Eastbourne and south Wealden community groups receive grants for environmental projects
and live on Freeview channel 276
The recipients of the community fund are Plastic Free Eastbourne, Sussex Young Authors Clubs, Eastbourne Food Partnership, Treebourne, Watercycle and Eastbourne Allotments and Garden Society.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdWith £3,500 Plastic Free Eastbourne aims to add a new water refill station to its network while Eastbourne Food Partnership hopes to grow its changing climate project with £5,000. Treebourne will be supporting biodiversity at Ocklynge School by planting trees and wildflowers thanks to its £5,000 grant and with £3,300 Eastbourne Allotments and Garden Society wants to add raised beds to support involvement by people with mobility issues - including older growers. Sussex Young Authors Clubs aims to use its £500 to trial creative writing workshops around water and climate change and Watercycle wants to set up a mobile engagement hub to explore water with different audiences with its £5,000 grant.
The community fund has provided a total payout of £22,300, although there will be another round of funding for larger amounts up to £5,000 in spring 2024 –despite small grants of up to £500 being available all year round.
The fund is part of Blue Heart, a partnership funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to investigate how rain, river and waste water move through Eastbourne and south Wealden, to help manage it and reduce the impact of flooding in the future.
One of the fund’s aims is to start conversations with groups who might not often engage with issues around flooding and climate change. It hopes to increase understanding of flood risk and how to be prepared, while investing in community-based action, learning and resilience.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdBlue Heart’s engagement lead Eleanor Lanyon said: “I’m really looking forward to getting to know our grant holders and supporting such diverse and interesting projects.”
Project manager Anna Hastings added: "The grants cover an exciting range of activities including growing food, supporting biodiversity and flood resilience, increasing access to nature, and engagement with water, flooding and climate change.”