Eco-Streets | Greening alleyways

Background

IGNITION was a ground-breaking EU project which ran from November 2018 to May 2022 which sought to develop innovative financing solutions for investment in Greater Manchester’s natural environment through the use of Nature Based Solutions (NBS). The project aimed to increase the city region’s ability to adapt to the increasingly extreme effects of climate change.

As part of the citizen engagement strand of the IGNITION project, Groundwork enhanced their ‘Eco Streets’ programme – an opportunity for communities to transform neglected outdoor areas into exciting new green spaces with their own nature-based solution ideas.

Building on Groundwork’s previous work greening alleys, Eco-Streets would seek to engage communities about how nature-based-solutions could be used in community spaces to alleviate the effects of climate change. Through links with neighbouring projects like Grow Green, Groundwork was able to share NBS learning on a wider scale.

What we did: Co-designing community spaces

Early in 2021, we secured funding to support two community groups in Greater Manchester to establish an Eco-Street. With the competition winners gaining advice and support from Groundwork’s community advisors and landscape architects and construction workers, as well as a £6,000 capital budget.

The team developed a competition to gather community ideas for NBS projects in their local area, delivering several online workshops to explain what nature-based-solutions were and how they worked and to spark ideas for how they could be used within a community setting.

With interest in the programme building, local charity, We Love Manchester, reached out to Groundwork about expanding the project, and as a result we were able to fund an additional two groups from Manchester .

In April 2021 the competition launched, generating a whopping 240 expressions of interest and 45 entries. Partners from GMCA, BiTC, City of Trees, University of Salford and We Love Manchester helped to support the shortlisting process, seeking out projects which demonstrated:

Community need
Use of nature-based-solutions
Passion and community support
Creativity

Finally, the panel selected the four winning entries as follows:

The Ginnel Garden in Edgeley, Stockport
‘Pigeon Park’ in Longsight, Manchester
Blooming Amazing Community Alley in Stretford, Trafford
Re-Greening Boscombe Street in Moss Side, Manchester

What we did: From grey to green

Co-design

Once the winners were informed, each group was invited to take part in a project development and co-design session with Groundwork’s landscape architects and community advisors.

In these sessions activists learned more about what natural solutions to increased heating and flooding can offer their neighbourhood and what would be needed to install and maintain them.

These practical considerations, together with their inspirational ideas, helped to shape an inspiring and realistic plan for the work.

Designs were shared with the community so they could feedback and make changes where necessary. Groundwork also worked with the community to identify what skills, knowledge and connections they had already, and where Groundwork could offer additional support. Support was then tailored to the community needs, and ranged from; supporting with landowner permissions, health and safety and liability issues, communication material templates and signage, budgeting support, plant guidance and link ups to other organisations as required.

Groundwork provided expertise on different materials and products, sourcing some of the items on the community’s behalf.

Build

Groundwork’s landscaping team supported the creation of the new green spaces, sharing their expertise on installing different features from rainwater planters to living walls, so that the community members could be local champions and mentors.

Izzie from the Ginnel Garden commented:

“The DIY skills they taught us have meant we’ve been able to build other features on our own.”

The Results

The direct results of the IGNITION Eco-Streets programme are as follows:

4 community spaces were improved, featuring 6 sets of living walls, 7 water butt planters, 1 mini green roof, 19 window boxes & 1 raingarden
13 people became actively engaged community volunteers, who will continue the developments within their neighbourhoods
Over 125 people were engaged through co-design sessions, action days and events

However, there are a lot of additional benefits which can be seen in some of the feedback provided by participants:

“We know more people, and there is a better sense of belonging. We get a lot of great comments other streets might like it too” – Vicky, Boscombe Street

“Children are loving their new space and are regularly seen playing outdoors” – Blooming Amazing Alley group

“The community is now an actual community as before you may have only said “Hello’ to your neighbour in passing, but by improving the shared space we now socialise together” – Izzie, Ginnel Garden

Made possible thanks to: