A total of £3.6m of funding for fifteen new projects designed to encourage local communities to enjoy and improve the green spaces around them has been announced by Natural England.

The projects are part of the Access to Nature grant scheme which is run by Natural England and funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces programme. The programme is designed to create opportunities for people from all backgrounds to improve their local environment and make greater use of it. In this latest series of awards, projects to help communities improve local woodlands, ponds, canals or inner city green spaces complement a number of programmes focused on helping young people enjoy and benefit from the natural world.

Richard Benyon, parliamentary under-secretary for natural environment and fisheries, said: "The Access to Nature Grant Scheme is a great way for local communities to come together and to make the most of their local environment and learn to appreciate wildlife. "These projects will improve local woodlands and green spaces, helping to restore habitats so that wildlife can thrive and allow us to create a natural environment that everyone can enjoy."

The awards range from £100,000 to the Castleford Heritage Trust for its Fryston Woods Access and Improvements Project, through to £387,000 to Birmingham City Council for a scheme involving the regeneration of green space within the Perry Common area of the city. Other recipients include the Waterways Trust for 'Canal Connections in East Manchester' (£124,537); Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust for 'Sea Green!' (£243,852); Mersey and Red Rose Forests for 'Setting the Scene for Nature' (£240,000); the RSPCA for 'Hastings Wild Things' (£245,981); and Organised Chaos (North) for its child-focused 'Muddy Boots Project' (£248,061).

Access to Nature is a consortium - of which Natural England is the lead organisation - comprising BTCV, British Waterways, the Environment Agency, the Forestry Commission, Greenspace, Groundwork UK, the Land Restoration Trust, the RSPB, the National Trust, the Wildlife Trust and the Woodland Trust.