Horfield Community Allotment and Edible Forest scoops £1,000 bonus ‘green’ award

Horfield Community Allotment and Edible Forest has been selected by the Green Capital Community Challenge Fund (CCF) to receive an extra £1,000 to help further the work of its project.

The community group was one of eight projects in Bristol who had already received funding from the CCF and were competing for the additional money.

The grants scheme was set up last year by Bristol City Council to help local groups, not-for-profit organisations and residents fund projects that benefit the local community and do something ‘green’. The Community Challenge Fund has so far awarded over £150k to 37 projects, including Bristol Green Doors, Ecojam, Who Feeds Bristol, the Bristol Pound, Lockleaze Environment group and Tyningsfield Community Farm.

All of the projects that had received funding were invited to bid for the extra £1,000. The eight projects that chose to apply had to submit a bid and then do a short presentation to the Green Capital momentum group on Thursday 8th December. The successful bid was voted for that evening.

Leader of the council, Cllr Barbara Janke, said: “Our Community Challenge Fund gives local people and groups the opportunity to bid for small pots of money that can make all the difference in helping to get their projects off the ground. We’ve given grants to a whole host of different ideas and it’s wonderful to see some of them really starting to bear fruit already.

“Horfield allotments is a scheme which has transformed a neglected area into an exciting project for children and adults. The energy and enthusiasm of all involved shows what can be done with small sums of money and plenty of imagination.”

Clare Hanson-Kahn from the Horfield allotment group said, “We are delighted to have been chosen as the successful bid for the £1,000. We will use this to renovate our wildlife pond and so encourage biodiversity alongside growing spaces – all within a busy urban environment. We would really have struggled to get our project off the ground without the funding from this scheme.“