News on HS2 in Birmingham

Today saw more projects awarded funding as part of the HS2 Community and Business Funds.

In Birmingham, the Birmingham Civic Society has received over £44,000 towards their Woodland Connections project. The society are involved in the improvement of the city’s parks and open spaces through the Birmingham Trees for Life project, which is a partnership between Birmingham Civic Society and Birmingham City Council. The funding will provide tree planting opportunities in locations within Birmingham over 2 and a half years. The locations are within communities who will experience disruption during the construction of HS2. They will work in partnership with Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Tree People.

The communities will be involved in planting the trees and they will be invited to follow-up sessions delivered in each season over the year. This will support the community to take ownership of the trees and will involve identifying different tree species, learning about their life cycles, seed gathering and growing trees from seed. The local community will also be invited to take part in tree warden training where they will be trained in simple tree care methods as well as basic wood working skills using hand tools, to make use of the materials trees provide. Schools involved in the tree planting will be given certificates and resource packs to support them with monitoring the progress of their trees.

You can find out more about the Birmingham Civic Society by visiting: www.birminghamcivicsociety.org.uk

The community and business funds are administered and managed by independent community charity, Groundwork UK. For more information on Groundwork and the funds themselves click here

You can also see an interactive map showing all of the projects awarded funding so far by clicking here