Mayor invests £3.8m to support green space and tree planting projects

Funding to boost public green spaces and plant more trees in London is being made available by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan to future-proof the capital against the climate crisis as the COP15 summit is putting biodiversity firmly in the global spotlight this week.

The second round of the Green and Resilient Spaces Fund is now open for applications from councils and other organisations, with £3m available for projects to create or improve green spaces and an additional £800,000 for large scale tree planting to boost London’s climate resilience.

The fund will prioritise projects in areas of the capital that are particularly vulnerable to climate change, areas with low tree canopy cover, or areas where Londoners live more than a 10-minute walk away from green space. The tree planting grants will focus on creating publicly accessible, species-rich woodland and planting large trees to provide shade, cool London’s streets, combat heatwaves and tackle flooding.

The extreme temperatures and devastating fires that destroyed homes and businesses across the city during the summer laid bare just how vulnerable London is to the consequences of climate change. The flash floods of summer 2021, which also caused damage and disruption to homes, schools and the transport network showed that no city can escape the effects of man-made global warming.

Increasing green spaces and the number of trees in London will help to protect and future-proof the capital, cooling the city and providing shade to Londoners, and will also make London more resilient to flooding.

Access to green space and nature is not just an environmental issue, but a matter of health inequality and social justice, and Sadiq is determined that all Londoners live within a 10-minute walk of green space.

The first round of the Green and Resilient Spaces Fund confirmed this year is supporting six projects which will be completed by March 2024, which together are expected to plant over 2,000 new trees and improve over 57 hectares of green space.

The Green and Resilient Spaces fund is just one of the many ways the Mayor is supporting improvement of green and blue spaces. Since 2016 the Mayor has invested over £26m in greening the city in all 32 boroughs and the City of London, including £4m through Grow Back Greener grants to over 130 community green space projects.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: “The climate emergency and loss of our biodiversity are two of the biggest global threats we face. In the past few years, we’ve seen some of the devastating effects of climate change, with flash flooding and extreme temperatures destroying homes, schools, and businesses.

Cllr Nesil Caliskan, Enfield Council’s cabinet member for Environment, and previous grant recipient said: “With the help of a generous grant from the Mayor, Albany Park has been completely transformed with the river opened up and meandering through the park, creating a beautiful wetland landscape that brings people in contact with nature whilst protecting hundreds of homes from flooding”

Round one of the Green and Resilient Spaces Fund supported six projects which will be completed in March 2024. An additional 13 projects were awarded development funding of £40k each to create a pipeline of fundable projects.

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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