Ahead of National Tree Week, Halton Borough Council has set out its plans for a major new tree planting programme across Halton, as part of its eight year ‘Big Halton Forest’ initiative.
The Council usually plants around 1500 new trees each year, but with £300,000 of external funding secured, this number is set to rise, with the planting of 130,000 new trees across the borough by 2030.
The Big Halton Forest follows the pledge made in the Council’s Climate Change Strategy to plant more trees, with the aim of boosting biodiversity and removing carbon emissions from the air.
Over recent weeks, potential sites for the tree planting have been identified, including land off Factory Lane adjacent to the new Widnes cemetery – and in the cemetery itself. Here, the largest tree planning of the 2023 season will take place, with circa 2,000 trees and thousands of shrubs planted.
Smaller sites will include some school sites in Widnes and other locations, including Town Park in Runcorn.
Talking about the plans for the Big Halton Forest, the Council’s Lead on Climate Change, Cllr Phil Harris said ‘’The Council has focussed on securing external funding to provide the technical support for the tree planting initiative in 2022 and from 2023 onward the numbers of trees and other plants going in will increase sharply each year.’’
‘’The plantings at Factory Lane will improve the backdrop to the new cemetery and within the cemetery itself. As it is new the cemetery looks a bit bare now, but eventually the edges of the site will see the emergence of new trees in future years that will also boost local biodiversity.’’
Discussions have also started with social landlords and other landowners with the aim to have a gradual mix of sites of different sizes involving schools, community groups and individuals alongside larger planting sites.