A tree planted for every Oswestrian plan
About 17,000 new trees could be planted in and around Oswestry over the next three years.
Oswestry Town council has pledged to work alongside other groups in the town towards the target of a new tree for every person living in its parish boundaries.
It is the latest environmentally friendly scheme by the council.
About 20 members of the town's Extinction Rebellion group were welcomed into the council chamber on Wednesday night to listen to the debate on a motion by green party councillor, Olly Rose for the 17,000 new trees by the 21/22 planting season as part of a move to tackle climate change.
She said that tree-planting in England fell well short of Woodland Trust proposed targets last year.
“There are a number of grants that can be applied for both urban and rural tree planting. I propose this council has the aim and aspiration to plan a tree per head of our population – 17,000 – by the 21/22 planting season,” she said.
Speaking after the meeting Councillor Rose said: ‘I’m very pleased that our council is taking the step to get a good start on tree planting to work towards our commitment to tackle climate change.
"The council has got under way with a number of measures already, for example we are near to finalising plans for EV car charging points and have recently moved to a green energy tariff, but trees take a long time to grow to reach their potential of removing CO2 and other pollutants from the environment .
"They provide shelter to help keep us cool as temperatures rise and host many diverse kinds of insects, so they are great for biodiversity too. We now need to work with other councils as well as members of the community and business sector to create a planting plan as soon as we can."
The town council has also pledge to be carbon neutral by 2030 and also installed a drinking water tap for refillable bottles in Cae Glas park.
Mayor, Councillor John Price, said: "The council has set an inspirational target and it is important that we work with organisations and local community groups, businesses and schools to collectively deliver on this."
One of the ideas is to produce an on-line tree counter so that people who plant a tree can have theirs added to the cumulative total for Oswestry.
