City given £7.3m for huge tree planting programme

AN organisation which has been planting trees across Plymouth is to receive £7.3m of Government cash to continue its work.

- By WILLIAM TELFORD

Planting a sycamore outside Plymouth's Guildhall on the site where the famous 'Blitzed sycamore' was destroyed by a storm

Since being set up in 2020, the Plymouth and South Devon Community Forest has helped plant about 59,000 trees in Plymouth and 390,000 across the area as a whole.

Most of the project's funding comes from the Government's Trees for Climate programme, which was originally due to finish in 2025.

But, with further funding expected later this year, a further £7.3m has been received from the Government to fund the project until then.

Although most of the cash will support rural planting schemes in West Devon and on the borders of Dartmoor, Plymouth City Council must receive the money as the accountable body, and the benefits will be felt across the wider area.

Cllr Tom Briars-Delve, the council's cabinet member for the environment and climate change, said: "I'm so proud of the community forest and all that it has managed to achieve in such a short space of time.