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News release
02.12.2020
For immediate use
Ealing receives share of City Hall’s £700,000
Grow Back Greener fund
Building Back Bridges Services in Ealing will receive a total of £23,125 in funding to enhance green spaces and biodiversity in the borough. Local London Assembly Member, Onkar Sahota AM, has welcomed this investment through City Hall’s Grow Back Greener scheme and said that pandemic has “underscored the stark inequalities” that exist when it comes to accessing green space.
Figures published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), during the first lockdown, reveal that a fifth of London’s households have not had access to a shared or private garden during the pandemic. Those from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds are almost four times less likely to have access to an outdoor space.
The Mayor’s new London Plan contains measures to ensure London has over fifty per cent green cover. However, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick, has refused to sign-off the latest version of the Plan - submitted to him a year ago.
Local London Assembly Member, Onkar Sahota AM, said:
“This funding will help to boost our local recovery from the pandemic, and is a step towards transforming pockets of the borough, so they can be better enjoyed by the community and allow biodiversity to flourish.
“The pandemic has underscored the stark inequalities that exist in our capital when it comes to ready access to communal green space."
“It’s positive to see that City Hall have a plan to address to this through initiatives such as the Grow Back Greener scheme, but it is the Mayor’s New London Plan that will make the biggest difference. The Secretary of State needs to sign it off and stop blocking its publication, so that we can really improve London’s biodiversity.”
ENDS