1,000 trees to be planted at Bideford estate

Community woodland plan supported

A woodland of 1,000 trees is to be planted at a housing estate in Bideford as part of a nature recovery plan.

It follows a consultation with people at the Londonderry Estate who use the Gatefield amenity grassland for dog walking and play.

Torridge District Council, which owns the land, has reduced the number of proposed trees by 500 and taken out footpaths after residents requested a larger open space.

There was concern about the proximity of footpaths to properties neighbouring the area.

Tree-planting will be funded by Devon County Council under the Local Authority Treescape Scheme and delivered by its project partners ParkLife,  a national community interest company set up to support local environment projects.  It will take place at two volunteer events in the winter to which local schools and residents will be invited.

The council gave its support to the North Devon Biosphere’s Nature Recovery Plan in 2021, including an objective to plant 10,000 new trees on urban public land by 2025 and double the number of trees in urban areas by 2023.

Members of the council’s community and resources committee heard that North Devon Council had already reached the target by buying land for that purpose, but it didn’t stop Torridge contributing.

The council ‘s officers have been considering planting trees on its green space. They said trees at Gatefield would ‘connect with other woodlands and extend existing wildlife corridors’ in the local area and is in line with the government’s Environmental Improvement Plan for 2023.

Feedback from a consultation was “mostly positive” with the main concern being that the plan did not include enough open space, which resulted in plans being amended.

Cllr Lyndon Piper (Lib Dem, Holsworthy) said it is important that the site is maintained after the trees are planted and that the community “bought into” the scheme as the company delivering it is not local.

Cllr Peter Hames (Green, Northam), lead member for climate change, said even though the number of trees has been reduced, it is still a “significant number” and he fully supported it.

“Three quarters of the world’s wildlife has disappeared over the last 50 years. It is an absolute crisis, so well done on this project,” he told officers.

Committee chairman Cllr Robert Hicks (Ind, Monkleigh and Putford) said there is money to be had from companies looking for land to plant trees to offset their developments and the council should be looking at to take advantage of this.