New public gardens will be created around a Deptford estate under £70,000 plans to ease pressure on local parks.
Conservation charity the National Trust will create the new gardens from fenced off patches of grass near the Sayes Court estate.
New play areas, allotments and flower beds could be included in the community gardens, which form part of plans to create Lewisham’s first so-called ‘garden ward’ in the area.
The project called Greening Evelyn aims to reduce pressure on local parks by creating new green space in Evelyn ward, which is the northernmost part of Lewisham borough.
The underused green spaces that will be spruced up were identified by local residents during consultations last year.
Greening Evelyn is being bankrolled by £40,000 of City Hall grants and £30,000 from Lewisham Council money collected from developers, known as Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy [NCIL].
The National Trust’s project is inspired by one of its three founders, Octavia Hill, who helped save Lewisham park Hilly Fields from development in the late 1800s.
Councillor Louise Krupski, Lewisham’s cabinet member for the environment, said: “This is such an exciting project for Evelyn ward, working with our partners and residents to open up our green spaces and increase their use.
“Helping people connect with nature is so important for people’s health and wellbeing.
“ I’d like to thank our partners for their hard work in bidding for and achieving funding from the Mayor of London. NCIL funding is designed to mitigate the effects of development and I can’t think of a better way to spend this money.”
Jim Foy from the National Trust said: “We are delighted that Greening Evelyn has received this additional funding from the Mayor of London’s Green and Resilient Spaces fund.
“We look forward to working with residents to bring about a real change in people’s access to nature and green spaces in their neighbourhood, an exciting prospect.”
