Grey to Green City Centre Fund

Grey to Green

Making the city centre greener

A Bolder Vision for Belfast identifies the importance of transforming critical parts of Belfast to create a safer, greener, and more accessible city.

We invited expressions of interest from businesses and organisations for two greening grants:

• The Demonstrator Project with up to £50,000 in funding through the Department for Infrastructure Blue Green Infrastructure fund, to deliver a meanwhile, publicly accessible, city centre social farm or garden, on a council owned site for a period of around 18 months; and
• The City Centre Greening Fund to deliver greening projects within the city centre.

Demonstrator Project: The BUG (Belfast’s Urban Garden)

The Conservation Volunteers are using our Grey to Green funding to transform a section of the Belfast Stories site on Royal Avenue and Kent Street into ‘The BUG’ – Belfast’s Urban Garden, incorporating polytunnels, raised planters and vegetable beds. They’re engaging with diverse minority groups, including individuals facing mental health challenges.

‘The BUG’ aims to enhance biodiversity, combat pollution and improve the city centre’s overall appeal and liveability of the city centre. We also anticipate positive and enduring mental health and wellbeing outcomes for those who participate. The Conservation Volunteers will be scheduling up to four closed gardening groups weekly, either for one-off workshops or for an eight-week programme on a weekly basis throughout the summer. They’re also planning to host an open volunteering group on Saturdays, providing volunteers with the opportunity to engage in ongoing gardening activities.

Tuesday 9 April, 10am

Meet at 2 Royal Avenue for a cuppa, then take a stroll to the Grey to Green site, where volunteer groups will present suggestions to rename what will become a vibrant, welcoming space.

Thursday 25 April, 10am to 11am and 1pm to 2pm

Dive into the Festival of Learning! Uncover the secrets of successful vegetable planting and nurturing with us. Email sian.doherty@tcv.org.uk to register.

Friday 3 May, 11am to 3pm

The BUG (Belfast’s Urban Garden) public launch. Join in the festivities, plant your own sunflower, and explore the wonders of our urban community garden.

Friday 7 June

Mark your calendar for the Big Help Out volunteer day. Come on down to the community garden, extend a helping hand and make a positive impact in your community.

For more information, email sian.doherty@tcv.org.uk to contact The Conservation Volunteers.

Grey to Green Demonstrator project fund objectives

The demonstrator project is one of the key actions to come out of the Belfast Healthy Cities ‘Greening the City’ workshop in August 2022 and is part of the ‘Greening the City’ Advisory Group’s ongoing work.

The primary objective is to deliver a city centre greening project that encompasses social farming or gardening or community food growing, drawing on the Advisory Group’s expertise, and to share learning from the project, with proactive community engagement to encourage a sense of community ownership.

We’re creating shared learning on what does and does not work for this type of project in Belfast city centre.

The Greening the City Advisory Group agreed to focus on the following three key themes in a bid to make the project exemplary:

1. Urban farming or agriculture, and how this can be encouraged in Belfast and in the city centre.
2. Community engagement and creating a sense of ownership with stakeholders including local residents, businesses, schools, and commuters or visitors.
3. Education and learning, including how the demonstrator project can help people learn about food growing, urban agriculture, horticulture, nutrition, and links to health and wellbeing.

Organisations represented on the Greening the City Advisory Group are:

• Belfast City Council
• Belfast Health and Social Care Trust
• Belfast Healthy Cities
• Belfast Hills Partnership
• Department for Infrastructure
• EastSide Partnership
• Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful
• Northern Ireland Environment Link
• Northern Ireland Housing Executive
• Outdoor Recreation NI
• Public Health Agency
• Queen's University Belfast
• RSPB NI
• Social Farms and Gardens
• West Belfast Partnership Board

City Centre Greening Fund:

• Killultagh Estates will create a Living Wall at 32-38 Linenhall Street; a vertical greening project on the façade of a prominent nine storey office building, in the heart of Belfast city centre.
• Maritime Belfast Trust will deliver the Queen’s Quay Greening Project, transforming a vacant area of land into an attractive green space through planting and helping to improve connectivity and wayfinding on the Maritime Mile.
• Belfast South Community Resources will be creating ‘Sandy Glade’ on a derelict site at the corner of Sandy Row and Wellwood Street, planting a glade of native trees and pollinator shrubs and a living green wall, landscaping the glade with ornamental sand and gravel areas.

Further information

For further information on our Grey to Green initiative, email: belfasti@belfastcity.gov.uk