Tag: green spaces

Applications now open for the Grow Your Own grant scheme

Community groups in Edinburgh are being invited to apply for funding from a £50,000 pilot scheme by the City of Edinburgh Council to establish new food growing projects.

The “Grow Your Own” community grant initiative will welcome applications from projects aimed at establishing new community growing projects. Applications for funding are invited to help the creation of new growing spaces, supporting the establishment of growing groups, and promoting education around urban food production.

Grants of up to £5,000 will be awarded to constituted voluntary and community groups across the city, with projects running for up to 12 months.

The £50,000 funding has been allocated from the Flood Prevention/Biodiversity (including food growing) budget, which was approved in the Council’s budget on 22 February 2025. This fund aims to provide smaller community groups with essential support to establish community growing initiatives.

Funding can be used for a variety of purposes, including:

  • Purchasing seeds, plants, and tools
  • Equipment for community garden cooking areas
  • Education and training activities
  • Personal protective equipment
  • Staff time directly related to establishing the growing area

Culture and Communities Convener Val Walker said: “This is a wonderful opportunity for Edinburgh communities to get involved in urban food growing.

“The city already hosts over 45 allotment sites with over 1,700 council-managed plots, along with more than 70 community growing projects. Through Edinburgh’s Food Growing Strategy (2021- 2026) and Allotment Strategy (2017 – 2027) we aim to expand local food growing initiatives.

This year’s scheme will operate as a pilot program, and its impact will be assessed. If successful, and funding permitting, we could see this becoming an annual initiative.

To apply, groups must meet the Council’s Standard Conditions of Grants. Full details can be found on the City of Edinburgh website.

The application process will be administered through the City of Edinburgh Council’s Your Voice platform, designed to ensure a simple and efficient application experience.

The deadline for applications is noon on 12 May.

Enjoying Edinburgh’s green spaces this summer

Culture and Communities Convener, Councillor Val Walker writes about enjoying Edinburgh’s green spaces this summer:

With the warm weather upon us (for now at least!), offering a glimpse of the summer ahead, I feel incredibly fortunate to live in a city like Edinburgh – not least given how much green space we have to enjoy.

With 144 parks and green spaces across the city – making up an incredible 49 per cent of Edinburgh’s total area – it’s easy to see why we’re considered the UK’s greenest city.

Of course, we already knew the positive impact our parks on people’s physical and mental health and wellbeing by providing space for exercise, relaxation, social contact with friends and family, and opportunities for children and young people to play – but the Covid pandemic truly highlighted this.

With 38 of our parks recognised by the Green Flag Award scheme, which highlights the quality of our parks and the efforts of those who maintain them (more than the rest of Scotland put together), it’s a case of quantity and quality. And with more trees per resident than any other UK city (712,000 trees vs. 526,000 people), we’re well on our way to becoming a Million Tree City by 2030.

But there’s always more we can do and, through our Edinburgh’s Thriving Green spaces 2050 strategy, we’re committed to safeguarding, preserving, and improving these areas so that people can continue to enjoy them, and communities feel involved in their upkeep. And through our ongoing partnership with Fields in Trust, we’re working hard to ensure our residents are within a ten-minute walk from a protected green space.

However, while people rightly recognise the value of local parks that are convenient to them, they can become places to be avoided or underused if they feel unsafe or if the facilities are of poor quality.

That’s why, when setting the annual council budget in February, we approved an additional £3.5m investment in our infrastructure and facilities.

This includes close to £1.5m on projects to repair and improve paths, walls and bridges across the city, £800,000 committed to permanent toilets in Leith Links, Meadows, and Inverleith park (with further investment in installing temporary facilities across the city until the end of October), ongoing in play parks, with over £200,000 set aside for the new play area and equipment at West Princes Street Gardens, and a further £200,000 allocated to the introduction of a number of park lighting projects.

Hopefully, this highlights our ongoing commitment to preserving and improving our city’s for now and future generations.

If you’re out and about and enjoying these spaces, can I please ask that you to:

  • Bin your litter: If a bin is full, please take your litter home.
  • Don’t get caught short: Check where public toilets are located.
  • Pick up after your dog: We love seeing furry friends enjoying our parks, but remember, the city is a shared space.
  • Extinguish and bin your BBQ: When enjoying a BBQ, please do not put it directly on the grass, and always fully extinguish BBQs before disposing of them (some parks have BBQ-only bins).
  • Respect our parks and other users: Our parks are for everyone, young and old.

Please help us to ensure our parks and green spaces thrive and remain clean and welcoming for all this summer.

