Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:18 pm on 18 November 2020.
Thank you, John. Certainly, during lockdown, we have seen an increase in awareness and interest in nature and green spaces, and it's really important that we lock in that behaviour. I've been really pleased, despite the challenges of COVID-19, one of our policies was about creating nature on your doorstep, so our Local Places for Nature scheme, where we are encouraging people—it's not huge amounts of funding that's needed, but to do something that they can access from their doorstep. So, we've literally got hundreds of projects now starting to take shape. So, we've got local nature partnership co-ordinators who are taking forward these projects, over £109 million. Even during the pandemic, we've managed to get significant funding out of the door, and we've also collaborated with the National Lottery heritage fund, so now communities can access—[Inaudible.] I'm not sure if Maindee Unlimited have accessed either of those pots of money, but those are certainly two areas where we've had significant funding out of the door in the last few months.
Keep Wales Tidy are also supporting communities to create their own place for nature. So, again, that is another organisation that maybe Maindee Unlimited could access funding from also.