Sunday 4th December was a very proud day for me.
At lunchtime, my son and I went and collected a tree from the Ormonde Road allotments.
While that might not sound very exciting it was the culmination of an almost three-year journey.
In January 2020 I stood in front of Wokingham Borough Council and launched our community’s Climate Emergency Action Plan. One of the key pillars of this strategy was a commitment to plant 250,000 new trees across our towns and parishes.
As part of that commitment, I also announced that 10,000 of those trees would be given to residents, free of charge, to plant in their own gardens.
I wanted residents, particularly younger people, to feel a part of the action our community is taking to reduce our carbon footprint. I also knew that planting trees in gardens would give them a strong chance of survival and growing tall, strong and able to extract carbon from the air around us.
I remember very clearly sitting in, the then Conservative leader of the Council, Cllr John Halsall’s office in July 2019 and first pitching him the idea of giving trees away to residents to plant in their own gardens. As a tree lover he loved the idea and encouraged me to speak with the Wokingham Veteran Trees Association and the Woodland Trust to gauge their response and understand how best to bring this scheme to life.
This ‘Garden Forest’ initiative was also a key reason why the Woodland Trust decided to give our community £300,000 to help fund our tree planting initiatives.
I was delighted when I heard that more than 800 people, from across the borough had signed up to receive one of the initial allocation of trees. Recipients were given a choice of six species of tree, Hawthorn, Hazel, Wild Cherry, Field Maple, Rowan or Silver Birch.
I chose a Wild Cherry because I have always loved the blossom they produce in spring. The blossom and fruit also provide valuable food for birds and bees, helping to support biodiversity.
A little over three years after first pitching the idea, my ‘garden forest’ tree is now potted and well watered before being planted in the ground next year once its trunk has grown a little more.
Being a councillor and leading such a complex field of work such as Climate Emergency isn’t always easy and often meets with conflicting opinions. But outside my house I now have a lasting reminder of the good that councillors, and so many others, do in our community on a daily basis.
Thank you to the officers at Wokingham Borough and Town Council, the volunteers at Ormonde Road allotments, the WDVTA and the Woodland Trust for their help in bringing this program to life, and also to all the residents who signed up to receive one of the initial Garden Forest trees.
Cllr Gregor Murray is Conservative councillor for Norreys ward on Wokingham Borough Council
