Big Lottery: Big breathes £5m of lottery life into local green spaces
Grassroots organisations across the UK can muck in and transform their local spaces as the Big Lottery Fund today (12 November) announces a new phase in the hugely successful Breathing Places grant programme.
Wellies and spades are at the ready as BIG join forces with the BBC to make £5 million worth of green grants available for the BBC-led Breathing Places campaign. The grant scheme is all about local people creating local spaces for themselves and for wildlife. From back gardens to city parks, wasteland to woodland, communities are changing the places where they live and getting closer to nature.
Tonight on BBC2, the hugely popular Autumnwatch announces this Big Lottery funding – encouraging people right across the country to go for these easy access funds and get involved with wildlife in whatever way they choose.
Kate Humble, BBC Autumnwatch presenter said: “Plant a tree, make homes for birds, bats or bugs.this amazing new funding from the Big Lottery is now up for grabs, and there is so much we can all do. Your local patch, playground, park or allotments could become a nature reserve for the wildlife in your area with help from the Big Lottery Fund, so apply today!”
Green-fingered transformations have flourished throughout the UK following the previous Breathing Places funding with a whopping £5 million dispensed to 656 groups allowing them to cultivate a diverse range of environmental projects. This third round is set to be more popular than ever with the next batch of Lottery grants destined to create a whole new raft of breathing places
Sir Clive Booth, Chair of the Big Lottery Fund said: ”This initiative has captured people’s attention the width and breadth of the UK, and its popularity is set to rise as the impact of Lottery funding is being felt across so many communities. Breathing Places are relatively small-scale projects led by local groups – many being helped by the Lottery for the first time.
‘Grassroots groups across the UK can now look forward to focusing community efforts on making a real difference to their local area.”
A great example of Breathing Places cash making a positive impact on communities is the project managed by Cowley St John Parochial Church Council in Oxford. The group received £8,730 this year to transform a previously derelict churchyard into a varied wildlife habitat.
Native trees and plants are being sown, bird feeding and bathing stations are sprouting up and a butterfly garden is forming. Paths are being constructed to increase access and community training in wildlife conservation and habitat monitoring is being offered.
Ruth Conway, Cowley St John spokesperson, said: ”The churchyard, once a no-go area, is now managed for wildlife, and is a welcoming quiet green space in a bustling urban area. With the Breathing Places grant, a derelict corner has been reconstructed, largely by voluntary effort, into an area to be particularly attractive to butterflies and moths. The autumn planting is currently underway and we could never have achieved this transformation without the grant.”
In West Yorkshire Wakefield Hospice received £9,000 to develop and maintain woodland gardens in the hospice grounds. To encourage wildlife, nesting boxes have been added and a sensory garden is being sown.
Karen Crawshaw, Director of Patient Services said: ”the grant has allowed us to develop an area into a wildlife garden that provides a peaceful space for patients and their families. The patients find solace in the gardens and we’re encouraging bio-diversity to make the area even more appealing.
”Being a charity, the grant has been a huge bonus. Without it we wouldn’t have been able to undertake this project. The gardens provide a haven for people who are dealing with bereavement and patients and their families are benefiting immensely from them.”
Grass roots groups across the UK are now looking forward to focusing community efforts on making a real difference to their local area.
More information about Breathing Places can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces and a full list of grants awarded through this programme is available at: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk.
Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030
Textphone: 0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available at: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Notes to Editors
- The Big Lottery Fund rolls out close to £2 million in Lottery good cause money every 24 hours, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across the UK most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project.
- The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. It was established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
- Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to Good Causes. As a result, over £20 billion has now been raised and more than 280,000 grants given out across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
- BBC Breathing Places is a four-year campaign to inspire people to connect with nature. Developed in partnership with a huge range of wildlife and conservation organisations, the campaign encourages new audiences to get involved in doing one thing for nature, while providing opportunities for BBC Breathing Places to be created across the UK.
- A Breathing Place is great for both wildlife and people. It has an active community of people creating, enjoying and maintaining it.
- Breathing Places Cities?- Launched this year, 15 cities across the UK are becoming more wildlife friendly. In a Year of Action, thousands of people are promising to ‘Do one thing for nature’ – from putting up a bird box to joining a conservation group.
For full details and information about each individual venue check the web site www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces
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