Greening concrete-dominated estate in central Forest Gate- £5000

In summary, it took a few months after the project was announced as a winner to establish how best to get the money from Newham appropriately, as we are not a charity or community group, just residents. We finally received funding in January, via the Forest Gate Community Garden, who are kindly administering and safeguarding our funds for us. It then took a further few weeks for the maintenance company kindly building our planters to come up with a start date of 14 March, which they suggested last week. I will now produce leaflets to distribute around the estate to drum up interest and participation in a planting day over the following weekend, 19/20 March, or possibly the weekend after. On top of the £5k community assembly grant, Swan is adding £2,000-£3,000 and NEUK, the grounds maintenance company, is donating £1,000 plus their time to build planters. As we are able to use the latter's trade account to buy plants we hope this money will go a long way, and we will be canny with our purchases, but there is also a lot to do on the estate! The project has altered slightly from the initial idea of being about estate entrances, to using unused or undefined concrete space at the heart of the estate. These bare concrete areas are easier to repurpose than areas around entrances, where more substantial structures would have been needed and where space is limited. Suggestions for trees alongside the school were met with concerns from various quarters around security, and so that part of the project has been dropped, though we will still introduce a cluster of birch trees on the bare green space between the car park and the school playground. We have tried to plan planter locations in bare spaces where as many residents as possible will be able to see them from their homes, and where the planters will protect pedestrian space from car parking - in other words, bringing greenery and life where it is most needed. We hope to be able to build and fill around 50m2 of new planters around the estate in total, across three locations: Brooking Road, Moore Walk and to the rear of the doctor's surgery, as well as the new birch trees and replanting some of the existing bare planters. Many residents have expressed an interest in joining in planting days and there are already a lot of keen gardeners, or would-be keen gardeners, keen to get stuck in. I really think the planters, and the events around their construction, will bring the community on the estate together, providing a more beautiful environment and hopefully years of enjoyment, and health and wellbeing benefits for everyone who lives and walks through the estate, by claiming some space back from the concrete for people and life!