Policy paper

Levelling Up Parks Fund: Prospectus

Published 1 August 2022

Applies to England

Ministerial foreword

Parks and urban green spaces have been the lifeblood of our cities, towns, and villages for centuries, providing sanctuary from urban life and spaces for communities to come together. The past few years have only reiterated the importance of being able to access the outdoors and be in green space to look after our mental and physical wellbeing. For many, urban green spaces are the main connection to our natural world, but they also provide an important community identity.

Parks have an important social function to bring people together and to act as a focus for community life. Well-designed public spaces support a variety of activities and encourage social interaction, to promote health, well-being, social and civic inclusion. They are intrinsic to creating pride in our places, reflecting the unique culture and heritage of the communities they serve.

From parklets to community green spaces, to formal gardens and to town parks – there are opportunities for green space found everywhere throughout our urban centres. We know though that those opportunities are not spread equally.

As part of this government’s mission to level up people’s pride in the places they love, the £9 million Levelling Up Parks Fund will improve both the equality of access and quality of green space in over 100 neighbourhoods across the UK.

This Fund is designed differently. Instead of holding a competitive bidding process, where places need to invest time, resources and energy into speculative applications, this Fund gives grants to the places that we have identified as most in need of quality green space.

The UK government is committed to joint working with the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to consider how we can best use the funding available to them to support green spaces in the different nations.

Parks are as different as the communities they serve. I look forward to seeing the many different projects that appear across the UK, representing and reflecting the incredible places and people, across counties and urban centres.

The Rt Hon Greg Clark MP
Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Funding in England

Levelling Up Parks Fund - Summary

Purpose: Create new or significantly refurbished green spaces in urban areas that need it most

Type of fund: Allocative

Eligibility: Pre-selected local authorities

Funding available: Up to £85,000 for each place

Goals: To increase:

• access to quality green space in deprived urban areas
• tree-planting in urban areas
• pride in our local places

Key dates to note:

• From 1 August 2022 - opt in opens
• 5 September 2022- opt in deadline
• From 3 October 2022 - project proposals confirmed, funding sent

Who has been determined as eligible for funding

• Local authority areas which rate highly on the Index of Multiple Deprivation and have limited access to green space
• Those eligible are pre-approved for funding and only need to opt in
• Should any opt out, the next eligible council will be invited to apply

We are making £9 million available in equal grants for the creation or significant refurbishment of green spaces in urban areas that need it most across the UK.

In England, this will go to local authorities in areas with the least access to green space which rate highly on the Index of Multiple Deprivation. You can see eligible places and how we calculated them below.

We are offering these grants to areas that need them and are not asking councils to follow a competitive bidding process. This matches the commitments made in the Levelling Up White Paper.

If a council opts out, the next eligible place ranked using the methodology will be offered a grant. This will ensure that all the money reaches areas where it is most needed and will have the biggest likely impact.

If you are not eligible for this Fund and are still looking for ideas to kickstart an urban green space project, you can find examples in the ‘green space success stories’ section.

Eligible councils in England

The following councils will receive confirmation that they are eligible for funding:

Barking and Dagenham
Barnsley
Barrow-in-Furness
Basildon
Bassetlaw
Bexley
Birmingham
Blackburn with Darwen
Blackpool
Bolton
Bradford
Brent
Calderdale
Camden
Carlisle
Castle Point
County Durham
Croydon
Derby
Doncaster
Dudley
East Lindsey
East Staffordshire
Eastbourne
Enfield
Fenland
Gateshead
Great Yarmouth
Greenwich
Hackney
Halton
Hammersmith and Fulham
Haringey
Hartlepool
Hastings
Havant
Hyndburn
Ipswich
Islington
Kensington and Chelsea
Kingston upon Hull, City of
Knowsley
Lambeth
Leeds
Leicester
Lincoln
Liverpool
Luton
Manchester
Medway
Middlesbrough
North East Lincolnshire
Northumberland
Norwich
Nottingham
Oldham
Pendle
Peterborough
Portsmouth
Preston
Reading
Redcar and Cleveland
Redditch
Rochdale
Rother
Salford
Sandwell
Sefton
Sheffield
South Tyneside
Southampton
Southend-on-Sea
Stockton-on-Tees
Sunderland
Swale
Tameside
Tendring
Tower Hamlets
Walsall
Waltham Forest
West Lindsey
Westminster
Wigan
Wirral
Wolverhampton

How we calculated eligibility in England

Places eligible for this Fund have been determined using evidence from Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Mapping Tool, which combines Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) and access to green space data.

