Newcastle community groups aim to revive green spaces for wildlife and wellbeing

Six Newcastle communities are attempting to create space for nature on the doorstep as part of a £5m National Lottery Heritage Fund across the country.

Nextdoor Nature is an initiative by The Wildlife Trusts, and aims to support people to take action for nature. Across the country the charity intends to enable communities to take charge of creating and restoring wild places, improve access to nature for people, and provide habitats for wildlife.

Six of those groups are in Newcastle, with communities in Benwell & Scotswood, Elswick, Wingrove, Arthur's Hill, Byker and Walker all getting involved. So far, the project has included creating a wildflower planter in Walker as part of The Garden Project at St Anthony of Padua Community Association, to cleaning up a park in Benwell with local residents, volunteers from the West End Foodbank and Newcastle City Council's Natures Landscape team.