13 community projects from across Bristol and Bath have been awarded a grant from the first ever ‘Love Your Park Community Fund’ and FrANC is one of them!

As reported in the September FrANC newsletter, applications for funding were invited from local groups who already work to support and promote parks and other green spaces. The overall aim of the Love Your Park Fund is to help local communities recover from the COVID pandemic through projects which focus on enhancing physical and mental well-being, improving access to nature and providing opportunities to socialise and be active. We have been awarded £1000, a wonderful amount which will enable us to set up a community gardening project, based at ‘Butterfly Junction’, to support those who do not regularly benefit from a green space, are socially isolated or without a garden of their own. Some of our grant will be used to purchase tools and other gardening equipment, while the rest will support and sustain the project over the coming months.

Our application to the Blooming Bedminster Secret Gardens fund was also successful, adding a further £200 towards our community gardening project!

We now need volunteer gardeners to help with our project. Please join us on Saturday 6 November, 11.00 at Butterfly Junction for an initial planning meeting. Our project is being co-ordinated by FrANC member Guy Malkerson who will be there to explain how things will operate and to enlist some volunteers. If the weather is kind, we might make a start, so please wear your gardening clothes and bring secateurs, loppers etc.

All this represents really good news for FrANC as our community gardening project will provide an important focus for our efforts over the coming 12 months – and beyond we hope.