Neighbourhoods within any given local authority can vary in the extent to which they are disadvantaged. We will support your decision-making on the location of your new or refurbished urban green space by providing neighbourhood-level data on IMD and green cover when we send you confirmation of your eligibility for this Fund.

This map shows the 85 local authorities in England that are eligible for this Fund and listed above. The list of councils and detailed explanation of our methodology is below.

Detailed methodology

For the purposes of this Fund, we have classed Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) as ‘L1s’, if they satisfy 2 criteria:

i) Are in the top 2 deciles of the 2019 Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD)

ii) Less than 5% of the total LSOA area is covered by, or within 200m of, an accessible green space of at least 0.5Ha. This includes public or country parks, local nature reserves and playing fields, and access land.

We used Natural England’s 2021 analysis of Green Infrastructure to check for these criteria.

The local authorities with the most ‘L1s’ as a proportion of their total number of LSOAs are being offered the first opportunity to opt in to receive a share of the Fund.

We encourage local authorities to create their new green spaces in urban ‘L1’ neighbourhoods, as doing so will help achieve the levelling up goals and the urban scope of this Fund. We have categorised ‘L1’ LSOAs in the following order of preference:

1. urban ‘L1s’ which are also one of the 300 most deprived LSOAs in England

2. urban ‘L1s’ with less than 5% ‘green cover’

3. urban ‘L1s’ with more than 5% ‘green cover’

We have undertaken this analysis to support councils’ decision-making and help them to prioritise investment to meet the Fund’s aims. While we would prefer the parks to be sited within these neighbourhoods, we recognise that there is no substitution for local knowledge. Local authorities will receive a list and map of the ‘L1’ LSOAs in their letter confirming their eligibility.

Funding available

Eligible councils that opt in will receive an equal grant of £85,000 consisting of:

1. Up to £47,500 capital for creation or improvement of the park

2. Up to £18,500 revenue for project prep, creation and maintenance

3. Up to £19,000 ‘tree uplift’ for tree planting and related costs

Eligible councils will also receive an initial site assessment by Green Flag Awards, which the department has paid for to the value of £450.

Creation or improvement of the park

This includes hard landscaping, e.g. boundaries, paving, paths, metal fencing to children’s play area, natural play spaces, artwork, signs, benches, lighting, fencing and gates sculpture, and soft landscaping e.g. bulb planting, trees, shrubs, wildflowers, turfing, seeding, wildlife features such as bird and bat boxes.

Project preparation, creation and maintenance

This can be used for consultants or landscape architects, site surveys, training or events to celebrate the opening and ongoing maintenance. You will also receive an initial assessment of the project by Green Flag Awards.

‘Tree uplift’

There is no separate application process for the ‘tree uplift’ funding, which is provided by Defra. This can be used to cover the cost of preparation, purchase, planting, or related cost of trees in any of the urban green spaces within scope of this project. You will just be asked to explain how you plan to spend the trees uplift funding in your project proposal.

We hope that participating in this Fund will encourage further tree planting in the future.

Further information on the schemes available can be found by following the links below:

• Urban Tree Challenge Fund (England)
• Local Authority Treescapes Fund (England)
• England Woodland Creation Offer (England)

These schemes cannot be used to fund trees sourced through the Levelling Up Parks Fund. Future applications may not be eligible for the same area of land.

If in doubt, contact the awarding body before making an application.

Next steps for eligible councils in England

Eligible local authorities will need to:

• Complete the opt-in form by 5 September 2022 to receive funding using a link sent by email directly to you
• Submit a project proposal by 3 October 2022
• Keep in touch regarding your project’s progress

As eligible councils are already pre-approved for funding, you only need to confirm your interest, and to acknowledge that a portion of it must go towards planting trees.

During the opt in process, we will ask:

• Whether you have a site and project in mind
• If you have an idea of the community groups you will work with during your project

These questions are to understand how we can support your project. They do not have any impact on whether you receive a grant.

