Portsmouth City Council to dish out grants to green projects

The council allocated £100,000 in its budget to support initiatives, including tree and meadow planting, and has been awarding grants on an ad hoc basis, but said rising demand meant the new system was needed.

Kimberly Barrett, its cabinet member for environment, said she hoped the new system would make it ‘easier and fairer’ for groups to seek financial support.

'We have had a lot of interest from schools, community groups and council teams who want to do a greening project in their area and it can be hard to find funding for these,' she said.

'This fund will help them access funding from as little as £200 up to £5,000 which will encourage these sorts of schemes across the city.'

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The council is expected to make £15,000 available for the first two rounds of funding, the first of which will start in the coming weeks. This will be followed by the second round in the spring.

A report published ahead of Cllr Barrett's decision-making meeting on Thursday says demand through the fund could then be used to arrange future rounds of funding.

'Given that the capital fund is limited and the number of proposed greening initiatives is growing, it is no longer appropriate to consider funding applications on an ad hoc basis,' it says. 'A robust framework has been developed to allow all funding bids to be considered.'

The report adds that council funding has seen almost 8,000 trees planted and three wildflower meadows created on its land over the last 18 months. Efforts have been focused largely on encouraging schools and community groups to bring forward ideas.

All applications submitted through the fund will be judged based on the priorities of the council outlined in its greening strategy.

The report adds: 'This will afford both the city council and applicants a transparent and consistent process in terms of how grants are awarded, while providing a clear framework for how each project application meets the strategic objectives for city-wide greening.'