The Green Spaces Fund, launched by Andy Burnham and distributed by the Greater Manchester Environment Trust, helps community groups increase the amount of accessible, nature-rich green space where people need it most.
The Greater Manchester Green Spaces Fund is helping Greater Manchester to become greener, fairer and more prosperous, by giving small grants to communities in greatest need to create or enhance green space.
The fund is focused on three principles:
- To benefit communities in greatest need of quality green and/or blue (water based) spaces
- To tackle our biodiversity emergency
- To encourage and empower communities to get involved with nature
Small grants will be available for communities experiencing inequalities who want to create new green and / or blue spaces or improve existing ones in their area. These might be unused areas that people want to open up for wider public access, a community garden, greening a street, or creating a small park or parklet. The fund is particularly interested in hearing from communities in greatest need, to ensure the fund is used to empower those facing inequalities.
The fund will be used to support projects which will increase the amount and/or quality of green spaces, as well as projects that increase water spaces, e.g. pond creation , by either creating new green spaces or improving spaces by making physical enhancements to create more and better spaces for nature.
The fund will prioritise projects which will benefit communities experiencing inequalities (for
example those experiencing social or economic disadvantage) and lack public access to
green space (for example in areas without a public park nearby or lacking greenery).
The fund has two types of grants available.
- Small grants between £2,000 to £15,000
- Large grants between £15,001 to £40,000
These grants will support a wide range of projects on publicly accessible spaces, making physical improvements to the space by creating new green spaces on brownfield land or unused land or paved public space or streets, or improving existing green spaces for people and nature.
There is an online application process