Meet the Mancunian Podcast: social impact stories from Manchester · Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe

Transforming Manchester's green spaces with Claire Biggs

·15 min·1 clip

How did an empty bowling green become a vibrant orchard garden involving hundreds of people from all over?

This episode features host Deepa Thomas Sutcliffe interviewing Claire Biggs, director of Sustainable Northmoor Urban Greening (SNUG) and a Spirit of Manchester Award nominee. Claire discusses her community work through Longsight Community Arts Space and its urban greening projects. The conversation explores how her faith and passion for people drive her efforts to serve her Manchester neighborhood. Longsight Community Arts Space provides free art workshops and exhibitions for local artists in a multicultural, deprived area. The organization launched an urban greening program after a community art project led to planting pear trees in a local park. Claire explains that securing consistent funding is a major challenge to keep their free, wellbeing-focused programs running. Their most visible impact is the transformation of a disused bowling green into the Crowcroft Park Orchard Garden. Volunteers have planted 53 fruit trees alongside beds of edible plants in this community space. Some mature donated trees are fruiting for the first time, with a harvest expected soon. Hundreds of local people, including children and a Bangladeshi youth group from Better B, have participated in planting days. Claire was emotionally surprised by the award nomination and plans to bring involved children to the ceremony. She advises starting similar projects by building relationships with other community groups and council members. Claire chooses the bridge near the Etihad Stadium as her symbolic Manchester landmark, representing her work in building connections. For Claire, the key life lesson is having a life purpose bigger than oneself, which she attributes to her faith. The community can join volunteer gardening sessions at the orchard every Wednesday. The tone is conversational and inspirational, focusing on grassroots community achievement. Listeners interested in urban regeneration, community arts, or local volunteering will find this episode motivating. Those seeking hard-hitting investigative journalism or national policy debates might find the scope too locally focused.

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