Fruit and vegetables to be grown above Southwark Tube station, as Transport for London joins Capital Growth
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, launched on December 4, 2009, a £150,000 fund to help Londoners grow their own food in under-used areas of the capital.
He also welcomed Transport for London to the Capital Growth scheme, which is run by London Food Link and has a target to create 2,012 growing spaces by 2012 in discarded patches of London, tended by enthusiastic community gardeners.
The Mayor has provided £150,000 – certainly not from his personal funds though – so green fingered community groups can apply for small grants. This is in addition to the practical support being offered to communities to help them to identify plots and join Capital Growth. More than 150 plots have already been signed up across the city including canal banks, schools, roofs, private gardens open to the community and parks.
Transport for London (TfL) is the latest sign up to Capital Growth, having provided a brownfield site above Southwark Tube station which will be leased to local people living nearby to grow a range of fruit and vegetables in this busy part of London. As part of their commitment to greening the capital, London Underground also announced today that a new 'fruit and vegetables' category will be created in their annual staff gardening competition – Underground in Bloom.
Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “Lush patches of fruit and veg are springing up around the city thanks to Capital Growth. This helps to make our urban environment far more pleasant and provides a cheap, fun way to grow food. Transport for London is setting a fine example by joining and I hope other landowners jump on board, freeing up more underused plots of land.”
Rosie Boycott, Chair of London Food said: “It is welcome news that Londoners can now apply for small pots of funding as well as receive practical advice to get their veg plot up and running, helping us to meet our target of 2012 spaces by 2012. More and more people are recognizing the pleasure of growing your own, and we are providing a package of support to help them do so.”
The land at Southwark, while remaining in TfL’s ownership, will be tended by green-fingered residents from a nearby block of flats. The fruit and vegetables grown will not be sold for profit but will be used to create delicious food for the local community.
London Underground Chief Operating Officer, Howard Collins, said “Capital Growth, like Underground in Bloom, is another example of Transport for London’s commitment to help make London a greener and more pleasant place to live in. We support the scheme as we believe that it is a perfect way to improve Londoners access to nutritious food while maintaining and enhancing London’s green spaces. With more and more people keen to get their hands dirty we hope that plenty of other organizations in London will join us and get growing.”
Ben Reynolds, London Food Link, said: “We have been amazed at the great response so far to Capital Growth, and delighted that we have 150 new food growing spaces. We have had great feedback from these spaces on what they have been growing over the last season, and it’s clear these spaces are making a real difference to people’s lives.”
The Capital Growth small grants fund offers between £200-£1,500 to anyone who wants to create a new community food growing space. The grants will be on offer London-wide until March 2010 to any group that has been growing food on a plot started from January 1 this year. The grants are also on offer to anyone wanting to expand an existing food growing space. For more information visit: www.capitalgrowth.org
Capital Growth is funded by the Mayor of London and by Local Food, part of the Big Lottery Fund's Local Food Scheme. This grant round follows £50,000 offered during the pilot phase of Capital Growth funded by the London Development Agency earlier this year.
“Capital Growth” was launched in 2008 by the Mayor of London and Rosie Boycott, to boost grow your own in the capital by creating 2,012 community food growing spaces by 2012. The scheme, managed by London Food Link, part of the environment charity, Sustain, now has nearly 150 spaces being cultivated across the capital in a diverse range of places including canal banks, schools, roofs, private gardens open to the community and parks. The program was awarded a Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Commendation this year for its success in getting communities growing.
“Underground in Bloom” is a London Underground staff gardening competition which aims to recognize staff that go beyond the call of duty to enhance their station environment through growing plants and flowers. The new Capital Growth Fruits and Vegetable category will start from 2010. Currently there are eight categories in the competition:
Best Newcomer
Cultivated Garden
Hanging Baskets – the John Knight award
Trains and Service Control
Tubs
The Dennis Sanger special award
Best Overall Garden and Gardens in Bloom an art category
This year was the biggest ever Underground in Bloom with almost a quarter of stations, train depots and service control rooms across the network entering. Inner London entrants included Bayswater, Clapham North, Oxford Circus, Victoria and South Kensington. Outer London entrants included Harrow & Wealdstone, Neasden, Sudbury Hill and Rickmansworth.
Bio-diversity and London Underground
London Underground trains run across 220 kilometres of overground track on 10 different lines.
Around 55 per cent of the London Underground network is above ground and we manage approximately 10 per cent of the wildlife habitat in London.
Over 1,000 different species of plants and animals have been recorded on London Underground land since 1999.
200 sites on the Tube network have been identified as Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation by many of London’s local authorities.
For more information on the biodiversity protection projects that are being carried out on the Tube, see London Underground’s Biodiversity Action Plan – http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/LU-Biodiversity-Action-Plan-final.pdf
“Local Food” has been developed by a consortium of 15 national environmental organisations, and is managed on their behalf by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT). Supported by the Big Lottery Fund's Changing Spaces program, Local Food will distribute grants to a variety of food related projects to make locally grown food more accessible. http://www.localfood.org/
The “Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts” (RSWT) is a registered charity, incorporated by Royal Charter, to promote conservation and manage environmental programs throughout the whole of the UK. It has established management systems for holding and distributing funds totaling more than £20 million annually to environmental projects across Britain.
The Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces program was launched in November 2005 to help communities enjoy and improve their local environments. The program funds a range of activities from local food schemes and farmers markets, to education projects teaching people about the local environment. The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out £2 million in Lottery good cause money every 24 hours to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/.
© 2010
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