Almost 20 different projects around the region have won funding from the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Green Spaces Fund.Almost 20 different projects around the region have won funding from the Greater Manchester Mayor's Green Spaces Fund. Almost 20 different projects around the region have won funding from the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Green Spaces Fund. (Image: PA)

Almost 20 projects to create new ‘mood-boosting’ green spaces around Greater Manchester will get part of a £500k fund from the Mayor of Greater Manchester.

The half-a-million Green Spaces Fund is aimed at community-led schemes to create more vibrant green amenities to local neighbourhoods. In the sixth round of the funding, 19 new projects have been selected across the region.

These include a ‘fly-tipping prone’ car park in Stockport being turned into a ‘food park’, a brand new ‘street park’ in Wigan, and an ‘underused’ garden at a hospital in Rochdale that will be transformed into a community space. Other projects include a ‘Garden of Hope’ in Manchester, where refugees and residents can learn to grow plants, and an ‘edible, educational landscape’ next to a Chadwick Dam in Tameside.

Andy Burnham at Northern Roots, one of the recipients of the sixth Greater Manchester Mayor's Green Spaces fund. Andy Burnham at Northern Roots, one of the recipients of the sixth Greater Manchester Mayor’s Green Spaces fund. (Image: Northern Roots)

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said: “I’m really proud to announce the latest round of Green Spaces Fund winners, building on the strong momentum we’re seeing right across Greater Manchester.

“These projects are helping us respond to the climate and nature emergencies, while creating welcoming spaces that bring people together and support healthier, happier lives.”

The most recent round of funding was partly supported by Together Money and Autotrader, according to Daveen Wallis, co-founder of the Greater Manchester Environment Trust.

Mr Wallis added: “The Green Spaces Fund is helping communities across the city region reconnect with nature, and it’s been great to see so many brilliant ideas come through this year.”

Chadwick Dam in Stalybridge. Chadwick Dam in Stalybridge. (Image: STEVE ALLEN)

Access to green spaces is linked to improvements in mental health and community cohesion, some of the reasons the fund was first created in 2022. It’s since funded £3.5m worth of green spaces.

The full list of winners of the project are as follows:

Rochdale

  • Gather and Grow, a community growing tunnel and seating area created by the Pennine Care Charity (£32,600)
  • Wild and Free 4 All, a wildflower meadow and beekeeping haven by Status 4 All (£19,540)

Oldham

  • Let’s Gather at the Farm, an expansion of the Northern Roots urban farm in Alexandra Park (£31,168)
  • Little Green Spaces Coldhurst, turning neglected alleyways into communal gardens, by My Coldhurst (£32,780)

Salford

  • Roots Outdoor Community Centre, creating three new outdoor spaces at Broughton Trust’s Heath Avenue, including a growing skills centre and a sensory garden, Take Action Together CIC (£40,000)
  • Growing for Good, a shared growing space at the Grapevine Community Garden, Wharton and Cleggs Lane Church & Community Centre (£40,000)

Wigan

  • Diggle Street Park, a community orchard, new flower beds, and a wildflower border on Diggle Street in Wigan, The Community Patch (£14,386)

Tameside

  • Chadwick Dam cooking forest project, turning the area next to the dam in Tameside into a ‘edible, educational landscape’, Silversprings Primary Academy (£37,882)

Stockport

  • Cascade Garden, transforming the ‘tired, unused space’ around Stopford House into an exciting new garden. Easy Peel Studio CIC (£10,600)
  • From Car Park To Food Park, turning a ‘fly-tipping prone’ 12-space car park in Edgeley into a ‘playful’ food park, by Actions Common CIC (£36,267)
  • All aboard for Brinnington, bringing colour to a ‘run down’ spot in Brinnington with murals, benches and blooms, part of the Marple Youth Project (£14,500)

Trafford

  • Greening the Broomwood, a looped access trail connected by QR codes on themed carved wooden totems around Broomwood, by Timperley Civic Society (£40,000)
  • Make Gorse Hill Greener, a project to redesign the three parks: Gorse Hill, Marje Kelly and Nansen, by Friends of Marje Kelly Park (£39,666)

Manchester

  • Blanchard Gardens, aiming to turn a triangle of land ‘currently used for illegal parking’ into a pocket garden with raised beds, benches, and a mini library, by Sustainable Communities Hulme (£20,584)
  • Parsonage Pocket Park, Withington, a new community pocket park from what is currently a dead-end road, by Withington Village Regeneration Partnership (£40,000)
  • South Street Community Garden, a new community garden with volunteer gardening clubs, wellbeing programmes, and educational workshops, by St Barnabas Parent, Teacher and Community Association (£14,250)
  • MaCO Garden of Hope, a ‘safe, therapeutic space’ where refugees and local residents can grow fresh produce, learn gardening skills, by the Manchester Congolese Organisation (£29,598)
  • Biodiversity for Wellbeing in Rodney Fields, a project to make the local park more inviting by removing brambles and planting trees, by Friends of Rodney Fields (£15,000)
  • Inspire Community Garden and Nature Hub, a community garden featuring native plants, fruit, and herbs for Levenshulme’s community kitchen, by the Levenshulme Inspire foundation (£8,185)