Plans to ensure that UK City of Culture 2021 has a major, positive impact on heritage, nature and the environment in Coventry have received significant national investment.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund is awarding £3 million to the Coventry City of Culture Trust after a successful bid from the organisation that will deliver the year in 2021 and ensure it leaves a lasting legacy.
The funding - awarded in The National Lottery’s 25th Birthday year - will support the Trust’s plans to invest in initiatives that will protect and develop the city’s natural environment and promote health and wellbeing.
The funding will enable the Trust to develop an ambitious programme of events and activities, across the city, in a range of Coventry’s green spaces, urban sites, waterways and heritage locations.
Martin Sutherland, Chief Executive of the Coventry City of Culture Trust, said: “We are committed to ensuring that UK City of Culture 2021 will be a responsible, environmentally sustainable year but this funding goes further than that.
“It will help to reconnect the city and its people with Coventry’s green spaces, its environment and its heritage.”
Martin added: “The support ensures that we can be ambitious in what we deliver during the year and enables us to leave a legacy from which Coventry and the wider region will benefit after 2021.
“We are delighted that the National Lottery Heritage Fund has put such faith in our plans and that it will play a major part in delivering a successful 2021 that will have a positive impact on the environment and heritage of Coventry for future generations.”
Ros Kerslake, The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s CEO, said: “City of Culture status presents Coventry with an incredible opportunity to drive economic and social prosperity by putting heritage and culture at the centre of its place strategy. Our investment of funding from the National Lottery will ensure Coventry’s nature is front and centre of Coventry 2021, creating a lasting connection with the natural world that future generations will benefit from.”