A much-loved North Tyneside community garden project is set for further growth after receiving a four-figure grant via the local branch of Newcastle Building Society.
Work on the Lovaine Community Garden started eight years ago when a group of local people took control of a small patch of wasteland near Lovaine Place and Cecil Street in North Shields, and began to transform it into a useful community asset.
Features including raised beds, fruit trees, a greenhouse, a patio with a barbecue, a rock garden and a sensory garden have all been added over the years, while doves and chickens have previously been kept there, before the ducks that live there now.
The garden is available for anyone to use, and regularly plays host to community events such as barbecues and birthday parties, as well as to visitors from the nearby St Cuthbert’s Primary School and the Little Learners pre-school.
As part of the next phase of the garden’s development, the volunteer committee which runs the garden had been looking for ways in which to fund the purchase of a new polytunnel to grow a great range of plants and vegetables.
And now, after successfully being nominated for a grant by Pauline Stewart, a customer at Newcastle Building Society’s North Shields branch, a £2,000 grant has enabled the committee to go ahead with the project.
The funding has been provided from the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund at the Community Foundation, which has been set up to provide grants to charities and community groups that are located in or around the communities served by the Society’s branch network, and put forward for support by its customers.
Since its launch in 2016, the Fund has contributed £78,000 in grants to local projects, and is estimated to have had a positive impact on more than 70,000 people across the North East region so far.
Plans are currently being developed by the garden committee to enable local people with dementia and their families to spend time in the sensory garden, while the greater range of plants, fruit and vegetables that will be grown will generate more money that can then be ploughed back into new garden developments.
Pauline Stewart, who was one of the garden’s original founders and who is a member of the committee that runs it today, says: “The garden is a wonderful green oasis in an urban area, and it makes a terrific impact in terms of encouraging different people from across our community to come together.
“Buying this polytunnel was something we’ve long wanted to do, but it would have remained well out of our reach without the generous support that Newcastle Building Society has provided.
“It will make a massive difference to the amount and type of produce we’re able to grow and sell, which will in turn generate money that we can put back into adding even more to the garden in the future.”
The Newcastle Building Society Community Fund is run in association with the Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland. Grant applications for a maximum of £3,000 can be made in any Society branch or via thenewcastle.co.uk website by customers who wish to support their local communities.
Earlier this year, the Fund provided a £1,000 grant to the Linskill & North Tyneside Community Development Trust to support the creation of a new sensory room for young children at the Linskill Centre on Trevor Terrace in North Shields.
Stephen Burt, branch manager at the Society’s Bedford Street branch in North Shields, adds: “The Lovaine Community Garden is a hugely valuable and valued asset within our local area, and we often hear from our customers about events they’ve attended there or how much it means to them to have it close by.
“Our Fund is designed to support good causes and community improvement projects within the areas in which we’re based, and we’re very pleased to be able to help the garden team add another dimension to its excellent work.”