If you lived next to an abandoned bowling green, a disused community garden, alleyways that had seen better days and a street in desperate need of some trees, what would you do? 

This is the situation that Claire Biggs found herself in last year. With support from the Green Spaces Fund and a lot of collaborative hard work, she launched the Sustainable Northmoor by Urban Greening (SNUG) project to bring some much-needed colour and greenery to the neighbourhood. 

Claire is now SNUG’s Director and Project Manager and we sat down with her to find out more about this ambitious multi-site undertaking.

1. Hello Claire! What’s the backstory of your project? 
 

In 2022, artist and curator Chi Emecheta delivered ‘The Pear Project’ from Longsight Community Art Space. It used the story of the pear tree and its journey from its native home of China across Asia, the Middle East, Europe into the UK to explore difficult topics such as migration and belonging. 

As the final part of this project, we planted twenty-one pear trees in Crowcroft Park and over one hundred people turned up to get involved. In the process, we discovered that the local community were very keen to improve their green spaces and learn more about planting and growing. 

We connected with another local group called Bollyfit CIC and put in a bid for the Green Spaces Fund to improve four separate sites across the Northmoor area of Longsight. And that’s how SNUG (Sustainable Northmoor Urban Greening) was formed! 

2. What did you hope to achieve with your project? To what extent have you been able to accomplish your goals? 
 

The SNUG project launched with four main objectives: 

1. To create a community orchard garden on the disused bowling green in Crowcroft Park, using permaculture and forest garden techniques and planting primarily edible foods. 

I’m pleased to say that the Crowcroft Park orchard garden has been transformed from an unloved square of bare grass to a developing garden with fruit trees, a pond, hügel beds, wildflowers meadow and perennial shrubs. 

2. To work with Bollyfit CIC to improve and develop an existing community garden on land belonging to Stanley Grove Primary Academy. We wanted to provide a space where the community can learn and grow their own food. 

The garden has had a much-needed makeover. We’ve moved planting beds to sunnier locations, created compost enclosures, made raised beds from salvaged materials from the site itself and installed a greenhouse. Vegetables have been planted, grown and harvested with plans to cultivate more in the coming year. 

3. To ask the council to plant street trees in the local area. Now, five new street trees have been planted on Northmoor Road outside Longsight Community Art Space.  

4. To work with residents to clean, improve and plant in the alleyways behind their houses. 

Residents of East Road have started improving their alleyway, building wall mounted planters and growing in repurposed receptacles! There are now various herbs, strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrants growing with plans for seed sowing over the coming weeks, painting the walls of the alleyway in bright colours chosen by the children and creating benches and a play area.

3. Have you any good statistics you can share with us?
 

The orchard garden has 63 fruit trees, including seven espalier apple trees, five olive trees, paw-paw, fig, apricot, peach, medlar, quince, damson and various varieties of apple and plum.

One volunteer tree planting day in December drew over 70 people to plant trees! 

4. What has been the biggest impact that your project has had? 
 

The engagement of the local community in planting and developing the orchard garden has been amazing. The number of people and groups that have joined in at various stages has been so exciting and encouraging. On our busiest days we have had all ages working together, from toddlers and teenagers to grandparents. 

We’ve welcomed people from different cultures and backgrounds to the space, including Iranian refugees and people of Romanian, East Asian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Italian descent. 

The planting of the area and developing habitats to increase biodiversity has also been an immediate improvement which is very visible to the local community. 

5. What has been the most challenging aspect of bringing your project to life? 
 

There have been two main challenging aspects of the project.

Firstly, meeting all the needs and expectations of such a diverse community can be tricky to navigate. We have tried to incorporate the ideas of different groups of people rather than just running with our own agenda. It is impossible to please everybody but essential for everybody to feel heard and included, and I think we strike a good balance. 

Secondly, the ongoing sustainability and legacy of what we’ve started here is challenging. We need to be able to ensure that the community is kept engaged and increases their ownership of the site so that it doesn’t become neglected or dependent on a few key stakeholders. All of this requires ongoing funding and has costs attached. 

6. What’s coming next? 
 

Once the initial building and planting of the site is completed, the next steps are to host lots of activities that engage the community and help to secure the future of the site.

We have plans for wellbeing sessions, nature-based art and craft workshops and school holiday family activities. We’re also looking to open a pop-up cafe where we can run food-based classes using the edible plants grown on site. 

7. How has the funding from the Green Spaces Fund aided your project? Would you recommend it to others?
 

Without Green Spaces funding the project wouldn't have happened! It has enabled us to do such a large-scale project which has drawn interest from a huge range of places.

This has led to donations in the form of match funding, staff hours from organisations like The Orchard Project and Sow the City, financial and in-kind donations from the likes of Wickes and City of Trees, and volunteer hours from groups such as NHS Business Services and Greater Manchester Police PCSOs.

The overall spend on the project, including all these donations and in-kind support, is now at least double the £40k which we were awarded through the Green Spaces Fund. I absolutely would (and have!) recommend other groups to apply for Green Spaces Funding. 

8. What advice would you give to a group in Greater Manchester who wanted to launch their own Green Spaces Fund project?
 

I would advise groups to absolutely go for it! Ensure that you have good relationships with your local councillors, neighbourhood team, park wardens etc, and build relationships with other community groups who can offer support.

Make good use of your Green Spaces Fund Advisors - they are brilliant! Oh, and be willing to set aside some of your funding to bring in experts such as The Orchard Project who can offer support in specialist areas.

9. How can people get involved if they’d like to know more about your project? 
 

Follow us on social media - that’s where we advertise all our volunteer days and activities: 

Instagram: @snug_mcr     

Facebook: https://facebook.com/SNUG-MCR