Tree planting and Maintenance / Aftercare and natural regeneration

Telford and Wrekin Council is a Unitary Council located in the West Midlands in North East Shropshire. The Council has been successful in securing funding from the Local Authorities Treescapes Fund for the purchase and planting trees and hedgerows, to commence later this year and early 2022, and for maintaining trees over the next 3 years. The Local Authority Treescapes Fund (LATF) will fund Local Authority-led tree planting and natural colonisation of trees outside woods,

The Fund is part of the Government’s Nature for Climate Fund and will directly contribute to achieving our ambitious tree planting targets to restore habitats in England.

The funding is for planting trees and activities relating to natural colonisation of trees outside of woodland, and three years of maintenance costs to help get new trees fully established.

The new planting has many benefits including:

•Benefits to ecology and biodiversity

•Re-establishing connectivity between habitats, which will allow animals to travel between habitats

•carbon capture;

•improvements to air quality in the vicinity of the road

•assist with reducing soil erosion and keeping land stable.

•Reducing surface water run-off and thereby reducing flash flooding in the local area

The contract is for the planting of trees in the 2021 / 2022 planting season (November to February) and for the subsequent maintenance and aftercare for the following 3 financial years. Planting will be a mixture of native standard trees, whips and includes the management of areas identified for natural regeneration.

Four areas have been identified in the Borough as being suitable to use the funding. These areas have been affected by ash dieback, and trees have been felled or will need to be felled in the near future due to the disease.

The locations are:

•Legges Way, Madeley – Tree planting and natural regeneration

•Telford Town Park – Hedgerow planting

•Brookside Avenue - Tree planting

•Brookside Woodland – Tree planting and natural regeneration

Further information is written in the Invitation to Tender documents