Sheffield receives share of £2.9 million fund to plant more trees and create green spaces

With a total sum of £183,319, the council will embark on a "Treevitalise" project aimed at engaging communities in protecting and restoring woodland, while boosting the community forestry team and protecting trees outside the woods.

The funding from the Woodland Trust forms is part of its ambition to establish 50 million more trees by 2025 to help tackle the climate and nature crisis, creating new woods and working with government, businesses, landowners and the public to achieve the goal.

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The nature charity said it is providing funding to local councils at a time when finances are tight to help create more green spaces and woodland which people have found valuable in the pandemic.

In the first phase of the project, the trust is working with 11 authority areas across the UK, including Glasgow city region, which is hosting UN climate talks in November, and Sheffield council, which has transformed its approach since the controversial felling of street trees several years ago.

The charity said many local authorities have declared climate and nature emergencies and set out ambitious tree-planting targets – and the funding is aimed at helping make their green projects a reality.

It hopes to expand the scheme further in 2022.

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John Tucker said: “The trust’s Emergency Tree Fund has the power to inspire tree-planting and woodland creation and galvanise the need to treasure trees and green spaces in their neighbourhoods across the UK.

“What the country’s fight against Covid has shown is how communities have come together in a time of crisis.

“As the pandemic hopefully abates, getting outside and planting, maintaining and enjoying trees will be a way for this spirit to be harnessed once again in a different but a very important way – to tackle the climate and nature crises which also affects us all.”

Sheffield City Council had come under fire in 2016 following its controversial tree-felling programme, which saw thousands of trees removed after they were assessed as dangerous, dead, diseased or dying.

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