Over the last three years, Newark and Sherwood District Council has been responsible for planting and giving away 18,000 trees in a bid to reduce the district’s carbon footprint and to help support its ambitious target of being carbon neutral by 2035.

Now the council is making another step in its commitment to being cleaner, safer, and greener, ensuring that trees across the district will be well maintained and looked after as they continue to grow and mature.

Its newly-created Tree Strategy, which will shortly be available for public consultation, sets out the council’s ambition for managing, protecting and caring for the district’s trees as well as outlining how it will plant more in the future.

Not only does the strategy consider the trees and green spaces on council-managed land, but also those in urban areas, parks, woodlands and farmland as well, understanding the crucial role that these play in the creation of natural habitats.

The strategy outlines how the council will work alongside a number of agencies, trusts, regulatory organisations, parishes, residents, and landowners to deliver what is needed to maintain and enhance the vast number of trees in Newark and Sherwood.

Coun David Lloyd, council leader, said: “You can’t simply just plant a tree and leave it completely alone. They need careful maintenance to protect them for the future and this strategy will ensure that we do just that, which is incredibly important given the huge number of additional trees recently planted.

“I am pleased this draft strategy will be available for public consultation as I am aware how important green issues are to our residents.

“The period of public consultation will also ensure that other vital tree expert organisations and charities can feed further into our strategy to ensure we are doing all we can to enhance the district’s tree provision in the future.

“We really are taking huge strides in all our greening work to make sure that our district becomes cleaner, safer and greener and I’m delighted that our strategy confirms our promise of planting another 16,000 trees over the next 10 years.”

The council adopted a carbon reduction plan in 2020 in response to the climate emergency, with the aim of being carbon neutral by 2035. The strategy will go some way in ensuring this target is met, but it will be managed in parallel to a significant number of additional activities to achieve the ambitious target, including the installation of solar panels on five of the council’s corporate and leisure buildings and the electric vehicle transition for its own fleet.

Since declaring a Climate Emergency in 2019, the council has launched free-tree giveaways; managed, maintained, and enhanced four Green Flag award-winning parks; helped communities look after their own patch through the work of Cleaner, Safer, Greener days of action; and successfully applied for funding for tree planting.

This tree strategy is the next step in meeting its environmental aspirations. In addition, it has launched a Green Rewards App, which incentivises residents to reduce their own carbon outputs and it is ensuring that climate awareness is given priority attention in all decision making moving forward.

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