The Town Council will soon be planting additional trees at Hailsham Country Park, as part of a plan to implement its long-term environmental objectives.
The latest stage of the tree planting campaign follows the installation of several trees at the country park earlier this year and the Town Council will plant around 40 more trees at the site in the coming weeks, as part of a wider scheme to install individual tree saplings and small copses of trees on Town Council-maintained land ongoing into the future.
Furthermore, the four tree saplings at the country park which perished due to the recent drought spell will be replaced with more suitable species, and three trees will be planted at the former play area located in Carpenters Way.
The Town Council will carefully consider which species to plant at the various sites in the future to maximise the trees’ growth capability and effectiveness, and 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 is being funded by a designated planting 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 installation will only take place if the budget allows at any given time during the planting campaign period.
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. 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.”
Cllr Holbrook added: “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