Council secures almost £25,000 to plant more trees
»»MID Devon District Council has planted the seeds of success with a fruitful bid to the Urban Tree Challenge Fund.
The council submitted a joint application in partnership with Trees for Cities, a charitable organisation dedicated to enhancing urban green spaces.
The Urban Tree Challenge
Fund is an initiative aimed to increase access to nature in urban areas. The fund focuses on planting heavy standard trees – including a mix of English oak, common walnut, field maple, small-leaved lime, crab apple, rowen and more – particularly in areas with low canopy cover near healthcare and educational facilities.
Mid Devon District Council, has been awarded almost £25,000 to plant 66 trees over a two-year period, with an additional three years of aftercare support.
Tim Jarratt, the council’s arboricultural officer, said: “I am grateful to our property services team for securing this funding
“Trees can have a positive impact on communities and by planting these trees the council is promoting a greener, healthier environment for everyone and a commitment to aftercare ensures that these trees will thrive and provide numerous benefits to the local residents as they mature.”
The project began in 2023 and has already seen the successful planting of trees in various locations, including People’s Park and Oak Close Greenspace in Tiverton, Spicer Road, Cross Park and Swallow Way in Cullompton, Victoria Close play area in Willand and Beacon Park in Crediton.
The planting initiative has been a joint effort, between the council’s street scene team, property services and a dedicated contractor.
The street scene team will continue to provide aftercare to ensure the long-term health of the new trees.
CALLS for a controversial recycling facility in Tiverton to be quashed have become the topic of debate for two of the town’s prospective MP.
Liberal Democrat Rachel Gilmour and Conservative Ian Liddellgrainger have both called for action on the planning application from Decharge Ltd, which is working with the landowner to develop and operate a recycling facility and inert landfill at the site north of the village of Halberton.
The proposal is to infill void space across the site with approximately 330,000 cubic metres of inert soil and stones and then return the land to agricultural use once the waste operation is completed.
The contentious issue is the traffic which will use residential roads, such as Enterprise Avenue, and Uplowman Road, to access the site.
As we have previously reported in the Gazette local people are fighting the proposals and have formed a Residents Against Greenway Landfill action group and begun fundraising to get professional assistance to oppose the plans. They have raised almost £4,000.
They fear the site will see dangerous levels of heavy goods vehicles (HGVS) on the proposed access route, and are also worried that the plot could be used to dispose nuclear waste in the future – a fear that’s been strongly refuted.
It is understood that inert waste soils imported historically to the site in 2016 will be excavated and incorporated into the wider landfill and then the land returned to agricultural use once the waste operation is completed.
Ms Gilmour, who also chairs Mid Devon District Council’s scrutiny committee, chaired a meeting with residents at Tiverton Golf Club earlier this month.
The meeting
heard from
Janine
Banks, of South West Planning Consultancy, who explained how residents can oppose the application, with a view to moving forward against the proposals as a wider community.
She said: “This is a planning submission that takes no account of the impacts on the community nor the highway network that would sustain it. The community have grave concerns about Greenway and it is heartening to see them speaking with one voice in opposition to the plans.
“This
meeting
has
fuelled
the group’s desire to provide a detailed objection to the plans to protect people’s homes, families and the environment we live in.”
Fellow Tiverton & Minehead candidate, Mr Liddell-grainger, who is the sitting MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset, said the plan was ‘preposterous.’
“I do not know who has started these rumours running but either they are suffering from a profound ignorance of how the nuclear industry works or are deliberately trying to turn this into an anti-nuclear issue for political reasons,” he said.
“Either way it is totally irresponsible and unnecessarily alarmist.”
Mr Liddell-grainger currently represents Bridgwater and West Somerset, a constituency which encompasses one of the country’s largest nuclear facilities at Hinkley Point.
“I have been Hinkley Point’s MP for 23 years and during all that time I have never been less than impressed by the safety record of the site – including the way waste is transported away from it,” he said.
“For the benefit of those who aren’t aware nuclear waste is never disposed of at uncontrolled landfill sites.
“Low-level waste is handled at special centres and medium-level vitrified and stored securely in sealed steel drums at reprocessing centres.
“These preposterous rumours are either mischievous or malicious and are going to cause unnecessary alarm locally.
“I am as opposed to this development as anyone but on the general grounds that it is in the wrong place and is going to cause enormous problems for families in the area. It is frankly stupid to try to cloud the debate by resorting to utterly irresponsible scaremongering.”