Lottery fund injects £50 million into Community Spaces programme

Community groups across England are all set to spring clean their neighbourhoods with the launch of a £50 million lottery-funded grants programme today.

The Community Spaces programme will provide grants and support to community groups wanting to make their neighbourhoods cleaner and greener.

Community Spaces will help local people improve and create play areas, community gardens, parks, wildlife areas, ponds, courts and village greens.

Gardening guru Charlie Dimmock, who officially launched the programme at a project in London, said: "This is a fantastic opportunity for people of England to pick up their gardening tools and rejuvenate their local public spaces.

"I hope people will be inspired by the hard work of community groups and the wonderful spaces they can create for their communities."

Community Spaces is being managed by Groundwork UK on behalf of a consortium of environmental organisations and is funded through the Big Lottery Fund.

The programme will make grants of between £10,000 and £49,999 and some limited grants of up to £450,000 to community groups that want to create and improve public spaces in their neighbourhoods.

Tony Hawkhead, Groundwork UK Chief Executive, said: "The launch of the Community Spaces programme has given Groundwork a wonderful opportunity to work with local organisations across the country and make a real and lasting difference to thousands of people from all walks of life.

"One thing we've learned over many years is that local people are best placed to decide how to make their area a better place to live.

"Community Spaces will give people the tools to turn their passion into action, to make those improvements happen and, crucially, to make them last."

A lot of people have good ideas but need a little help to get started so, in addition to funding, Community Spaces is providing a network of trained facilitators to help groups turn ideas into reality.

Facilitators will advise successful groups on a host of issues from biodiversity to budgets to ensure their projects are a real success.

Peter Wanless, Big Lottery Fund Chief Executive, said: "Pleasant, accessible, open spaces can make a vital contribution to the quality of life. The Big Lottery Fund knows from previous successes that sustainable, happy communities are those which feel empowered to preserve the things they value and make positive changes to their surroundings.

"Enabling communities to have a say in designing, planning and running projects tailored to meet their needs is the real strength of 'Community Spaces' and I'm very excited to be supporting Groundwork in encouraging people to get involved."

For further information about Community Spaces and to find out how to apply visit: http://www.community-spaces.org.uk or telephone 0845 3671 671.