We will then ask for a full project proposal by 3 October. Again, this is not assessed but we will ask for more detail regarding your plans for your park. When we have received this, we will agree a ‘memorandum of understanding’(MOU) with you. This includes that, before your project starts, local authorities are asked to undertake a pre-site assessment carried out by the Green Flag Awards.

Timeline

Here are the key dates your projects will follow.

1 August

Eligible local authorities contacted and asked to complete opt-in form.

5 September

Opt-in form completion deadline.

If opted in, councils asked to prepare a project proposal and invited to organise pre-project site assessment with Green Flag Awards.

By 9 September

Any councils now eligible through others not opting in notified.

September

Workshop series with stakeholders. Details to follow.

3 October

Project proposal deadline. Soon after DLUHC will agree a memorandum of understanding with each council, based on proposal content. Letters of determination and grants sent when these are agreed.

By 30 October

Pre-project site assessments undertaken by Green Flag Awards.

30 January, 30 March 2023

Indicative deadlines for check ins every 3 months, based on individual project start dates.

October 2023 – March 2024

Indicative timeline for participation in programme evaluation activities, including site visits and community surveys.

What we expect from you

• Create a new, or significantly refurbished, park that is free to access for the community
• Plant and maintain trees in your green space
• Work towards Green Flag Award status upon completion
• Consult and engage with your community during project design and delivery whenever possible.
• Participate in monitoring work and collaborate with us to co-design evaluation activities that will help us measure the social value and pride in place outcomes in your local area.

Communities are the fabric of UK society as we know it and the government has acknowledged the importance of communities in relation to levelling up. As each community has its own needs and requirements from their green space, we would strongly encourage you to engage with your communities whenever you can, to create a park that will have a meaningful and long-lasting impact.

As parks are as varied as the communities they serve, we have a wide view of what a park can look like and consider all urban green spaces to potentially fall within the definition of a park.

We are not prescribing what a project should look like. These spaces can help meet several local policy priorities, from helping regenerate town centres to nature conservation.

For example, spaces can be transformed into:

• community growing plots
• nature trails
• tiny forests
• natural play spaces

We also encourage you to think creatively about where your new or significantly refurbished park could be, including:

• the centre of retail complexes
• land outside GP surgeries or schools
• sites along waterways and rivers

Sites can be on local authority or privately-owned land, such as that owned by faith organisations. There is no limitation on the size of a park.

Our requirements are that your park can be accessed by the public for most of the time, free of charge and includes tree cover.

Local authorities and communities are best placed to identify what an urban green space could achieve in your area, and this Fund is designed to capitalise on that knowledge.

What good parks include

When you are designing your park, here are some things you should think about:

Types of space and activity

Attractive open spaces which are easy to access, with activities for all to enjoy, can encourage physical activity.

Nature

Prioritising nature so that diverse ecosystems can flourish to ensure a healthy, natural environment that supports and enhances biodiversity.

Plan for trees and other planting within public spaces for people to enjoy, while also providing shade, and air quality and climate change mitigation.

Materials

Using materials that are fit for purpose and adaptable over time, reducing the need for unnecessary waste and minimising their environmental impact.

Placemaking

Well-designed spaces integrate well with, and are shaped by, an understanding of the local context that identifies opportunities for design as well as constraints upon it.

Accessibility

Encouraging social interaction so that spaces are open and accessible to all local communities.

Identifying local needs and demands that well-located new facilities may satisfy.

Safety

Careful planning and design create the right conditions for people to feel safe and secure, without the need for additional security measures.

Maintenance and lifespan

Spaces that are robust, easy to use and look after, enable users to establish a sense of ownership and belonging. They are designed so management and maintenance responsibilities are clearly defined.

Tree planting

The ‘tree uplift’ part of funding can be used to plant any type of tree, of any size. Some spaces will be suited to small trees and whips, while larger trees will be more appropriate in others.

For example, if the area has high footfall and there is a pronounced risk that damage will be caused to the whips, standard (large) trees may be a better option.

Care should also be given to the choice of tree species. Different species are suited to different environments, climates and soils.

What you can expect from us

• Project assessment by Green Flag Awards before you start
• Workshops covering each aspect of park design and delivery

We have designed a support package if you need help with your grant. This breaks down into 3 different areas.

Pre-project assessment by Green Flag Awards

We will pay for a pre-project assessment by specially trained Green Flag Awards judges.

