Three councillors who want to see more trees in Brighton and Hove met to help plant the last tree of the spring planting season.
The trio are pictured at the top of Hamilton Road, in Prestonville, with a Turkish hazel (Corylus columa) which was chosen after consultation with the local community.
This year, Brighton and Hove City Council has planted 225 new trees but all three councillors agreed that more are needed, not least with diseased ash and elm trees having to be felled.
Councillor Maureen Winder, who leads on green spaces for the Labour administration, said: “We know from published research that there are many benefits that come from trees in urban areas.
She said that these included increased biodiversity, filtration of air pollution, cooling in hot weather and even just making our streets feel more pleasant.
Councillor Winder added: “Trees are good for our health and wellbeing.”
“We’re working on a plan to unlock more tree-planting in future years.”
Councillor Alan Robins, the council’s cabinet member for sports and recreation, said that residents were often concerned about trees being felled because of disease.
But, he said, all the experts acknowledged that managing diseases was imperative to maintaining the tree population.
He added: “It’s all the more reason why we want to plant more trees – to replace the ones we have to remove for disease management.”
The councillors said that the council has a good record of raising external funds, bringing in £680,000 over the past four years to support new planting.
But they have even more ambitious plans.
The council has just submitted a £1 million bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, via the biosphere partnership, for more green infrastructure in Brighton and Hove.
The Labour deputy leader of the council, Jacob Taylor, said: “We’re exploring some further internal funding options, including use of the community infrastructure levy (CIL), to get more planting going.
“In areas like Coombe Road in my ward, there are almost no trees or green spaces at all.
“We’re also investigating further use of planters in areas where it’s difficult to plant directly into the ground.”
He added that the council was working on a refreshed tree-planting strategy and a practical plan to plant more trees in the years to come.
So why not allow residents to donate the cost of a tree in a park, cemetery or outside their home? So many times people have asked me – but our Labour Council say no. The only option to donate to a general fund – which is not what most folks want to do
Strange you’ve been struggling with this, Ivan. CRPE Sussex have had loads done. Disingenuous political jabs are not very clever when they can be easily shown as being what they are – petty. Do better please, Councillor.
When the Tories led the council did they allow this?
I’d suggest not. The admin cost of dealing with piddling £20 quid donations here and there would soon outweigh the value of donations.
It would be useful to know how many trees are being planted v trees felled in this city and how much money is being made from felled trees. Coldean alone is currently having 150 cut down.
In these city few trees are older then 40 years when olther cities have parks filled with ancient trees, particularly in Europe. And not all being cut down here are diseased. it’s time ecocide was made a crime in UK.
They’ve felled far more trees than they have planted this year, so a photo op with a spade doesn’t really cut it for me.
Shame they decimated Holligbury Park before finally conceding that “mistakes were made” by the council about their handling of things. The council has also been hell bent of using harmful pesticides on weeds in the city which will impact bee, insect and bird populations.
And anyone reading this who has tried to get a street tree planted in their street will know all about the battle of bureacracy to try and make it happen.
CPRE Sussex have done (and are doing) great work in helping communities getting trees planted in the city – through a project called Plant Your Postcode. It’s great to see support from local councillors for more trees getting planted but we need more money to make this happen. Tree planting would be a great use of CIL money!