Funding success for Knowsley's Community Woodlands

Community woodlands across the borough are set to be improved for the benefit of people and wildlife, thanks to high levels of grant funding secured by grassroots groups working with Knowsley Council, The Mersey Forest and other partners.

Four community woodlands - Halewood Park, Little Wood (Stockbridge Village), Ten Acre Pits (Huyton) and a woodland creation site in Northwood (Kirkby) - have each secured £50,000 from the Big Lottery Fund 'Community Spaces Fund' towards a range of improvements. These include new entrances, path works, signage and interpretation information, bins and benches as well as habitat restoration works on the woodlands, ponds, wetlands and other habitats that exists within the woods.

A further four woodlands - Finch Woods and New Hutte Woods (Halewood), Millbrook Park Millennium Green (Kirkby) and The Sanctuary (Knowsley Village) - have successfully attracted £10,000 each from the Big Lottery Fund 'Awards for All' scheme. Court Farm Woods (Halewood) additionally secured £15,000 from the Cory Environmental Trust in Britain. For all of these sites, this funding has meant significant restoration of the woodland environment, but is also intended to be a catalyst for community and volunteer engagement during the coming months leading up to Christmas and beyond.

These grant successes have given the green light for even more money to be secured. The Forestry Commission's English Woodland Grant Scheme has provided match funding to all of these grants through the support of The Mersey Forest, which in some cases has provided an additional sum of over £30,000. This is the case for Little Wood (subject to confirmation), which also secured £15,000 from the Ibstock Cory Environmental Trust, giving it a running total of over £100,000 of funding secured.

These funding successes have been the result of the co-ordinated efforts of a wide range of organisations from across the community. This includes local community groups (Northwood Community Allotments, Leather's Lane & Wood Road Residents Association), schools (Highfield School), Parish/Town Councils (Knowsley Parish, Halewood Town) and Friends groups (Friends of Ten Acre Pits, Little Woods of Stockbridge Association, Halewood Park Volunteers, Court Farm Woods Association, Millbrook Park Millennium Green Trust), with the support of Knowsley MBC Green Spaces Team, The Mersey Forest and 2020 Knowsley, who have worked tirelessly together to make full use of the funding schemes currently available to local green spaces.

Further grant applications have been submitted and a wide diversity of funders approached to secure additional investment in Knowsley's woodlands. This is likely to bring even more success, building upon the impact of the funding already secured. Together, this work will enable these valuable community woodlands to once again become an integral part of their local community and a springboard to help people explore the nature on their doorstep.