Judges will visit your proposed site and give advice and ideas for potential improvements based on the Green Flag Awards criteria. This will also help us evaluate the scheme and provide a baseline of all projects before work starts.

These assessments will take place anytime between 1 August and 30 October 2022 Keep Britain Tidy, who manage the Green Flag Awards, will contact you directly to arrange a convenient time.

We also encourage you to seek Green Flag Award, or Green Flag Community Award status, at the end of your project. This can be used to showcase your success and that of the Fund.

Workshops

Thematic workshops will feature specialist stakeholders as keynote speakers.

These sessions will be free for you to attend and the presentations will be recorded to be made publicly available. They will address the core elements of park management, including:

• park design
• community engagement
• tree planting
• and ongoing protection of sites

We will send you more details on these workshops once you have opted in for funding.

Tree planting support

It is important that tree planting is properly planned and designed. It needs to be suitable for your location, and the right trees need to be planted in the right place.

Trees will need regular maintenance to make sure they survive, especially when they are newly established in the first few years. Please bear this in mind and ensure that you have factored maintenance costs into your annual budgets beyond this Fund.

The Urban Tree Manual sets out the basic principles that should be considered when developing a planting plan, including how to select and plant trees. You should consider the existing species of your project location before applying this.

There are also many third sector and community groups with experience of tree planting who may be able to support.

Tree Council will be running a specific workshop on tree planting as part of the workshop series, at which we can answer questions and provide further support.

How we will measure successful projects

We want to measure the use and value that your park provides to local people. We also want to evaluate whether your project meets the Fund’s aims, and whether the Fund has delivered the best value for taxpayers’ money. Part of this is to understand how factors like the scale of investment, size of space, and park features vary across the UK, and how that affects the success of projects. We would like to work with you on a combination of evaluation activities to:

(i) Complete an evaluation on your project and understand what impact it has had at a local level.

(ii) Evaluate the funding process, to draw on your experiences at the local level to inform future national policies on urban green space and beyond. The evaluation activities we would like your participation in include:

Check-ins every 3 months

This will be a very short monitoring survey help us make sure the money is being spent effectively, but also help us spot any problems you might face early on. We will then be able to offer more support if you need it.

An evaluation form when your project is complete

This will ask for details about your new or refurbished park, including how many trees were planted and how many have survived, and for feedback on your experience of claiming funding.

We will also find out how many sites have achieved Green Flag Award status, which will show whether the Fund has helped increase accessible green space across the UK.

Visits to randomly selected sites

To gather a richer understanding, we will work with around ten recipient local authorities to visit your developments. We will ask about what you thought was successful about the Fund, and what, if anything, stopped it from being more successful.

This will help us understand what lessons and insight can be disseminated to benefit other local authorities and green infrastructure projects, and to inform future government policies around levelling up and pride in place.

Community surveys

We would like to work with you to develop a survey for you to conduct with your local authority’s residents and park users. By understanding the value people place on social infrastructure, in this case urban green space, we will jointly be adding to the evidence base around how government investment can deliver the best outcomes for people. This survey will also help us assess whether the Fund increased communities’ satisfaction and engagement in the local areas.

We will provide more details on the type of data and evidence we would like to collect through these 4 evaluation elements at the MoU stage, to ensure you have foresight. We intend to align these outputs with wider levelling up and pride in place evaluation work taking place at the national and local levels.

By taking part in our evaluations, you will help us to understand the impact of this Fund. Your feedback will give us evidence to improve policy which champions valuable local knowledge and its impact on urban green space projects.

Funding in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

While the UK government has made this investment available, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England are different places, each with their own rich cultural identity and even climates. Every nation has a unique environment, character and heritage which we want to celebrate with this Fund and reflect that local variation.

The UK government is committed to joint working with the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to consider how we can best use the funding available to them to support green spaces in the different nations.

Fund and policy background

The importance of green space

Green spaces are fundamental to our communities. They provide places for people from across the community to come together and be outside. Each of the 62,000 parks and urban green spaces across the UK is as unique as the community it serves, providing a visual representation of places’ local identities and character.

Being in walking distance from a green space can encourage an active lifestyle, can result in cleaner air for residents, can help people overcome loneliness and isolation, and can drive social cohesion in a local area.

Beautiful green spaces in our urban centres provide a way for people to connect with nature and heritage. From flowers and trees to architectural bandstands to canals and riverways, parks represent local identity of past and future.

Urban green spaces can go further though. They can be considered as part of our efforts to address climate change. Trees for example produce absorb carbon dioxide and filter polluting particles out of the air. They can also help to protect from flooding and have natural cooling effects, alleviating heat stress in urban areas.

Parks can also absorb rainfall for flood protection, providing more effective value for money solutions to climate change adaptation.

Investment in green spaces can also provide a way to kickstart regeneration and boost footfall in struggling high streets and neglected public spaces, bringing jobs and economic prosperity to local communities.

Pride in place

As set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, we are on a mission to restore a sense of community, local pride and belonging, especially in those places where they have been lost.

By 2030, pride in place, such as people’s satisfaction with their town centre and engagement in local culture and community, will have risen in every area of the UK, with the gap between top performing and other areas closing.

Green spaces contribute to this mission. They constitute part of the local mix of social and physical infrastructure that makes people proud to live there. Through the spaces’ beauty, recreational value for both children and adults, tranquillity, cultural significance and richness of wildlife, among other characteristics, residents are likely to value their local area more.

We want to ensure that every community has access to the benefits that urban green spaces provide. This UK-wide Levelling Up Parks Fund is helping over 100 areas to create or significantly refurbish local green spaces that will be designed by the community, for the community.

It is one of the steps we are taking for present and future generations to enjoy what their local area has to offer.

Green space across government initiatives

Ensuring natural beauty is accessible to all will be central to our planning system, with improved Green Belts around towns and cities, supported by Local Nature Recovery Strategies reflected in plan making, and woodland creation supported across the UK.

Access to safe, attractive communal green spaces is critical to enhancing the attractiveness of towns and cities. Access to a network of high-quality open spaces and opportunities for sport and physical activity is important for the health and well-being of communities and environment.

This funding will work alongside our existing developer contributions mechanisms to enable local authorities to prioritise improvements to the green spaces in their local areas in the way that best suits their communities.

Additionally, the majority of park upgrade works will fall under permitted development and therefore can be delivered quickly outside the planning application process. Where works do require planning permission, our National Planning Policy Framework is fully supportive of proposals to enhance access to open space, nature, and biodiversity.

Well-designed public spaces support a wide variety of activities and encourage social interaction, to promote health, well-being, social and civic inclusion. These spaces take into account the wider and local context and accessibility. They are designed to be high quality, robust and adaptable over time so that they remain fit for purpose and are managed and maintained for continual use.

The Green Infrastructure Framework will show what good green infrastructure looks like and help local authorities, developers and communities to improve provision in their area. Natural England has made the green infrastructure principles and mapping available early in a beta launch. The 15 green infrastructure Principles cover the ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘how’ on good green infrastructure and can be used as a checklist for delivering new green space through this Fund. The full Green Infrastructure Framework is due to be launched this year, and will include a menu of standards that can be applied at different scales and a design guide for delivering green infrastructure’s multiple benefits.

Good green infrastructure varies in terms of types and sizes of green and blue spaces, green routes, and environmental features.  It functions and connects as a living network, is inclusive, safe, welcoming, and accessible for all, and is an integral part of the story of a place.

Green infrastructure should be developed in partnership with others, particularly local communities, and is designed to address the social, economic and environmental needs in the area for the long term.

The cross-government Green Social Prescribing programme to prevent and tackle mental ill-health is currently being delivered in seven test learn sites. This will support more people to engage in nature-based interventions and activities to improve their mental health.

It includes outdoor activities such as local walking schemes, therapeutic horticulture programmes, community allotment partnerships (for example Platt Field Market Garden), and conservation projects.

The project builds on the government’s commitment to transform mental health services and increase social prescribing, set out in the NHS Long Term Plan. It will also help deliver on the ambition set out in the government’s 25 Year Environment Plan to help more people, from all backgrounds, to engage with and spend time in green and blue spaces in their everyday lives.

A 10-year cross-government Mental Health Plan will also support our commitment to improving mental health and wellbeing, particularly for people who experience worse outcomes than the general population.

The Department for Education announced the National Education Nature Park and Climate Leaders Award at COP26 alongside the wider Sustainability and Climate Change strategy.

