The grants of up to £2,500 are part of a £10 million package of investments being taken forward by South Lanarkshire Council through this year’s budget.

Local groups will be able to bid for grants for a range of purposes, from buying gardening equipment for community food projects, to starting up services which allow people to repair or reuse items rather than scrap and replace them.

Council Leader John Ross said: “When we approved our budget earlier this year our new investments included £2 million for a Climate Emergency Fund and £300,000 for a Food Strategy Support Fund.

“That money is already being put to a variety of good uses, and now we are allocating a large chunk of it to help community groups through this new grants scheme. I hope it will encourage people across South Lanarkshire to think about what they can do in these vital ‘green’ areas.”

Grants of up to £2,500 for climate change projects will come from a £150,000 fund, while grants of £1,000 will be available from a separate £20,000 fund. The Climate Change and Sustainability Committee was told on Wednesday that the sizes of the grants would be kept under review.

The grants will be available in the next two financial years, 2022/23 and 2023/24. Applications are expected to be sought from January 2022, in a process that will be well-publicised across the council’s communications channels, including the View.