Rushcliffe Borough Council is offering Ruddingtonians another chance to make our village greener – by applying for free trees for both our properties and the wider community.
This year 800 Wild Cherry and Dogwood trees are being made available at no cost, in line with Council’s strategy “to provide sustainable environments in line with the Borough’s significant housing and employment growth” in the coming years. Indeed, Ruddington has seen the loss of large swathes of its former Green Belt to new housing recently – due to the Council’s Rushcliffe Local Plan Part 2 which is likely to lead both directly and indirectly to the construction of well over 600 extra homes in our village by 2028 – and potentially thousands more to follow after that.
The Wild Cherry (Prunus avium – top left) can grow to 25 metres tall, flowers in spring and fruit in summer and autumn colour. They like full sunlight and fertile soil but do not tolerate waterlogged soil. The Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea – top right) grows to 10 metres tall, has creamy flowers followed by black berries and crimson autumn leaves. It is a shade-tolerant tree and can cope with damp conditions.
Rushcliffe Council’s Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Communities and Climate Change, Cllr Abby Brennan, says: “We are delighted to be running the free tree scheme again, after a wonderful response from residents since the scheme was launched in 2018. They have shown great enthusiasm in collecting and planting thousands of these free trees and we thank them for their continued support to making Rushcliffe a great and greener place to live.”
Reflecting on the 8,000 trees distributed so far across the whole of Rushcliffe, she adds: “We hope that by increasing the number of trees in the Borough, our green environments will grow alongside our communities, improving the quality of life for both current and future residents.”
Villagers are being encouraged to apply as soon as possible, given the anticipated high demand. We can apply for up to two trees per household by visiting www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/FreeTrees2021 and submitting an application before Sunday October 31st. Successful applicants will have trees delivered direct to their door by Streetwise – which promises to plan to minimise the number of delivery trips, to make its carbon footprint as low as possible.
This scheme is supplementing other local initiatives, such as Ruddington Parish Council’s ‘Tree Planting Working Group’, which was formed earlier this year to improve biodiversity and create spaces for nature within our village.
{Tree photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons}
