Rotary to collect and recycle trees

Christmas trees will once again be recycled by the Rotary Club of Storrington & Pulborough District to raise funds for charity and to help green the area.

For the fourth year running Rotary members will collect trees, with the help of Chanctonbury Lions Club, after Twelfth Night from January 6 to 12, then recycle them in an eco-friendly way on an Ashington farm - all for a minimum donation of £5 per tree.

The club’s helpers collect trees from most of the RH20 postcode area including Pulborough, Storrington and all the surrounding villages such as Fittleworth, Nut bourne, West Chiltington, Thakeham, Cold waltham and Waters field, plus Amberley.

The trees will be chipped, with the residue ready for use around the farm, by Rob Dakin of Findon Valley Tree Care, who donates his fee to the charity.

Last year more than 250 trees were collected raising £1,500, all of which was donated to Chestnut Tree House Children’s Hospice, St Barnabas House and Turning Tides charities.

Rotary’s project coordinator Anne Fielding-Smith was really pleased with how the project went last year: “Residents were delighted to avoid all the inconvenience and mess of transporting trees to the tip or burning them, knowing that they will have a ‘ green’ end-use and that a very worthwhile charity is to benefit in the process.”

Storrington & Pulborough District Rotary Club is grateful to all of its partners in this venture including Chanctonbury Lions, Chris and Len Earl and Findon Valley Tree Care; to the participating Christmas tree retailers (Big Plant Centre Ashington, Gatley’s Country Store, Oldfield Stables, Squires GC Washington, Tates Old Barn Nursery. West Chiltington Village Nursery and British Garden Centres Pulborough) and local residents.