The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Future Parks Project, in partnership with the Natural Cambridgeshire, the Local Nature Partnership for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, to promote Community Led Nature Based Solutions. By offering small grants to local communities to undertake nature recovery on local and accessible open space. The project sought to better understand how local communities could be better supported to deliver community led local nature restoration in parks and green spaces.

The headline findings were:

• Communities throughout Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are resourceful, creative, enthusiastic and motivated, want to see nature thrive where they live and are beginning to make this happen.
• Local Councils and landholders working together can do more to enable rewilding and other nature recovery projects on their land, including initial upfront support to groups and guidance to develop 5-year Local Nature Recovery Plans, and link these with neighbourhood plans and local plans.
• Together we need to build capacity to enable more communities to acquire skills and knowledge they need to accelerate local nature recovery, and to identify sites for nature enhancement close to where they live.

At the beginning of the project  applicants were asked to demonstrate how their project would achieve one or more of the following criteria.

• To deliver significant increases in key wildlife habitats.
• To raise levels of local pride, aspiration and community cohesion by helping communities to understand, appreciate and enjoy their natural heritage.
• To promote public health and wellbeing.
• To create resilient countryside and communities, where nature is at the heart of the approach to tackling the climate emergency.
• To champion examples of best practice for sustainable development and management of parks and public green space.

Out of 22 local communities applicants, 9 funding applicants were awarded grants between £250 – £750. These are as follows:

• Octagon Chapel Graveyard Restoration, Wisbech– aim of project to turn an abandoned site into a wildlife haven with public access for community to enjoy and involve the community in nature restoration.
• St John the Baptist Churchyard, Barnack– The grant enabled the purchase of plug plants and bults, and were sourced from a company that guarantees native British provenance. With assistance from the local community the bulbs were planted.
• Peacocks Meadow, Littleport– the project aimed to include the community in the mass planting of 1000s of native species woodland plants and bulbs to recreate a woodland habitat.
• Wheatfields Playing Field and Community Green Space, St Ives– this project aimed to create and maintain a small wildflower meadow in public open spaces in St Ives.
• Swavesey Community Orchard, Swavesey– the grant was used to replace four of the orchards heritage fruit trees lost due to flooding and drought.
• Fassage Green, Lode– this project focused on improving the biodiversity of Fassage Green in the village of lode.
• Orchard Park, Cambridge– the grant awarded was used to purchase bulbs and fruit bushes for the Eastern End of Orchard Park.
• Eastern Meadow Area, Midsummer Common, Cambridge– The aim of this project was to undertake feasibility work to see if an old drainage ditch at the Eastern end of the Common would be suitable for opening up to create a more nature rich habitat.
• Challis Pond, Barrington– The project was to dredge the pond, reinstate and reshape the banks, regrade and seed/replant the periphery, reduce the size and height of the island and improve the filter system to reduce sediment entering the pond in future

Overall, the findings from the Community Led Nature Based Solutions project had a positive impact on both communities and the enthusiasm to develop projects to support nature-based solutions. The project proposed  next steps including, partners working together to build on existing community assets to develop and explore:

• Policy guidelines for town and parish councils about how to write and implement a biodiversity policy, why this is important, and what their responsibilities are/or will be in regard to the new 2021 Environment Act.
• Nature Recovery Now!  – A Community Climate Champions programme to recruit and train 25 local people in enable them to lead nature recovery projects where they live, and also training and advice, opportunities for skills development, and networking opportunities that enable knowledge sharing and information exchange for communities across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
• Funding for community nature recovery grants, including seed corn monies.
• Community-led local nature recovery plans for every ward, and town and parish council in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, with clear links identified to local plans and neighbourhood plan.