Government Launches £1.5m Pocket Parks Funding Programme
The Department of Communities and Local Government is currently accepting applications from local community groups in deprived urban areas of England (excluding London) to create pocket parks that will benefit the public.
The Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is offering the one-off £1.5 million funding programme with the aim of delivering up to 100 pocket parks across the country in the first part of 2016. The programme will build on the success of a similar scheme in London, which has seen a number of pocket parks created across the capital.
A pocket park, as defined for this programme, is a piece of land of up to 0.4 hectares (although many are around 0.02 hectares, the size of a tennis court) which may already be under grass but which is unused, undeveloped or derelict.
The funding will support communities to develop new green spaces (or improve existing ones that are in poor condition) that provide people with better quality spaces; increasing opportunities for getting together, healthy living, relaxation, play, food growing and contact with nature.
The idea behind the funding is to help put communities and their partners in a position to take on the management of green spaces of value to them, and to contribute resource towards turning around spaces so that they are in good condition and communities can focus on managing them for the future.
Grants of between £10,000 and £15,000 per project (up to £10,000 capital and up to £5,000 revenue) are available to create a pocket park in an urban area of deprivation in England. It can be a new site or an existing site, and all or part of a site, and it needs to be accessible and available for the community who wish to use it and ideally openly accessible to all.
Proposals could include, for example, creating wildlife habitats, transforming run-down gardens or creating green oases in bustling neighbourhoods.
Constituted community groups such as a friends group, a tenants group, community gardeners association, coastal community teams, voluntary and community organisations or Business Improvement Districts can apply.
To be eligible, applicants must:
- Be constituted.
- Be working within a deprived urban area where the access to green space is poor or can be shown to be needed.
- Have or be able to secure match funding. This can be from a number of different sources.
- Provide a letter or email from their local authority partner confirming willingness to hold a grant.
- Be able to spend the grant by 31 March 2016.
There is particular interest in applications from urban areas where there are significantly deprived wards according to the Indices of Multiple Deprivation rankings (2015).
Grants will be paid to the appropriate principal local authority that is supporting the application.
The deadline for applications is 10 December 2015 (5pm).
Full details can be found on the GOV.UK website