteer groups and have the ability to broker suitable insurance arrangements. Similarly, Volunteering ACT can provide insurance advice to groups if they are members of Volunteering ACT. Currently, there are no mechanisms or funding programs available that would enable the government to waive or reduce insurance premiums set by an insurance company.
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