The Trees for Congleton Group is asking the people of Congleton to nominate sites for celebratory Coronation Oak or London Plane trees.
These are both potentially large tree species that could live for many years and grow to dominate the space in which they are planted. They could play a vital role in combatting climate change: as they grow, both species will sequester and store increasingly large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year, as well as giving us oxygen to breathe and filtering urban air pollution.
The English oak holds a special place in our culture and history. It supports more life than any other native tree species in the UK and contributes more to the Cheshire landscape than any other tree.
The London plane tree is an iconic and beautiful tree species with striking camouflage pattern bark, spiky round fruit clusters that decorate the tree in winter, and autumn colour.
A park, large open space or wide grass verge would be ideal to plant one or more oak or London plane trees.
Ruth Benson of the Trees for Congleton group, said “Last March we planted an oak tree at Solly Crescent in West Heath in anticipation of the Coronation in May, and would now love to plant more commemorative oaks or London planes during the coming planting season, which begins in November. We will be following up some suggestions made at Congleton’s Climate Festival & Green Fayre on September 30th, and we would love to hear from other people who would like one in their neighbourhood.”
Cllr Kay Wesley, Chair of Congleton Town Council’s Community Committee, added “These trees will be a fantastic addition to Congleton’s landscape, so it would be great to find some prestigious spots where they can grow to their magnificent maturity. Many thanks to the Trees For Congleton Group for organising this and enhancing our town. I hope lots of people will get in touch with suggested sites as well as to volunteer to help plant the trees.”
The Trees for Congleton Group has recently been carrying out maintenance tasks on last year’s planting which included hedges, trees and orchards. The young plants need to be protected from overgrowth through weeding and mulching. Once this is complete, the Group will start planting for the 23-24 season.
Ruth Benson continued “Anyone can get involved in the maintenance work or the planting. The schedule of activities is on the Trees for Congleton Facebook Page and also on our website, where you can also find details of all the sites planted so for and the ‘totaliser’ towards our 30,000 target. If anyone has planted their own trees, please let us know and we will add them to the total.”
When new sites are identified, residents can go to the website to take part in the consultation about each site, in addition to paper consultations going through the doors of homes adjoining the site.
The Trees for Congleton website is at www.treesforcongleton.co.uk. The Group invites residents to get in touch with ideas for new sites or in order to volunteer, at treesforcongleton@gmail.com.
