North East Lincolnshire Council have planted 416 trees in just a few weeks as part of its new Tree Strategy.
The plan, which has been in development since 2022, was formerly adopted by Cabinet in December last year. The strategy sets out their approach for managing and protecting the existing tree population, increasing the number of trees in North East Lincolnshire and for promoting the significant benefits that trees have in society.
It aims to give the residents of North East Lincolnshire a high quality, sustainable environment, which ties in with the Council’s aim to become Net Zero.
The Tree Strategy is also supported by two successful funding bids to the Forestry Commission’s Local Authority Treescapes Fund (LATF) and Urban Tree Challenge Fund (UTCF), which will be used to support our tree planting efforts in 2023/24 and 2024/25.
It will also aim to improve canopy coverage across North East Lincolnshire from 10.5% to a minimum of 15%. Some boroughs, including East Marsh, West Marsh, Sidney Sussex, Immingham, and Croft Baker have as little as 2% tree coverage.
Already, a number of community projects have been carried out across the area, planting nearly 100 trees in the process.
On Friday 23 February, community volunteers and children from Signhills Academy joined North East Lincolnshire Council, Equans, Friends of Haverstoe and All Things Good and Nice CIC to plant 12 new trees in Haverstoe Park and on Taylor’s Avenue in Cleethorpes.
The second tree planting event took place on Tuesday 27th February in the West Marsh Ward. With the help of community volunteers and children from Macaulay Primary, Littlecoates Primary, and Ormiston South Parade, with support from West Marsh Community Centre, Grimsby in Bloom, Equans, North East Lincolnshire Council, Together for Childhood Grimsby and All Things Good and Nice CIC, 25 new trees were planted in the Duke of York Gardens.
On Thursday 29th February, a tree planting event took place with some of the children and staff from Springfield Lodge Montessori Day Nursery and Pre School, with support from North East Lincolnshire Council and Equans. The nursery runs a forest school as part of its education programme, and during the event, they helped plant and water six new trees on the land opposite their nursery off Springfield Road, Scartho.
The most recent events saw volunteers plant 12 trees in West Marsh on Tuesday 5 March, 25 in Sidney Sussex on Wednesday 6 March and 16 trees at Barretts Rec in Grimsby on Thursday 7 March. There are also a number of other events taking place throughout the rest of March to help plant more trees across the borough:
- Wednesday 13th March – Sussex Rec, Cleethorpes
- Monday 18th March – Grimsby Institute
- Tuesday 19th March – Junction of Pelham and Worsley Road, Immingham
- Wednesday 20th March – Weelsby Woods, Grimsby
- Friday 22nd March – Ainslie Rec, Grimsby
- Monday 25th March – Old Road, Great Coates
- Wednesday 27th March – Thrunscoe Primary Academy, Cleethorpes
- Thursday 28th March – Pocket Park, Haverstoe, Cleethorpes
Councillor Stewart Swinburn, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Transport, said: “It’s brilliant to see how many trees have already been planted across the borough.
“When Cabinet adopted the strategy we were committed to working with local groups in the community and we’ve done just that. I look forward to increasing the canopy coverage much more as we continue to work hard with groups to get more trees in the ground.”
Article and image from NELC.
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