Whats Going On

Charlie Dimmock and top urban chef Oliver Rowe are helping gear up the nation’s green credentials today. They have teamed up with the BIG Lottery Fund to push out a record-breaking £100 million good cause investment in local food and environment revamp.

The money is being rolled out by the Big Lottery Fund through two England-wide schemes being run by Groundwork UK and the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT). Funding will enable communities to grow and use local food and to regenerate local parks and open spaces.

The two organisations are each being backed with £50 million from the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces programme. This aims to help communities enjoy, improve and benefit from their local environments.

Urban chef Oliver Rowe, known for sourcing his restaurant produce locally, is endorsing the six-year Local Food project, which will be managed by RSWT. Oliver said: “There is an abundance of great local food in London and the more we get behind our local growing communities across the country with initiatives like this one, the better it will be”

The scheme will help people manage land to grow food, develop understanding of sustainable farming methods and encourage community enterprises like farmers’ markets to stimulate local economic activity.

Stephanie Hilborne, Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, said: “How many of us realise that the ingredients in a pot of strawberry yoghurt can travel nearly 5,000 miles? Food is responsible for a fifth of the UK’s carbon emissions. Local Food will engage communities in a wide variety of initiatives that will help to address this but also a whole host of other environmental, social and health issues.”

Groundwork UK will get £50 million to improve community spaces across England. The lottery funding will help groups create or regenerate local spaces to improve the quality of life in their neighbourhoods. Project targets include play areas, community gardens, parks, wildlife areas, ponds, courts and village greens, and pathway improvements.

Charlie Dimmock, who is backing Groundwork’s scheme, said: ''This will be a great call for communities across England to pick up their gardening tools and improve their local areas. It will give people the opportunity to take ownership of their public spaces and transform those areas to help improve the quality of life for many.''

Groundwork UK will provide a network of trained facilitators to help successful applicants turn their ideas into reality by advising on consultation, design, biodiversity and other specialist issues.

Groundwork UK Chief Executive Tony Hawkhead said: "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.

The scheme will make a real difference to the quality of life in thousands of communities across the country. It builds on the experience and hard work of a number of environmental organisations and their skills and knowledge will be v