Plant a tree for Harlow
Communities / Fri 18th Oct 2019 at 12:15pm
Plant a tree for Harlow
HARLOW Council is offering residents the opportunity to improve the quality of their town as part of their pledge to plant 1000 trees and hedgerows in the next year.
The scheme, which will run from October 2019 and throughout next year, aims to bring together the community to help improve their neighbourhoods and contribute towards combatting climate change.
To support this initiative, the council will be supplying the tools and tree ‘whips’, as well as providing advice on ideal planting times to give the baby trees the best chance to grow.
When the trees are established they will be taken over and managed with the rest of the trees on council land.
Councillor Mark Ingall, Leader of the council, said: “Ever since we declared a climate emergency back in July, we have been determined to get the ball rolling on our preventative strategy.
“Planting trees is one of the many actions we plan to take to reduce our carbon footprint and feeds into the vital conservation work carried out by our Landscape and Biodiversity team and volunteers.
“Having been impressed with the amazing work Harlow groups did for the Great British Spring Clean, we decided to make the tree planting scheme into an event, which will once again bring communities together for the greater good of Harlow; future-proofing our town for generations to come.”
If you would like to take part, get a group together and decide whereabouts you would like to see some trees planted.
For more information and to register your interest, visit: www.harlow.gov.uk/plant-trees
And then the Harlow Development Plan will kick in, build over 1,000 homes on green space leaving this scheme utterly redundant as it'll make no impact on offsetting the consequences. Although for the record, I do think this is a great idea, and should be absolutely encouraged. I just wish there was consistency in policy. If you're going to build over 1,000 extra homes, on top of the 10,000 home development, putting thousands of extra cars in Harlow and reducing green space, then shouting about being more green does kind of fall flat and isn't really consistent. It doesn't quite add up...
jhumphey84 makes a very good point. As for Cllr Ingall, when he says trees will be taken over and managed by the Council when they are planted on council land, the fact is the Council and it's contractor has no tree maintenance programme, it has no specific tree maintenance budget, trees are not being cut back when needed, dead trees are not being removed and those near homes are not being checked in case they are causing structural damage. In the past, hundreds of trees have been planted in places where they should never have been put, lets hope history does not repeat itself.
Just amazing that When we have a great story certain people use this as a pathetic excuse to criticise the local council. We should be very proud that community leaders have made such a commitment. This will be managed and supportive by local residents. Criticise when it’s required but celebrate when it’s justified.
Durcant, I’m not sure anyone is criticising the council for this initiative. It’s worthy and good. What’s being criticised is the lack of policy alignment and how something very well intentioned can actually turn out to be badly planned and turn out worse or be in direct contradiction to another policy in an attempt to push a popularist green agenda. If it’s really meant, then all policy should align around this, not just random acts of kindness/good policy
A great initiative but I agree about the lack of joined up policy. Aren't these mostly to replace all the trees the council cut down earlier in the year, including the x2 trees and hedgerow full of birds in front of my house?
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