In Merseyside the 'Green Together' project, run by the Riverside Group and other local partners, is providing a number of environmental improvements in the Tranmere/Rock Ferry area which is home to 10,500 people.

The area fell into decline following the collapse of the shipbuilding industry. The 2001 closure of the Cammel Laird shipyard - the area's main employer - is still having an impact with current unemployment levels remaining high at around at 6.3%.

The area comprises of a mix of properties with homeowners living alongside tenants of both private and social landlords. Riverside owns and manages 632 homes in the neighbourhood and is working in partnership with the local Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder, Tranmere Together, to redevelop the area and provide better prospects for the people who live there.

The purpose of the Green Together project is to not only provide physical improvements to a number of neighbourhoods but also develop a greater sense of pride within the community and reconnect people of all ages with their local environment.

Around £450,000 is being invested in a four-year programme to provide:

• Green Together Schools where eco gardens are being created at nine schools across the area as well as the launch of a junior neighbourhood warden initiative
• Green Together Neighbourhoods where new green spaces are being developed and existing ones improved, allotments are being brought back into use and a range of youth engagement activities are taking place to improve the environment
• Green Together Food which has involved the setting up of a food co-op run by the community as well as a healthy eating initiative
• Green Together Services which focuses on the delivery of the overall project as well as exploring opportunities to create social enterprises where local people run their own environmental projects.

The Green Together project, which began in April 2008, has involved a wide-ranging community consultation programme which put local residents at the heart of the planning process. Now that work is underway, a number of 'Together Committees' - made up of volunteers who live in the area, are helping to guide and monitor activity at a very local level. The aim is to develop skills within the community so that the people who live there can continue to run environmental projects themselves as well as develop and protect the improvements they have helped to create.