The community organisation ‘greening’ East Marsh

A community organisation is leading efforts to green an area of Grimsby known for its tightly packed terraced housing. East Marsh United (EMU), known for multiple community initiatives and its transformation of previously empty homes, has since 2023 embarked on a project to make East Marsh a greener place to live.

EMU’s Carolyn Doyley has led the project, having herself first become involved with EMU through leading creative writing sessions. She explained the project has been split into three phases and emphasised throughout multiple collaborations with the community and other organisations. The first phase was in February 2023 when 30 trees were planted in Grant Thorold Park.

“That was an amazing community day, it felt like the whole town turned out to help us,” she said. Lambeth-based Create Streets and Woodland Dwelling’s Russell Horsey were on hand and have been important collaborators since, too.

Trees were planted in the memory of loved ones and friends and a new avenue of trees created in Grant Thorold Park. Over a couple of weeks in January to February 2024, the core part of phase two took place.

This involved tree planting across East Marsh schools. 96 standard trees, about eight years old each, were planted across seven schools, and 4,000 whips distributed to develop hedgerows in school estates.

“A lot of the children who planted the trees were eight years old as well. They really took to it and they said they would be able to tell people that I planted that tree.”

Phase three has already received national coverage with The Guardian featuring it. The vision of this phase is to green Rutland Street in particular, the centre of much of EMU’s community efforts, such as its housing transformations.

As Ms Doyley put it, to explain the general ethos of making greener this part of East Marsh, she said: “The idea was because Grant Thorold Park is the jewel in the crown really, we thought if we could not go for the whole street it would be good to do corners on the street so that the green areas are radiating out from the park.”

Many of the houses on Rutland Street do not have a front porch, let alone a front garden, and those that do are modest in size. It is typical of many East Marsh streets, with densely packed terraced housing.

Part of the desire to green the street is to help people living in their homes. Ms Doyley said lack of front gardens and shade resulted in “unbelievable heat” in some houses’ front rooms. “Because they’re just concrete gridlines, I mean the heating is intense in the summer.”

“The back gardens are really lush, but the front is really stark,” she said, adding tree planting would provide shade and coolness to properties.

EMU are in contact with North East Lincolnshire Council about greening Rutland Street, Ms Doyley said. The council is planning a housing retrofit scheme in Rutland Street with £3.1m Government grant cash secured for it.

During the most recent update on this, councillors heard the council is looking at ways to increase the budget and at other areas to bring improvements to the street. This includes to the street scene and highways.

Phase three is not yet underway, but the organisation has certainly not been idle since the school planting with other green initiatives. This includes transforming land bought by EMU next to St John, St Stephen and Shalom, close to the corner of Rutland Street, by Grant Thorold Park.

Collaboration with the church and Rev Kay Jones has already seen a potting shed and planters installed outside the church, where vegetables are grown for the church café and passers-by. Plans for the acquired land involve development of a community orchard and garden. “We’re creating a blank canvas,” Ms Doyley said, with the site having been levelled. A consultation day was held in January to get community ideas on what they would like to see.

There have been visits to existing community gardens elsewhere in the country, supported by NEL Creates funding, and link-up with Abundance London’s Dr Karen Liebreich, MBE. “The next phase is to really get the community involved. Get them going on visits themselves to see what can be achieved in a community space.”

EMU has also brought in planting to its properties’ back gardens with trees planted in consultation with tenants. “Mainly, they went for Bramley Apple trees so that they could use it for cooking,” Ms Doyley said.

The community organisation has connected with multiple bodies to develop its green initiatives. Through Grimsby in Bloom, it was put onto joining the RHS’s ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ scheme. It has featured as a case study in Kew Gardens’ ‘Grow Wild’ project, and Ms Doyley said EMU has had talks with The Woodlands Trust about supplying trees for the community garden.

There was also planting of 1,250 crocus bulbs and 600 snowdrops in Grant Thorold Park before Phase One in February 2023, which saw link-up with the local church too. Ms Doyley spoke of a philosophy to use underutilised space to create “little pockets of joy” in the East Marsh area through planting. “If there’s a little pocket on there that’s bare and quite ugly, it would be nice to throw some wildflower seeds in.”