Bringing communities together in cleaner, greener spaces

Councillor Val Walker writes about revitalising our town and local centres with a 20-minute neighbourhood approach:

Being able to live well locally is incredibly important to our quality of life. Our town and local centres play a huge role in daily lives. Whether you live round the corner or in the surrounding area, many of us meet friends and family, shop, work, use libraries and other local services, and enjoy culture around our high streets.

The importance of town and local centres has been a leading thought in updating one of our key strategies to help people across Edinburgh live in places that are healthier, greener, more vibrant and inclusive.

The updated 20-minute neighbourhood strategy outlines our support for local living to give more people more choice within their neighbourhood, while also making it easier to travel further to reach the other services and facilities they need on public transport and by active travel. It’s one that many communities already enjoy, but sadly isn’t a universal experience for all of our residents. 

Local centres that are easy to access and great places to spend time can boost our own health, help us to be more physically active, and make it easier to connect with the other people in our communities. 

This work is already well underway in Craigmillar, Muirhouse and Pennywell where our regeneration projects have enhanced the local centres with the delivery of new community facilities, shops, and homes.

They will soon be joined by the new Community Hub at Macmillan Square, which will feature an early years centre, library, skills hub and expanded North Edinburgh Arts facility.

New active travel links with green spaces and areas for socialising are also being planned to make it easier to access the local centres and create a more pleasant place to live and visit.

We are also approaching the next stages of an exciting town centre revitalisation programme in Dalry and Portobello. These town centres are built around busy main roads with compromised and cramped public spaces. 

Our engagement work in these areas earlier this year presented a real appetite for change and ideas for making local spaces more people-friendly. These ideas have helped shaped some of the very initial plans for development, which we will be presenting to the community through consultation next year. We strongly welcome everyone’s feedback. 

This is our 20-minute neighbourhood approach in action, ensuring services and facilities are close to people, making them easier to access and helping make walking, wheeling and cycling to be the natural choice for shorter journeys.

If we work together, we can start to see how all residents throughout Edinburgh can enjoy a more thriving city that brings communities together in cleaner, greener spaces.

Drylaw Greenspace Consultation

FRIDAY 8th SEPTEMBER from 12 – 2pm at EASTER DRYLAW PARK

https://facebook.com/events/s/drylaw-greenspaces-consultatio/319072190598050/

Pop by Easter Drylaw Park on Friday between 12 and 2 and speak to Esperanza from Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust who will be there to hear what you think could be done to improve the greenspaces in our area.

Please respond to our event link above as this really helps us keep track on how many people we are reaching.

Thanks!

Park Portraits campaign launched to help safeguard our Parks and Greenspaces for the future 

– greenspace scotland announces new photography series to help raise vital funds for Scotland’s parks – 

greenspace scotland is today announcing the launch of Parks4Life: Scotland’s first ever fund for parks and greenspaces, with a goal to raise one million pounds by the end of 2023 to help support Scotland’s parks with a sustainable fund for the future. 

To celebrate the launch of the Parks4Life fund, the greenspace charity is launching Park Portraits, a digital photo gallery bringing to life the stories of a dozen Scottish people and the ways that parks have enriched their lives.

From Aberdeen to Cumbernauld, Edinburgh to Dumbarton, and across to the Hebrides, greenspace scotland has worked with talented Scottish photographer David Anderson to capture soulful portraits of people who exemplify the value that parks provide. 

The funds raised through Parks4Life will be invested to provide an endowment to provide an ongoing source of funds for parks. The endowment will be used by communities across Scotland to support local park improvements, activities and events; making sure local parks from large cities to small towns are nurtured and cherished for the future. 

Parks and greenspaces are amazing places at the heart of our communities. They give us breathing spaces where we can take time out from the stresses of our everyday lives, places where we can relax and spend time with family and friends, and spaces where nature can flourish in the heart of our towns and cities.

Local greenspaces make a huge contribution to our health, our quality of life and our community spirit. And we really love them: each year, Scots make over 162 million visits to local parks and greenspaces.

Free to use, open and available to everyone, parks are great community assets, but not everyone has easy access to quality local greenspaces. 

The Park Portrait series celebrates people from a wide range of backgrounds and uncovers their special reasons for enjoying parks, like Willie Mungall, a veteran Royal Marine Commando who has improved his health with a weekly walking group in Edinburgh’s Saughton Park as part of the ‘Walk with a Doc’ programme led by Health All Round.  

Also featured is Greg Borthwick from Dads Rock, a peer support network for dads in Edinburgh. Greg is thrilled to share his love of the outdoors with other dads and often takes his group to the woods at Roslin Glen.    

Other subjects in the series include ‘fire spinner’ Iga Sobieraj learning her craft in Pilrig Park, a Team Great Britain Paralympian with a pre-competition ritual to clear his head, and three generations of family that visit the park which holds special childhood memories for each of them.  

