Canopy coveris thebest

Perth is top of the tree when it comes to canopy cover in Scotland’s cities.

The Fair City currently has 22.2 per cent of its area under trees, according to the Urban Tree Cover website.

The news was revealed as senior representatives of the five parties in the Scottish Parliament signed up to back expansion of Scotland’s urban tree canopy cover.

MSPs Fergus Ewing (SNP), Jackson Carlaw (Scottish Conservatives), Richard Leonard (Scottish Labour), Patrick Harvie (Scottish Greens) and Willie Rennie (Scottish Liberal Democrats) signed Woodland Trust Scotland’s pledge stating: “We recognise the outstanding social, environmental and economic benefits delivered by our urban forests.

“We believe that we all should be aiming for a significant increase in canopy cover across our towns and cities.

“This can be achieved by us all working in partnership with communities, public bodies, the private sector, and individuals.”

Urban trees have been shown to improve people’s mental and physical health, reduce stress, save energy, cut flooding and clean the air.

Perth was just ahead of Inverness in Scotland’s seven cities, with Aberdeen coming bottom with just 10 per cent.

Tim Hall, head of estates and programmes for Woodland Trust Scotland, said: “We are delighted to see cross party recognition and support for the value of urban trees and the need to increase their number.”