Express & Star

Council wants share of funding pot to plant more trees in Wolverhampton

A new government scheme could see more trees being planted in Wolverhampton.

Published
More tree planting is needed

Environmental experts at Wolverhampton council will look at ways of bidding for funding from the UK-wide £60 million scheme that will see more than 10 million trees planted across the country.

The council’s Head of Environmental Services Steve Woodward is due to provide members with an overview of the plan this week.

He said: “England’s tree-planting record is poor compared with other European countries. About 1.6 million trees were planted in England with government support in the 2017-2018 financial year, covering 895 hectares. By comparison, Scotland planted 7,100 hectares in the same period.

“Environmental Services has a tree replacement budget of £10,000, mainly for street tree replacements. However this will be offered up as part of agreed council savings.

“Conservationists have pointed out that because England’s 120 million ash trees are threatened by ash dieback, a deadly fungus that arrived in 2012, the country is on track to suffer a net loss of trees over the next five years. The mix of species proposed to be planted under the government’s new funding announcement will be decided later.

“The bulk of the money, £50m, will pay landowners for planting trees that lock up carbon, which observers said raised questions over how accessible those woodlands would be to the public. That fund, the Woodland Carbon Guarantee scheme, should pay for 10 million new trees, and obviously Wolverhampton and the West Midlands will be bidding to be a part of that.”

“There will be £10 million for local authorities to plant more trees, which is a good first step towards greening grey Britain, but it might only mean 25,000 are planted in towns and cities as a result of the scheme, which is just third of the number of trees Manchester City Council already maintains.

“Details about bidding for funding locally as part of this initiative are not currently available. We are, therefore, awaiting further information to see how this can be accessed.”