Project Name: Greener Ipswich
Funding awarded June 2025
Greener Ipswich CIC has benefited significantly from generous funding awarded by National Lottery Community Fund, supporting its work to improve the urban environment of Ipswich while benefiting specific groups within the community.
Our National Lottery Community grant has enabled the following projects:
- Tower Street gardens. These gardens are on a major pedestrian thoroughfare linking the bus station to the shopping centre. They have been completely regenerated, removing perennial weeds, digging in over twenty sacks of compost and planting with a range of perennial plants, including bulbs. All the work has been conducted by volunteers with help from the Greener Ipswich watering team during the hot weather. The planting has suffered on occasion from casual vandalism but our volunteers’ relentless focus on maintaining standards has kept the gardens looking smart. We may make changes to the planting if we experience another severe drought next year as this summer, the plants have suffered from the dry conditions, limiting their flowering.
- Tower House car park gardens. This project has been a long time coming together due to renovation work required on the drainage system feeding Tower House. However, the National Lottery funds allocated to this project have now been spent. The major work has been the construction of low retaining walls, running around the perimeter flower beds. This means that we can increase the soil depth, without the risk of the earth encroaching onto the car park. The ground is now being cleared of sycamore seedlings and other scruffy, neglected plants so that a garden, based on the old monasteries’ physic gardens, can be created. There will be challenges caused by the heavy shade thrown by the ancient acacia tree and watering is likely in the first year or two. Having this area, outside Ipswich Citizens’ Advice Bureau, regenerated will help brighten up the site and, we hope, bring cheer to some of the town’s disadvantaged citizens. We are delighted that this project has given work to a serving prisoner, preparing for release, and will become a major site where we can support people who could benefit from therapeutic gardening.
- Ipswich Centre hanging baskets 2025. The Lottery funding provided a valuable activity for a number of citizens as well as some former prisoners in need of support in their rehabilitation. In conjunction with Ipswich Central, the business consortium, Greener Ipswich played a major role in resurrecting the tradition of having hanging baskets in the main shopping thoroughfares. The purchase of materials and plants was due to the Lottery grant while Ipswich central organised the high-level irrigation. The sense of involvement felt by the volunteers working on the baskets was huge, knowing they were creating something which would give pleasure to thousands over the summer.
- Five permanent pyramid planters. Greener Ipswich purchased these robust pyramid planters using Lottery funds and made sure they were richly planted in time for high summer 2025. Planting is refreshed as the seasons change so the shopping streets where they are sited remain attractive. Scheduled building work around St Lawrence’s Church and the scaffolding involved meant that some planters had to be relocated and it may be that we consider repositioning them every two or three years to add variety and interest for different spots. Again, caring for these has provided purpose to those former prisoners whom we support.
- Additional sites. Lottery funds have enabled us to plant a number of other smaller sites around Ipswich including the shopping arcade on Woodbridge Road and the area behind the car park on Foundation Street.
- Irrigation. The lack of rainfall during the summers of 2025 and 2026, which hit East Anglia particularly hard, meant that we had to water all our sites regularly. Lottery funding meant we were able to purchase two water bowsers. We employed two of our team to walk the bowsers around the town twice a week during the summer months. Without this dedicated work, many of our planting schemes would not have survived. As it is, there have only been a few significant casualties.
- Plants for the future. As explained, Lottery funding enabled us to purchase plants from a range of nurseries to populate our sites but this is not the best way to manage sustainable planting. So we have used Lottery money to buy seeds and an appropriate planting medium to grow our own plants on, ready for next season’s planting. Most of these are perennial, drought-tolerant species which should cope as well as possible with changes in our climate.
- None of our work happens without a considerable amount of administration, organising and communicating. Our four directors are unpaid but Lottery funding was invaluable, covering over one hundred hours of our manager’s time.
In summary, our grant from the National Lottery Community Fund has played a major role in establishing Greener Ipswich CIC as an effective player in improving the town’s environment – even during two extremely challenging summers. In additional to the environmental impact, we have made a difference socially. Former prisoners have been given opportunities to contribute to their community and people with learning difficulties or facing other challenges have been actively supported as they join our team of volunteers. As a result, Greener Ipswich CIC is now being invited to contribute to other regenerative schemes. Helped by the welcome injection of funding from National Lottery Community Fund in 2025, we are now sufficiently established to continue benefitting our community.
Tower Street Planting
Planting at Foundation Street. Photo: D. Vincent