The Park Portraits gallery is available to view online here. The portraits will also be making their way through some of Scotland’s parks this autumn in a travelling exhibition aimed at inspiring the public to donate to the Parks4Life fund. 

greenspace scotland is inviting park lovers from across Scotland to get involved with Parks4Life by taking their own Park Portrait and sharing their park story here, or by making a donation to the Parks4Life Fund. 

Julie Procter, Chief Executive of greenspace scotland, said: ““Greenspace is a universal service for all of Scotland’s urban residents – we know that access to these spaces is a massive factor in quality of life, and can be a game changer in creating healthier, happier and stronger communities.  

“The Park Portraits project has allowed us to tell the real stories of everyday park users, from those with fond family memories to the volunteers that enable these greenspaces to provide an oasis for their visitors. It’s been an absolute pleasure to hear how many people have a deep connection with their local park and are keen to share their stories. 

“Our hope is the Park Portraits series will inspire other people who love their parks to support the Parks4Life fund by donating, as well as sharing their own park stories online. Together, we can help keep Scotland’s parks in good heart for our children and grandchildren to enjoy.” 

Development of the Parks4Life Fund has been supported by a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Using money raised by The National Lottery, the Heritage Fund inspires, leads and resources the UK’s heritage to create positive and lasting change for people and communities, now and in the future. 

Donations to Parks4Life can be made online or by texting PARK to 70450 to make a one-off donation of £5. 

People across Scotland who would like to share their own Park Portrait and park story are invited to post on social media using the hashtag #Parks4LifePortraits and submit to the greenspace scotland page here. 

Councillor organises Drylaw walkabout

Inverleith SNP councillor Vicky Nicholson has organised a walk round in Drylaw with council officers from the parks team and police on Thursday 29 June at 1pm, meeting at White Church.

Cllr Nicholson said: “This is in response to a few requests by local people and hopefully any questions people have about maintenance of green spaces, areas where people store motorbikes and also other Drylaw issues can be asked and, if not answered during the walk round, followed up by officers and police”.

Sign up for the final consultation events for Leith parks this month

There’s still time to sign up for our final events that are looking at plans for 6 parks in Leith! 🌿

We are holding further events with updated designs – come along to have your say! 🌳

📅In-person event: Thursday 15th June, 6pm-7.30pm, Duncan Place Community Hub

💻Online event: Tuesday 20th June, 6pm-7.30pm – this will be on Microsoft Teams (link sent to attendees)

📧Booking is essential: email thrivinggreenspaces@edinburgh.gov.uk to book your place

The City of Edinburgh Council

Scottish Wildlife Trust

Greenspace Scotland

Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust

Have your say on parks in Leith

Come along and talk about plans for parks in Leith! 🌿

We have events coming up looking at how to make six of our parks in Leith better for people and nature. This is part of the #EdinburghNatureNetwork

📧Booking is essential: email the team at thrivinggreenspaces@edinburgh.gov.uk

Drylaw & Telford residents to have their say on local parks and green spaces

Dylaw and Telford Community Council is delighted to announce that funding has been secured to carry out a community wide consultation to seek the views of local people on what can be done to improve the greenspaces in our area. 

This work will build on a previous consultation carried out more than 15 years ago which saw more than £500,000 worth of investment in improving local open spaces.

The £5,000 funding from the Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership’s Community Grants Fund will enable the community council to work with Edinburgh and Lothian Greenspace Trust (ELGT) again on this exciting project. 

Over the next few months there will be a wide range of opportunities for local people to give their views on what could be done to improve some of the open spaces in our area. 

Community Council Chairperson, Jimmy Galloway, said: “We are very fortunate in our area to have some great big parks and open spaces for locals to use. These areas are busy and well used and it is now time to see what else could be done to make them even better. 

“This consultation will ensure everyone within the community gets the opportunity to give us feedback. That could be by completing an online survey or attending one of the many events that will be taking place. 

“We are really looking forward to getting started in the coming weeks and I certainly can’t wait to see the results. 

“We are working with the Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust on this – they have worked with us in the past and have a great knowledge of the area and a proven track record of delivering projects.” 

Charlie Cumming, Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust Chief Executive, said: “We are delighted to be working with Drylaw and Telford community Council again to help develop plans to improve the local greenspaces. 

“There are many opportunities to help make the area greener and more biodiverse which will mitigate against climate change. The aim being to create a great place for future generations and to encourage greater use of the greenspaces for local families.”

Thriving? Council seeks your views on Edinburgh’s Green Spaces

We want to hear your views on Edinburgh’s Thriving Greenspaces 2050: A Vision and Strategy.

This consultation will be the benchmark for how we move forward with greenspaces over the next 30 years 🌲

Find out more and take part here until November 15th: 

https://consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/…/thriving…/