Over 3000 trees to be planted in Peterborough this winter thanks to Forestry Commission Grant

An extra 3300 trees will be planted in Peterborough this winter thanks to a grant from the Forestry Commission.
Councillor Wayne Fitzgerald, leader of Peterborough City Council planting a tree at Central Park with assistance from Aragon Direct Services.Councillor Wayne Fitzgerald, leader of Peterborough City Council planting a tree at Central Park with assistance from Aragon Direct Services.
Councillor Wayne Fitzgerald, leader of Peterborough City Council planting a tree at Central Park with assistance from Aragon Direct Services.

Peterborough City Council was successful in its grant application to the commission and will plant all of the trees by the end of March 2022.

A number of locations have already been selected for the new trees, they include Itter Park, Thorney Park, Manor Far Park in Eye, Beaumont Way Playing Field Hampton, Ringwood and several sites across Stanground.

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The trees will give a boost to the local natural environment and help to fight climate change.

The trees will also be registered under the Queen’s Green Canopy programme, a unique tree planting initiative created to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

The council applied for the grant back in the spring as part of the commission’s Local Authorities Treescape Fund and has now found out that it will receive £261,100, the full amount applied for. Residents are being asked to nominate sites to plant the new trees in future years. Find out more online.

The money will be spent on planting and establishing an extra 3,300 trees across the city. A broad mix of trees will be selected, with an emphasis on planting in low-canopy wards and where planting will deliver multiple eco-system benefits, such as reduced air pollution and reduced surface water run-off. The new trees will also help to replace some trees that are dying from ash-dieback, a disease affecting ash trees across the country.

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The first batch of trees planted with the funding took place on Friday (November 5) at Central Park. Council leader, Councillor Wayne Fitzgerald, donned a spade with staff from Aragon Direct Services, to plant one of ten new trees in the park.

Cllr Fitzgerald said: “We were delighted to find out that we had received the full funding of over £260,000 from the Forestry Commission and that we could plant an extra 3,300 trees. As I have said before, I’m a huge supporter of the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative, so these extra trees will be boost for that as well.

“As well as doing our bit for the environment, one of the reasons we were successful with the funding was our goal to protect the city’s tree population over the coming years from diseases such as Ash Dieback, which for lower canopy wards, could have been devastating without this additional boost.”

The planting at Central Park took place on the same day that papers for the next city council cabinet meeting were published. In the papers is a report from the Climate Change Working Group, requesting that the city council reach a target of 25 percent tree canopy on city council land by 2035, a target that will require 1,000s of trees to be planted every year. Cabinet will consider the Working Group’s recommendations on Monday November 15.