Community groups in Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire are being invited to apply for a £10,000 grant to help make their neighbourhoods greener thanks to a partnership between Community Forest Trust and TD Direct Investing.
After the success of the inaugural TD Green Streets grant programme in 2015, the two organisations have again joined forces to support more projects across the regions.
Earlier this year two communities were selected to receive the UK’s first TD Green Streets grants, following its launch in 2014. As a result, 12 new community orchards will be created on Green Spaces within the neighbourhoods managed by Southway Housing Trust and the Cardinal Estate in Beeston in Leeds will benefit from 15 large street trees greening its central areas.
Carl Howard, Commercial Director, TD Direct Investing (Europe), said: “TD Green Streets promotes and invests in innovative projects that use urban forestry to help address community and environmental challenges. We are thrilled to launch the 2016 programme in partnership with Community Forest Trust. This exciting initiative works to help strengthen and sustain our local communities and underscores TD’s global commitment to growing and protecting forests and green spaces.”
“TD Green Streets is all about making places greener and healthier. Whether it’s street trees, orchards, rain gardens, or a programme aimed at helping people look after their local communities, ‘urban forestry’ has the potential to transform neighbourhoods.
“The launch of TD Green Streets in 2015 was a great success. We had lots of fantastic applications from local communities in Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire and are delighted to see the winning projects starting to come to fruition.”
Stephen Falder chair of Community Forest Trust, said: “We are delighted to be announcing the launch of the second round of funding for TD Green Streets in the UK, and also that local communities in Manchester and Leeds are about to see their projects delivered.
“In the coming months we will be working with communities to develop their proposals – while making a difference on the ground in South Manchester and Beeston. With this project we aim to visibly demonstrate what urban forestry can achieve in our towns and cities. There are social, environmental and even economic benefits to projects like this – they can improve how people feel about where they live, foster greater community cohesion and attract visitors and investors to an area.
“By partnering with TD Direct Investing for the second year running we are developing new ways to bring these benefits to local communities in Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire.”
The deadline to submit a proposal is January 8, 2016. The two projects selected to receive funding will be announced in March and will be delivered in partnership with the Community Forest Trust through 2016.
Applicants should visit www.tdgreenstreets.co.uk to submit their ideas for bringing the benefits of urban forestry to their neighbourhood and /or and secure support for their proposal. Alternatively they can contact Hilary Wood on (0161) 872 1660 (email: hilary@redroseforest.co.uk) for more information. Help is available for communities to develop their ideas into an application.
