THE Port of London Authority has unveiled a new £175,000 fund to support community-based environmental projects along the tidal Thames.  

The new Environment Fund follows on from a fund which the PLA has operated for 5 years, during which time it has backed 26 projects with £180,000 of funding. Last year, £50,000 went to support six environmental projects.  

Building on the success of that fund, the PLA has launched a new, bigger, more ambitious fund with a 250% increase in support available for environmental projects, across three categories.  

• Environmental Improvement Programme with £100,000 available. This is a fund to support environmental improvement programmes that can make a strategic difference to the tidal Thames.  
• Local Environment Champions with £50,000 available. This is a fund to back and empower community groups making a difference to their local environment. 
• Tidal Tributaries Stewardship Fund with £25,000 available. This is a fund to support groups dedicated to caring for tributaries of the tidal Thames.  

As a result of the PLA's status as a trust port – meaning it reinvests all the money it makes to care for the tidal Thames and its communities – it is able to commit this significant extra funding to enhance and improve the local environment. 

Grace Rawnsley, Director of Sustainability at the PLA, said: "We want a clean, thriving, resilient tidal Thames and have big ambitions to work towards that aim. To help us, we are reinvesting all the money we make back into caring for the river and supporting the communities who live and work along it.  

 "We are pushing for net zero emissions on the river, capturing opportunities for renewable energy, and boosting biodiversity. Last year we led a project to remove five million wet wipes from the banks of the river in West London, clearing away the so-called wet wipe island.  

 "There is more work to do and so I'm delighted to unveil our new Environment Fund with a 250% increase in funding.  This will help community-based projects to make meaningful and lasting changes to the environment. I'm also particularly excited that, for the first time, we will have a fund dedicated to supporting the tributaries that feed into the river." 

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