Sheffield residents urged to pay £200 for new street trees in bid to move on from felling scandal

A new scheme, 'Trees for Streets', charges up to £200 for planting and maintenance of a street tree, or people can club together to pay for several. The charity says it will work with businesses and organisations to raise funding for trees in deprived areas and parks. The aim is to boost numbers and “connect communities with tree planting, the environment and their neighbourhood”.

It comes after 114 trees were planted over the last two years in a scheme run by the city council and Sheffield Street Tree Partnership, which was set up following years of rows over the felling of thousands of street trees in Sheffield.

Chairman, Nathan Edwards, said the partnership ensured they were now “well managed” and the new scheme would broaden community involvement in planting.

Richard Eyre, the authority's director of street scene and regulation, said Sheffield had achieved ‘Tree City of the World’ status for the last two years and the new project would build on that.

He added: “Sheffield’s trees and woodlands provide significant benefits for the people of our city, making urban areas and local neighbourhoods attractive and healthy places to live and work.

“This new partnership will enhance our approach to street tree planting, both in terms of funding and engagement.”

The Trees for Streets website says a tree can cost more than £500 in planting and watering costs over the first three years - more if a ‘tree pit’ is needed. Residents can cut up to £200 of the costs by doing the watering themselves, it adds.

In March, Sir Mark Lowcock's report into the tree felling scandal in Sheffield found the council had misled the courts and the public over a plan to cut down half of the city's 35,000 street trees as part of a highways improvement contract. And it led to council leader Terry Fox and Coun Bryan Lodge, who ran the project, being forced from office.