An environmental education project has been saved after money was found to keep it going.
Our City Our World was expected to end when Brighton and Hove City Council axed its £41,000 budget.
Now the project will continue with specialist teachers supporting schools after the Living Coast UNESCO Biosphere and the Aquifer Partnership agreed to put up the funding.
The Our City Our World budget cut was announced in January as part of a £30 million savings drive in the council’s budget.
At the council’s annual budget meeting last month, Labour councillor Mitchie Alexander said that she had been seeking external support to keep the project going.
And sustainability educator and learning mentor Les Gunbie, who has been involved with the project since it started, welcomed the news that funding had been found.
He said: “Our City Our World was a broadening out of what the city is trying to do and global targets, such as the 17 UN sustainability goals
“It’s a much more rounded connection for schools for what’s happening in our world. The council said the schools can do this themselves. It completely missed the added value the programme brings.
“It connected work with schools to help them. Schools link into national campaigns. It’s not stuff schools naturally do.”
Mr Gunbie added: “Young people absolutely have the biggest stake in the future and are clearly articulating through this programme that they want to make the changes that are essential for a healthy, sustainable planet for us all.”
More than 320 people signed a petition set up by St Nicolas Church of England (CofE) Primary School head teacher Andy Richbell to protect the Our City Our World project.
Through the programme, environmental education has become part of the wider curriculum.
In secondary schools, students have learned to be climate ambassadors, organised clothes swaps, refill shops, water saving activities and had opportunities to question decision-makers.
It has helped children and young people to develop a close connection with nature by making wildlife areas for pollinators, creating ponds and rain gardens and planting trees.
Judging by the dreadful state of our parks I am pleased the council pulled funding for this projection. There is no justification at the moment for the council spending any money on consultants, green school’s projects, white privilege re-education consultants or anything other than street cleaning, graffiti removal and cleaning parks so we can all enjoy them or council tax reductions. This project would have paid for 1.5 gardeners for the town centre parks that children could have enjoyed. I’m amazed the council even considered spending £40,000 on this project.
so you saying it ahould be scrapped cos so few people seem to care about our parks and green spaces when this project is educating kids on importance of parks and green stuff. Looks like others stepped up to save it because they think its more important than counselors did. This looks cheap if it reaches every school kid in city.
As long as every school kid remembers it, and does not grow up to vandalise the very things that are for everyone’s enjoyment. Sorry to be negative.