This work will address the fall in connectedness to nature highlighted by the Dasgupta report, reverse biodiversity decline, and improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people, by giving them greater access to green spaces. Even small strips of land on the most urban of sites have potential to increase scope for insect life, wildlife habitats and biodiversity.

Together, these initiatives recognise the value of green space. The Levelling Up Parks Fund builds on these successes and lessons by injecting funding into the places who most need it.

Green space success stories

Urban tree planting: a case study

In 2019/20 Slough Borough Council planted over 3,700 trees as part of their UTCF funded projects. A further 4800 are currently being planted this winter increasing canopy cover across the town in urban and peri-urban areas.

This project has seen a diverse range of tree planting with benefits to the general public, students and schools, stakeholders and community groups who have an interest in climate analysis as well as enjoying the Health, Wellbeing and Activity gains from a closer relationship with nature. The expansion of the Slough Urban Forest is also heavily focussed on climate research.

During 2019/20 communities were brought together through the initial planting of the trees in local greenspaces. The project has offered local residents, who have been furloughed through the Covid pandemic, with voluntary work and an understanding of tree planting and maintenance. There will be a continuation of post covid training and volunteer programme to include:

• Woodland Management Skills
• Horticultural Science (in conjunction with Citizen Science App)
• Biodiversity and Habitat Creation

An excellent example of community involvement with wider health and educational benefits under the Urban Tree Challenge Fund.

Better Place Bradford

Better Place Bradford, one of the Better Start Bradford projects, aims to improve access to high quality green spaces that are important to children’s health and wellbeing. The programme consists of multiple projects across locations that had the highest potential to deliver benefits to communities in need of accessible greenspace for young children, pregnant women and families. Projects were delivered in collaboration with Better Start Bradford, Bradford Council, Groundwork UK, Public Health, voluntary and community sector groups and local people and funded through the National Lottery Community Fund.

Working with the community, Better Place Bradford co-designed and refreshed urban green spaces to address community-identified needs, while supporting local people to get involved in developing plans for improvements to outdoor spaces. Project leaders found that “bricks and mortar are not the only things that matter when it comes to building or creating something for the community. What matters most is that local communities are involved from the very beginning to decide what is needed for their neighbourhood. This takes time and the long-term aim is once you have engaged with that community and created your goal together, the community takes ownership and pride of the asset that they co-created to leave a lasting legacy.”

Better Place have included and involved the community from project inception to completion, and beyond, by engaging with local people to explore different ways that we can use the improved greenspaces to encourage ownership and to encourage parents to visit them regularly

Below are 2 of the successful projects that resulted from this collaborative approach.

Bowling Park

An area of woodland was overgrown and had persistent issues with litter and substance use. It was known as ‘The Roughs’ locally. The project worked on clearing the woodlands of dense shrubs and litter and putting in an accessible path including a new break in the wall so that families can access the woodland easily. The scheme included a wooden story sculpture trail. This proved almost too popular with the wooden bears losing some fingers as so many people held hands with them for photographs. Elsewhere within the main park the project installed a 0-3s scooter/bike track and a natural play area featuring sand, rocks, sensory paths and nature-based play equipment and sculptures. 45 large trees have also been planted. Habitat diversity has been considered including feature planting, trees, meadow and the installation of bat and bird boxes. At approximately £80,000, this project has enabled residents of Bradford to reclaim parts of green spaces previously difficult to access.

Kettlewell Snicket

A strip of approximately 100m was overgrown, had littering problems and was unsafe for 0-3s despite being used as a cut through to a nursery and primary school. Community members said it was unpleasant and unsafe. This project, with a budget of about £42,600, landscaped it, ensuring it was accessible for pushchairs providing opportunities for play while waiting to pick up children on the school run. 2 additional trees were planted, and playful nature sculptures were put in. The local children play there and parents are pleased that the short cut is safe to let their 0-3s out of the pushchair and experience the natural space and its different textures with some independence.

Platt Fields Market Garden, Greater Manchester

The community interest company MUD (Manchester Urban Diggers CIC) in Greater Manchester have transformed 2 former bowling greens into a market garden for growing fruit and vegetables and producing honey. It is situated within a park with numerous wards adjoining that suffer from high levels of deprivation. They offer the following:

• A therapeutic horticulture programme as part of the Green Social Prescribing Programme, with the help of social enterprise, Sow The City.
• Regular courses and workshops for developing green skills for disadvantaged communities in the area.
• Volunteering sessions with around 100 local people involved each week.
• A weekly farmers market with fruit and veg sold from the site and micro enterprises e.g. bakers, food retailers now also trading from the site.

The project has a social enterprise model, generating a significant portion of traded income to supplement grant income, e.g. through selling produce to local restaurants and a range of paid for green skills workshops that are run on site. MUD have indicated that to kickstart a similar project of this size, it would cost around £75,000, with about £25,000 for tools, materials and some machinery hire and £50,000 for labour and structures. More funding may be required for other staff depending on the aims of the project.

Platt Fields Market Garden only received small grants totalling £30,000 in the first 2 years and was ran solely through volunteers and open 1-2 days a week but capitalised on their volunteer base to deliver the labour required. After 3-4 years they were able to generate enough income to cover day to day running costs through traded activity and they are no longer solely reliant on grant funding. Grant funding is now used for new projects and capital developments. The garden is now open 6-7 days a week and pays several members of staff.

Photo credit: Manchester Urban Diggers

Privacy notice

The following is applicable to local authorities eligible to receive grants under the Levelling Up Parks Fund. This privacy notice is to explain your rights and give you the information you are entitled to under UK data protection legislation.

1. The identity and contact details of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and our Data Protection Officer

DLUHC is the data controller. The Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dataprotection@levellingup.gov.uk.

2. What personal data we are collecting and why

Your professional contact details are being collected so that DLUHC and Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) can contact you regarding your eligibility for the Levelling Up Parks Fund. Contact with you will include communications on important Fund documentation, invitations to informational sessions, and monitoring and evaluation activities.

Your personal data and corresponding responses to surveys on Citizen Space will also be shared with Keep Britain Tidy for them to get in contact about conducting a paid-for pre-project site assessment.

The following personal data is being collected for this purpose:

• Name
• Work email address

Natural England and the Department for Health and Social Care may also use it to contact you about future about further evaluation work to undertake research to learn how we can evaluate the health impact of new outdoor spaces, should you express interest in this in the project proposal form.

3. Lawful basis for processing the data

The data protection legislation sets out when we are lawfully allowed to process your data. The lawful basis that applies to this processing is article 6(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation in that collection and use of your contact information for the purposes explained in this privacy notice is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest.

4. With whom we will be sharing the data

The following organisations will receive your responses to the opt-in and project proposal forms:

• DLUHC
• Defra
• Keep Britain Tidy (except any personal data you have provided of third parties e.g. site owner’s name)
• DHSC (Limited to what they need to conduct research, should you agree to participation. Personal data will only include your contact details)
• Natural England (Limited to what they need to conduct research, should you agree to participation. Personal data will only include your contact details)

Your responses to the opt-in and project proposal forms will be collected using Citizen Space, DLUHC’s digital consultation platform.

5. For how long we will keep the personal data, or criteria used to determine the retention period.

Your personal data will be held for 5 years, or until the DLUHC team is satisfied that all necessary evaluation work has been undertaken, whichever is sooner.

All data is deleted from Citizen Space 2 years after the response closing date, and we will endeavour to delete it sooner from the platform if no longer needed.

6. Your rights, e.g. access, rectification, erasure

The data we are collecting is your personal data, and you have rights that affect what happens to it. You have the right to:

1. know that we are using your personal data

2. see what data we have about you

3. ask to have your data corrected, and to ask how we check the information we hold is accurate

4. complain to the ICO (see below)

In some circumstances you may also have the right to withdraw your agreement to us having or using your data, to have all data about you deleted, or to object to particularly types of use of your data. We will tell you when these rights apply.

7. Sending data overseas

Your personal data will not be sent overseas.

8. Automated decision making

We will not use your data for any automated decision making.

9. Storage, security and data management

Your data will be collected using Citizen Space at the opt-in form and project proposal form stages. Your responses to these forms will then be exported and stored in a secure government IT system.

10. Complaints and more information

When we ask you for information, we will keep to the law, including the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation.

If you are unhappy with the way the Department has acted, you can make a complaint.

If you are not happy with how we are using your personal data, you should first contact dataprotection@levellingup.gov.uk.

If you are still not happy, or for independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing, you can contact:

The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow, Cheshire,
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745

https://ico.org.uk/