'Doorstep Greens' at Cavenham - geograph

Doorstep Greens are locally owned and run public spaces across

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. They were first created by the

Countryside Agency The Countryside Agency was a statutory body set up in England in 1999 with the task of improving the quality of the rural environment and the lives of those living in it. The agency was dissolved in 2006 and its functions dispersed among other bod ...

(CA) in a project started in 2001. The majority of the funding came from the New Opportunities Fund which later became the Big Lottery Fund although the Countryside Agency did input staff and some of its own resources. The Agency set out to find green spaces which could be organised into relatively small parks and then create a local charitable trust to own, fundraise for, and run each space in perpetuity. This followed from the completion of the CA's

Millennium Green Millennium Greens are areas of green space for the benefit of local communities. 245 were created in cities, towns and villages across England to celebrate the turn of the Millennium. Their creation was funded in part by the National Lottery via ...

scheme, which created similar areas to celebrate the turn of the millennium from 1996-2000. The Countryside Agency has since become part of

Natural England Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...

, who have nominal national responsibility for this scheme. Various Millennium Greens and Doorstep Greens have won numerous

Green Flag Green Flag or Green Flag Rescue, is a British roadside assistance and vehicle recovery provider, which is part of the Direct Line Group. Formed in 1971, as the National Breakdown Recovery Club, as an alternative to the AA and RAC, it used a ...

and Green Pennant awards. The policy with Doorstep Greens was to encourage organisers to apply for a Green Flag award once their site was complete, thereby encouraging future management to a recognised standard. The National Audit Office, The Land Trust and other public bodies such as CabeSpace (now disbanded) used Doorstep Greens as case study material for their publications on community greenspace.

References

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NAO Enhancing Urban Greenspace

External links

Greenflag Award SiteNatural England Site
Philanthropic organisations based in the United Kingdom Environment of the United Kingdom

See also

References

External links