Just as they were about to shift their much-loved Lincoln Community Gardens to another site, health authority, Te Whatu Ora, told them they could stay.
The former Canterbury District Health Board allowed the Lincoln Envirotown Trust to establish the garden at the site in 2008.
Then late last year the health board could no longer guarantee the garden could stay as it was preparing to close Lincoln Maternity Hospital and possibly dispose of the building and land.
While the trust sought to stay, it also set about finding an alternative site.
Following the closure of the hospital in May, a decision on what to do with the building and land was delayed as the
health board was disbanded to become part of the new Te Whatu Ora.
Trust chairman Dave Fitzjohn said it had been a wonderful surprise to get an email from a Te Whatu Ora leasing administrator to say the community gardens could stay.
“It seems they are happy for us to be there,” Fitzjohn said.
Offering the site for free since 2008 and now into the future was also a “true community service” on behalf of the health authority, he said.
“We definitely owe them our gratitude, as does the Lincoln community.”
At the same time, Fitzjohn and fellow members of the trust were grateful to the Lincoln Baptist Church.
The church’s grounds were the alternative site where the gardens would have been relocated at the end of this year.
“We were essentially in the process of getting the actual proper lease agreements.”
The community gardens comprise of rows of planter boxes, a garden shed, glasshouse, and canvas awning for afternoon teas. Individuals, groups, schools and pre-schools tend their plots at the site, which also hosts community workshops and weekly working bees.
