Tuesday 25th August

And the winners are …
Devonshire Rd, TT Wandsworth, SAGE and Wix Primary School

The committee concluded their votes last week, with the above scooping £500 to help them in their projects. It wasn’t an easy one to decide on though – there were a multitude of blazingly good projects to decide from, hence the slight delay in confirming the winners.

Without further ado – I will introduce you to each project and give you a bit of the low down on the movers, the shakers:

Devonshire Road:

Located in Forest Hill, on the eastern side of Peckham, lies the Devonshire Road nature reserve. “An expansive reserve offering perhaps the best rail-side natural habitat in London.”

There are 3 hives, with an estimated 50,000 bees. There’s been an 80% decline on bees in the UK (mainly due to disease) in the last 50 years. Devonshire Road is a one of many initiatives looking to give bees a much needed bit of TLC.

There’s been a recent issue with people breaking into the reserve and up-ending the hives. Mmmmm. Probably kids … but it’s a real problem and something that needs to be addressed. Iris is going to spend her cash making the hives secure by building a fence. Seems sensible, practical … and will most definitely help the bees enjoy some peace and quiet.

TT Wandsworth:

Dan O’Neil established TT Wandsworth about a year ago. Recently he’s been looking to get the ever-growing group stuck into an initiative. Waterside Walk is a large strip of council owned land that TT Wandsworth has earmarked as a food-growing site and community garden.

Wandsworth BC have granted their consent for it to be used – and the grant will be used to develop raised beds and also implement a rain water harvesting scheme. The plans look great. The ambition is there … and I’m looking forwarding to seeing this project take shape.

SAGE:

Liz has been seriously active on Project Dirt in the last year, galvanising the troops in Tonbridge to create an allotment to harvest some food. They’ve been talking to Tonbridge School and have managed to get a license to develop a large chunk of land into up to 30 allotments.

So the land there’s there, the people are there, the legal issues are sorted out – they now just need a digger to level the site, some funds to help build an access and hey presto, an allotment is born. So, all hands on deck and let the pioneer planting begin this winter.

Wix Primary School:

Parents seem to be increasingly keen to show their tiny tots where food comes from and how it grows. Helen is one such parent that decided to turn an unused sandpit into a food growing site.

The Timberland Funding has allowed Helen to take this one step further by building two new raised beds and buying new gardening equipment. It’s a simple project with achievable and straightforward objectives – growing veg and educating kids.

In conclusion:

Lots of food growing listed above. Mmmmm. Whilst we have a whole host of varied projects on Project Dirt – it was the food growers that did well this time round. Why? I think it was because their applications were pretty simple, tangible and achievable. We had a whole range of other applications including energy saving, recycling initiatives, mapping ideas and also business orientated concepts.

We’re currently speaking to a number of other partners to start funding on the site too. So, those who may need funding in the short/mid term – keep you’re eyes peeled, there’s likely to be further opportunities coming along

Right – time for a beer

Mark