Green light for 3rd Phase of Mayor Steve Rotheram's Community Environment Fund

LIVERPOOL City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram has announced a third year of funding for his Community Environment Fund. Green projects from across the Liverpool City Region can now apply for funds of up to £30,000 for initiatives that encourage long term behavioural change, while improving the City Region's environment and safeguarding its green spaces.

The fund has already supported 92 local environmental projects including community gardens, bikes for veterans, beekeeping and food growing initiatives.

Steve Rotheram Mayor of the Liverpool City Region said:- "Since I launched the Community Environment Fund, I've been continually blown away by the ingenuity and imagination of our residents. They have proven that, taken together, lots of small actions from ordinary people working together with a common purpose can make a massive difference. We are helping to deliver real, positive change to local people's lives and to the future of our planet. Now we want to hear from more groups who genuinely believe their ideas can improve their local environment and community for the better; I cannot wait to see what this next year holds in store."

This year, the Combined Authority is working with community fundraising platform Spacehive, to give projects the opportunity to crowdfund for their transformative initiatives.

The crowdfunding nature means that with support from Spacehive, individuals, businesses, and organisations can also pledge funds towards the projects in addition to the Community Environment Fund, allowing further engagement with the local communities that will benefit from the schemes.

So far, the Community Environment Fund has seen more than 750 people across the City Region volunteer time to deliver projects creating 15,000 m2 of new habitat, planting 30,000 plants and trees and producing over 8,000 kg of sustainable food.

This year's £350,000 fund will continue empowering local people to make positive environmental change, and individuals and groups with ideas for prospective projects are now invited to get in touch at:- Spacehive.Com.

Councillor David Baines, Portfolio Holder for Net-Zero and Air Quality at the Combined Authority said:- "I'm looking forward to seeing what innovative projects our communities will come up with to help create a cleaner, greener Liverpool City Region for the future. Every Community Environment Fund project we have supported so far has addressed at least one of the nine themes of our Climate Action Plan. They are helping us move towards becoming net zero by 2040, reducing air pollution and improve the health and wellbeing of people across the whole City Region, so we can't stop now."

Misha Dhanak, CEO of Spacehive, said:- "We're proud to partner with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to launch this innovative fund and look forward to seeing the transformative ideas that residents come up with to drive positive change. Local people are expertly placed to foster greener, more resilient communities, and we're excited to help make their ideas a reality."

The fund has been supported by the Liverpool City Region Climate Partnership which was set up to provide expert advice on tackling the climate emergency.

Gideon Ben-Tovim, Chair of the Liverpool City Region Climate Partnership and of Nature Connected, said:- "Over the last couple of years, we've seen some strong community-based environmental projects come to fruition thanks to the Community Environment Fund. Some of them may be small, but they all make a difference. Many have been from people already serving their communities. I'm delighted the fund is back and again and this year, hopefully it will be easier to encourage others to be involved in making the projects a success."

An event with more information is expected to take place in May, but interested parties can get in touch now to register their interest in the initiative and find out more about what's available and their next steps here.

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