The Bawdrip Community Garden will establish a space for the whole community to use. The Parish Council will collaborate with local organisations Bawdrip Action for Climate Change and the Golden Environmental Network and the project will be completed by a group of local volunteers.
Project aims and objectives:
Bishops Hulls Parish Council enhanced their community allotments by installing raised beds and seating areas to make gardening more accessible and inclusive. The raised beds provide an opportunity for those with mobility issues or those who prefer smaller plots, while the seating area encourages social interaction among plot holders. This was a very successful project thanks to many volunteers. All the new beds are now in use and has provided more people in the village with the opportunity to garden.
Churchstanton Parish Council hope to address the issue of social isolation of farmers in rural areas such as the Blackdown Hills by bringing individuals together and creating a cohort of farmers who can support each other. This project aims to bring farmers together and provide a central group whether they can connect with each other and offer support within the group and also connect the group to their community.
This project involves a trial event – an evening for local farmers offering food and talks from guest speakers from the Blackdown National Landscape Team. This is a scoping event and an opportunity for those involved to explore what structure they would like to take and move forward with. If successful, the hope is to be able to offer similar events out to other farming groups across the Blackdowns.
Churchstanton Parish Council will develop this project in partnership with the Blackdowns National Landscape Team, other surrounding parishes and the Chard and Backdowns LCN.
The Bincombe Beeches Nature Reserve enhancement project successfully delivered significant improvements in accessibility, community engagement, public health and environmental engagement. This project achieved improving the community’s connection with the reserve as well as promoting biodiversity awareness and conservation efforts.
The project successfully involved a range of community groups. Local organisations, such as Brownies, Cubs, Scouts and the Eco-Council from local primary schools, actively participated in conservation activities, educational sessions and creative projects such as sculpture design. This collaborative effort strengthened community ties whilst providing young people with hands-on learning experience about nature and sustainability.
The installation of new welcome points at the main entrances greatly improved the accessibility of Bincombe Beeches. The leaflet offers essential information on accessible pathways. points of interest and an engaging natural trail with wooden sculptures.
This project will provide cookery classes for families in the village, offering skills to provide nutritious meals on a budget. The project aims to help residents learn practical cooking techniques, while also creative a supportive social space for people to connect.
This project aims to:
Exmoor LCN initially received a scoping grant for The Moorland Foodbank Development Project which set out to ensure the continuity and growth of the local food bank to ensure ongoing support for South Exmoor Households.
This initial project was extremely successful and established a secure and sustainable framework for Moorland Foodbank to continue to provide support for local residents. Achievements included:
Building on the successful completion of the Moorland Foodbank Scoping Project, Exmoor LCN were awarded a large grant to fund staffing costs of a part-time manager to develop the Moorland Foodbank into a community resource.
With their building secured, the Foodbank now aims to continue to provide support for those living in southern Exmoor, whilst also addressing some of the difficulties that lead to a lack of food resilience.
Project aims and objectives:
This project involves the refurbishment of dormant allotment plots to create a community space and encourage broader involvement. Interest in the allotments has increased and generated the need for a community space to be more available.
Project aims and objectives:
Leigh-on-Mendip Parish Council have created a welcoming, accessible community green space including a play area, allotments and social spaces. This grant funded the creation of an immersive sensory garden created and built by volunteers. The horseshoe seating area creates a natural ‘room’ and is full of plants and herbs.
The green space is now multi-generational and used daily by people of all ages within the village.
This project involves restoring a currently unused outdoor space to create a welcoming and inclusive outdoor space for the whole community.
Once restored, the Community Garden will be a space to grow and share fresh, organic produce that can be distributed through the Community Fridge to local residents, providing a further boost to nutrition as well as providing an opportunity for volunteers to enjoy the benefits of increased physical activity.
The initial objectives involve gathering and building a volunteer group who can all contribute differently, such as those with a wide bank of knowledge and skills who have lived in the parish all their life to share with younger and more recently moved villagers who have relocated from cities, where gardens and growing have not been part of their lives.
The Parish Council also wish to create a sensory garden within the Community Garden for members of the parish who have experienced impairments to their senses. The garden is also located directly next to the Church graveyard, so the sensory space will also offer a space for reflection.
Once established, the project will also involve the delivery of workshops related to growing and gardening, as well as developing a seed bank, where residents can swap and share seeds with each other.
Project achievements and outcomes so far:
Future workshops will include:
This project involves the creation of a Zen & Sensory Community Garden within the Old Quarry Gardens in Nunney.
The aim is to create a peaceful environment where residents and visitors of all ages can connect with nature, support biodiversity, take part in wellness activities and have fun.
