Grants for community greenspaces available

The Tesco Local Community Scheme for community greenspace projects is now open for applications until 11 December 2015.

The money raised from the 5p bag charge in Tesco stores will be used to pay for a large number of local projects to improve greenspaces in communities across Scotland, England and Wales. The grant scheme is administered by Groundwork, working with greenspace scotland to deliver the programme in Scotland.

Projects that will get the green light as a result of the funding will include building new pocket parks, sports facilities, woodland walks and community gardens. Applications are welcomed from housing associations and tenants associations.

greenspace scotland have already had lots of great applications from across the UK, but they also know some valuable projects have not been put forward for funding because of the tight timescale and some of the eligibility criteria. Based on feedback they have agreed with Tesco to extend the deadline for applications so even more community groups can apply.

There are also a few areas where they are really keen to encourage more applications, particularly Highland, Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Argyll & Bute, Angus and Orkney.

greenspace scotland have also listened to feedback from local communities who have asked them to extend the eligibility criteria.

The main changes are as follows:

• Open access - projects still need to benefit the community and be free to access (i.e. not subject to an entry fee) but we can now include sites that do have access restrictions such as: projects on school grounds; community spaces which are for the specific use of housing estate residents or community centres, including gated areas and backgreens; spaces in the grounds of ‘closed community venues’ such as hospices and day centres; and allotments (although works to individual plots cannot be funded)
• Project completion – instead of the project having to be delivered within six months of funding being received, this has now been extended to 12 months
• Landowner permission – you still need to demonstrate that you have (or can get) the permission of the landowner to undertake the project but we don’t need to have a signed form at this stage

There will be two funding rounds per year over the next three years offering grants of between £8,000 and £12,000 to successful projects. Six projects will receive funding in each of the 48 Scottish store regions annually.

The first application round now closes at 12 noon on Friday 11 December 2015.

Visit the Tesco grants website for more information.