Havant schools, parks and streets to benefit from thousands of new trees
More than £25,000 has been granted to Havant Borough Tree Wardens to plant 5,600 trees in streets, parks, schools and conservation areas.
It is part of the Big Tree Plant, a scheme from Defra and the Forestry Commission, which is giving out £4m over five years to plant one million trees.
Trees to be planted include Crab Apple, Oak, Hazel, Birch and Lime.
Frances Jannaway, co-ordinator for Havant Borough Tree Wardens, spent months working on the bid.
She said: ‘I feel quite relieved to be honest. It took a lot of work to get it all agreed.
‘We’re so happy that the borough is going to have all these wonderful trees. We couldn’t have lots of trees that were £100 each so all the trees I wanted to plant had to come down to as close to £4 as possible.
‘It took a lot of jiggling around but we believe it’s the largest tree planting project in public places in Havant borough in recent years.’
There are seven projects in all and the aim is to get the public involved as much as possible, from planning to digging. The nine projects are:
- Streets in Bedhampton, Hayling Island, Leigh Park and Waterlooville
- Recreation grounds in Bedhampton and Emsworth
- Replace trees in Staunton Country Park, Leigh Park
- Along the Hermitage Stream, in Leigh Park
- Purbrook Infants School and Mill Rythe Junior School, in Hayling Island
- Park Wood in Waterlooville and Brook Meadow in Emsworth
- Planting small copses along the Hayling Billy Trail to increase biodiversity and provide shade to walkers and cyclists
Councillor David Collins is in charge of the environment at Havant Borough Council.
He said: ‘We are very grateful to the volunteer tree wardens, they do a magnificent job.’
The planting will begin this coming autumn and winter with another 3,000 planted in autumn and winter 2013 and 2014.
The remainder will be planted in 2014 and 2015.
No ash trees will be planted.
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