Key project goals and deliverables:
Project achievements and outcomes so far:
After acquiring a piece of land, the Pawlett Parish Council is setting up ten new allotment plots as well as a community wellbeing space for the local residents. The wellbeing space, open for all, will have benches, fruit trees and wild grass to make the it welcoming for wildlife and people alike.
The SALC Community Health & Wellbeing Grant will be utilised to create the plots and to provide a communal shed, which will house the water supply and any shared equipment, allowing locals to grow their own food.
Rodney Stoke Parish Council was awarded funding from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Somerset Community Foundation in 2025 to transform an overflow car park into a community orchard. Volunteers are delivering the project and SALC will fund a noticeboard with information for visitors and an official summer opening event for members of the parish.
Residents responded positively to the idea as Rodney Stoke and Draycott are ancient villages with narrow and hilly streets, small gardens and a lack of open-air green spaces. The orchard will become a meeting place for residents to enjoy the seasons and to use the produce as part of a healthy lifestyle.
The parish council and the working group of volunteers are committed to ensuring the orchard is maintained and improved upon for future generations. The council has offered the opportunity for residents to sponsor a tree and to date fifteen trees have been sponsored and purchased.
After a successful trial to provide monthly Better Together lunches for Stawell residents experiencing loneliness, bereavement or ill health, the parish council is keen to ensure the project continues. The lunch sessions, enabled initially by a grant from Asda, brought together villagers and neighbours with the generous help of volunteers and the Village Hall.
Volunteers have managed everything from meal planning and prep to cooking and clearing up. They have also supported parishioners with limited mobility to come to the hall and have been able to offer home deliveries when needed. The number of attendees has gone up from 32 to 60, and the feedback has been positive.
SALC’s Community Health and Wellbeing Grant will support the council to organise two further lunch sessions as well as two fundraising sessions to ensure the project’s longevity. The first fundraising event will be an afternoon tea with a local choir in August and the second a curry night with musical entertainment in late September 2026.
The money raised will be used to provide future lunches and to support other fundraising activities.
Stoke St Gregory Parish Council are collaborating with Heart of the Village (Stoke St Gregory), which was formed as a Community Benefit Society in 2019 as a direct result of the threat of closure of both village pubs and the village shop. The aim was to form a community serving enterprise to purchase, refurbish and run a shop and pub facility out of the Royal Oak pub building scheduled for closure. This was all achieved with a huge level of community support and goodwill and was furnished through donated up cycled items.
The newly develop cafe area and kitchen at the Royal Oak has been trialling a fortnightly lunch offer, but requires more appropriate dining facilities, equipment and staff to supply the food and refreshments. This grant will support the funding of staff costs to deliver tasty, nutritious and competitively priced lunches as well as supporting the purchases of suitable furniture and equipment.
The Parish Council will work closely with Heart of the Village to support continued success and the development of a wider offering to meet needs across the community.
Walton Parish Council is creating a dedicated, long-term outdoor learning and wellbeing space in Walton Hills, in collaboration with local residents and the landowners.
The need for the project came from identifying the limited access to informal outdoor learning spaces in Walton, particularly as new housing developments often lack adequate garden space. There has also been a growing demand for accessible, family-friendly outdoor activities, alongside a recognised need for inclusive learning opportunities, especially for neurodivergent children. The first community event, held in April 2026 in collaboration with the local school, welcomed more than 20 Walton residents, including ten children, into the new learning space.
SALC is supporting the initiative by funding a new Tree Trail learning experience and two summer holiday events delivered by Skool Beanz. Local residents will continue to be actively involved through participation, co-design opportunities (such as contributing to the Tree Trail), and community-led events, fostering engagement, wellbeing, and environmental awareness.
This project successfully revamped the Community Garden in West Monkton, providing a space for local residents and schoolchildren to grow food, socialise and learn about healthy eating and sustainability.
The garden grows produce all year round for the Community Fridge, providing seasonal vegetables and fruit for the community. The garden team and volunteers also work with the primary school to support growing sessions so that children can learn about growing and taking care of plants.
The Allotments for All project seeks to diversify the use of the 300+ Yeovil Town Council allotment plots across eleven sites. It seeks to reduce vacant plots, improve quality of management, encourage more, and a wide range of people to use and enjoy growing on allotments and plans to also target underrepresented groups at allotments.
The project plans to facilitate education and mentoring to upskill new allotment holders with the outcome of better health and wellbeing for project participants. The project will also celebrate growing and the benefits of grow your own through new marketing, educational materials and events.
The Allotments for All project links closely to Yeovil Town Council’s Growing Hub project which seeks to develop a new community growing space at the old ski centre site.