Surrey County Council and partners have been awarded almost £300,000 of funding from the Forestry Commission’s Local Authority Treescapes Fund to plant 25,000 new trees across Surrey. The funding is being topped up by Surrey County Council to allow an additional 9,000 trees to be planted as part of the scheme, bringing the total to 34,000.

Trees improve water quality, air quality and biodiversity, and help to transform communities. The new scheme supports the Council’s ambitious target to plant 1.2 million trees by 2030 and is in addition to the planting programme already planned for this autumn.

Local authorities, schools, parish councils and community groups will be planting the trees over the next two years with the funding providing at least 65% of the costs of planting and ongoing maintenance.

From highway verges to meadows, schools’ grounds to housing developments, the partnership made up of the Surrey County Council and eight local authorities, will support the planting.

Cllr Marisa Heath, Cabinet Member for the Environment said, “I’m delighted to hear the partnership have been successful in their bid for funding. This is a fantastic opportunity to work with our residents and colleagues to create new woodland and maintain our ancient woodlands.

“These provide a great space for nature and our residents, whilst also helping to tackle climate change and the council’s ambition to become a net-zero county by 2050.”

For more information on the tree planting programme please see Have Your Say Today – Surrey’s Greener Future – Commonplace