Greening Westminster to award £330k by Westminster Council to turn pockets of London into wildlife havens

Greening Westminster is the borough’s annual grant programme that encourages schools, charities, and local organisations to submit applications with ideas to improve green spaces in their areas. The council has announced that it will award £330,000 of funding to projects in 2024 with each applicant able to apply for up to £50,000.

The funding will be used by residents to create new communal green spaces within their own communities. Successful Greening Westminster projects in the past include the Lisson Green Estate, Community Allotments, St John’s Church Yard in Kensal Green, and the Onion Garden in Victoria.

The “Onion Garden” is in a small courtyard behind Westminster City Council’s City Hall building in Victoria. What was once “a desolate corner of not much more than concrete” has been transformed by its founder and “Chief Onion” Jens Jakobsen into a haven for wildlife, decorated with onions.

To  support this project as part of the Greening Westminster initiative, Westminster City Council has invested £24,551 into the garden. This supports the growing of more than 150 plant species and works to enhance the biodiversity of the area. The garden was set up to encourage new wildlife including herbs, wildflowers, and fruit trees “to flourish central parts of London.  

The Greening Westminster programme will support projects that “identify stub roads that are suitable for new green spaces, support biodiversity in the West End, strengthen the role of voluntary sector and community groups in leading the green transformation of their neighbourhoods, increase space for walking and cycling.”

Applications for Greening Westminster will close on Monday the 22th April. It will take up to four weeks for applications to be reviewed and feedback provided, and “professional” applications require at least 20% partner funding.

Organisations can apply for funding on the Council’s website.