Hailsham Town Council is in the process of planting additional trees at the Country Park, as part of a plan to implement its environmental objectives over the course of the next few years.
Tree species being planted at Hailsham Country Park are varied and include two flowering cherries, two rowans, two gingko and four liquidambars, as well as two silver birch donated by a local resident. On top of that, the planting of a further ten trees at the Country Park is expected to take place by the end of the financial year.
The Country Park tree planting project is part of a wider scheme to install individual tree saplings and small copses of trees in Town Council-maintained parks and open spaces around the town over the course of the next five years.
The Town Council, with help and advice from the town’s designated Tree Warden, will carefully consider which species to plant at the various sites to maximise the trees’ growth capability and effectiveness, and also to minimise any future unnecessary maintenance costs.
Species planted in parks, open spaces and on grass verges will be selected on suitability to setting and biodiversity value, as well as visual appearance. Furthermore, areas targeted for new tree planting in the future will be those where trees have been removed or where there is an identified need to increase the overall tree cover to help increase local environmental quality and biodiversity levels.
The planting scheme will be funded by the tree management budget and the plan is to only plant semi-mature trees, as these are more robust to vandalism and disease. The tree management budget has to cover the maintenance of all the Council tree stock, so tree planting will only take place if the budget allows at any given time during the five-year period.
“Our Tree Warden has a wealth of knowledge and comprehensive understanding of what we need to do to improve the local environment and how a tree planting scheme are is the perfect way to achieve this,” said Town Clerk John Harrison.
“We’ll work with the Tree Warden over the course of the next few years to carry out the planting of at least 100 trees on Town Council-maintained sites across Hailsham, which will have a positive long-term impact for all of us and go some way in helping to reduce the town’s carbon footprint in the process.”
Town Mayor Cllr Paul Holbrook commented: “The money injected into the tree planting project will not only be spent on the new trees themselves, but also on the equipment required to plant them, plus other features to protect the trees and benefit native wildlife into the bargain.”
“We’re delighted to be in a position to plant additional trees on our various sites and public open spaces and look forward to the start of the planting programme later this autumn. It goes without saying that this is a really positive step towards implementing the Town Council’s environmental aspirations and more broadly, to nature-based solutions to climate change – which affects us all.”
“The planting of additional trees and the replacement of dead trees in Hailsham reflects the Town Council’s commitment to keeping our parks and public open spaces green and pleasant for residents and visitors alike. It is of vital importance that our green sites include as many varieties of trees as possible to attract wildlife and improve local environmental quality.”
Terry Hall, Communications Officer
Hailsham Town Council, Market Street, Hailsham, East Sussex, BN27 2AE
Telephone: 01323 841702 | Email: terry.hall@hailsham-tc.gov.uk