A community group has won thousands in funding to renovate green space and “get people out into nature".

Growing Together Radcliffe, which is made up of a number of community-based organisations, has received just under £40,000 of funding from the Greater Manchester Environment Fund (GMEF) green spaces grant.

The group aims to spend the money on improving quality and access to green spaces in Radcliffe to encourage people to get outdoors.

The GMEF was created in partnership with The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and helps to fund green projects in the region.

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Growing Together will use the £39,655.36 grant to cultivate a number of projects in the town, including a community garden at Radcliffe Football Club, pond dipping at Radcliffe Primary School, and a clean-up of Milton Road field.

Tina Harrison MBE, community volunteer lead at Growing Together, said the projects will encourage residents to use green space which can improve their mental health and wellbeing.

Tina says one of the projects will be to help clean-up Milton Road field which she says is overgrown and a hotspot for fly tipping and antisocial behaviour.

She hopes that by cleaning up the space the group can encourage wildlife.

Tina said: “We want to make it safer and more welcoming for people to use, it is used for anti-social behaviour at the moment.

“Milbank Road has been left to get overgrown, so we got permission from them to use it.”

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A portion of the money will also go to Radcliffe Primary School which wants to create provision for pond-dipping and a forest school for its pupils. It also wants to create an orchard at Redbank Lodges at the rear of the school.

Tina said: “The biggest benefit [of the fund] will be opening up the space to make people feel safe and secure and also for mental health and well-being.

“It’s a deprived area and people don’t see these areas as accessible. We want people to get out and about for their mental wellbeing.

“It’s about getting people out into nature.”