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CChildren of all ages hang out at the seating area. A group of teenagers from a local school call a sunny bench between two planters their “chill spot.” A family sits on a shady seat with a child on a warm evening. People eat their lunch on benches. Chosen and installed by the local community, the planters are a small but exciting example of what can be done with the quietly radical policy being attempted by a few councils.
When Newham Council first proposed the idea of a “participatory budget”, a fund to which local people could submit ideas and receive funding as long as other residents approved, it seemed impossible to imagine what could emerge.
The idea was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989, but is still relatively uncommon in the UK. But over the past two years Newham has earmarked £800,000 for projects such as drama equipment, a “community wardrobe” and litter picking. The idea is to give people a say in improving their communities and setting local priorities. The council says there is nothing like it on this scale in the UK, although there have been several similar projects before it, including in Govanhill, Glasgow.
In Newham, a project turned a previously unloved cut-through railway footbridge into a magical woodland walk. Food farming and tree planting were also demonstrated. Manor Park Community Garden was awarded £20,000 to regenerate the space in a former car park and improve accessibility.
Rosie Whitlow, one of the garden’s trustees, said: “I think what Newham has done is that it’s made it possible for people to get involved and make decisions about what happens locally, but they’ve also created a network of people that push it for more. is . I really appreciate getting involved and meeting everyone, especially after covid. Community gardens are quite different from parks, they help bring people together and share skills. There are people who have lived on the same street for 20 years and have never met until the garden.
In the most recent year there were 82 successful community assembly projects, and 37 – about 45% – were related to greening. That’s how I got involved, hoping to add some greenery to my own neighborhood in Newham, where I’ve lived for many years. A group of us put in an application and were awarded a £5,000 grant for five chunky planters in an area where there was previously only concrete.
Once we got the funding, we flew to over 100 households, inviting everyone to come and join in the tree planting. Over two sunny weekends in March a diverse group of about 25 people, from children and young parents to middle-aged women and even local councillors, turned up to help. I recorded some projects for my podcast, Streets Ahead.
We had a lot of support: the estate’s management company, Swan, donated £3,000, and a small grass cutting firm, NEUK, gave 17 staff days to design and build giant planters and benches from railway sleepers (prefabricated planters). expensive and small), as well as access to their trade accounts with plant and soil suppliers. A professional gardener friend, Lisa, helped pick and arrange the plants, and we borrowed a trowel and a wheelbarrow from another nearby community garden. We chose low-maintenance ornamentals, a few herbs and flowering shrubs, as well as shade-loving plants for sad-looking tree pits in the playground.
After planting day, six rainless weeks before a 40C heatwave. A few plants were damaged or stolen – not many – and a couple died. We, and the Manor Park community gardeners, watered for hours over several weeks. Fortunately the rain came with the hosepipe ban.
A growing body of research shows the benefits of green space and the ways in which people crave it more. A study published last week by the University of Glasgow found a 10% increase in parks and “natural spaces” such as woodlands reduced early death by 7% among over-65s.
It also seems to be quietly popular. Within two weeks of environmental charity Possible launching its parklet plotter on World Car-Free Day, September 22, with which people can nominate spaces (and designs) for new pocket gardens, often on former car parking spaces, 500 suggestions appeared on it. were Map.
Possible’s map highlights areas of deprivation and access to green space, highlighting the structural inequalities Glasgow researchers have found are shortening people’s lives. While poor communities – and Newham has some of the most deprived communities in the UK – may have a number of urgent priorities, not least housing and feeding people, the desire for green relief is perhaps surprising.
It was worth it. Our planters have not been universally popular – one neighbor made a formal complaint to the council about the loss of an unofficial parking space, groups of men drink there some nights, there is some litter – but the conversation, even the dissenters, has been largely constructive. . When I caught covid last month, a kind neighbor, who had been suspicious of the planters when they arrived, offered to go shopping. Participatory budgeting gave us the opportunity to make decisions about our neighborhood—and we chose greener.
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