London,
04
March
2008
|
23:00
Europe/London

Hackney’s street trees growing in numbers

More than 400 street trees have already been planted across Hackney as part of Mayor Jules Pipe’s pledge to plant more than 1,000 new trees by 2010, to help make a cleaner, greener borough.

During the current season (November 2007 to March 2008) Hackney’s Arboricultural Team, part of the Council’s Streetscene Services, has been working towards planting 500 trees in 28 roads across the borough.

This follows requests from Hackney residents who were engaged in a consultation exercise to gauge the wish to see trees planted on their streets.

As the planting season draws to an end, Hackney’s elected Mayor Jules Pipe and Cllr Alan Laing, Hackney’s Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, paid a visit (Wednesday 5 March) to Sigdon Road, Hackney Central ward, to see the progress being made with the 18 new trees being planted on the street and to meet the team working on the programme.

Cllr Alan Laing said: “Hackney is one of the few boroughs investing in the trees that we have, and committed to planting many more. Residents are coming forward with requests for trees on their streets, and I welcome the enthusiasm they have shown to the Council’s commitment to make Hackney a greener place.”

The Council is not only committed to planting new trees but to ensuring that the young trees are maintained for future generations to come. To build on this we are seeking residents willing to act as “Tree Champions” for the areas in which they live, as well as community participation in aftercare of the young trees by watering and monitoring.

Cllr Laing added: “We hope residents will continue to be involved in this programme and that we can recruit many new members to our Tree Carers’ scheme.”

Hackney has received praise for its tree planting programme from the Greater London Assembly s Environment Committee, who conducted a review of London’s street trees in 2007. They came to look at the way things were done in the borough and hailed it as “good practice”.

The Council has already started to prepare its planting programme for the 2008/09 season. If anyone has a location or a whole road they would like to put forward for inclusion, or are interested in becoming a Tree Champion, contact Streetscene Services on 020 8356 3000 or email info@hackney.gov.uk