Plymouth protests – help and support available
08 August 2024
Plymouth Community Homes (PCH) has partnered with the Plymouth and South Devon Community Forest to plant more trees in the green spaces around our homes and neighbourhoods.
PCH’s tree specialist, along with experts from Plymouth City Council (PCC), will carefully select the right trees, ensuring they are healthy and planted in suitable locations. Measures are taken to ensure that these trees will not cause any harm or nuisance to the surrounding area and properties, and the team is careful to avoid planting them too close to buildings which could obstruct daylight.
During the last planting season our partnership helped to plant 803 trees across the city within nine of our different schemes, including in the following areas:
- King Street East
- King Street West
- Edgecumbe House
- Flora Court
- Prynne Close
- Sellon Court
- Woodlands Court
- Seagrave Road
- Cookworthy Road
Students at St Peter’s Primary School helped to plant the hedgerow and fruit trees at Flora Court
A mixture of trees have been planted, including mostly native deciduous broadleaves, and consideration is given to their durability, size, appearance and climate resilience. Other trees planted include small-leaved lime, hawthorn, hornbeam, coast redwood, silver birch, Norway maple, wild cherry, oak, ginkgo and beech.
Eleven fruit trees were planted across two community orchards at Flora Court & Edgecumbe House, and 60 metres of hedgerow were planted at Flora Court.
31 people including our residents were actively engaged on planting days, and in February this year, students from St Peter’s Primary School helped to plant the hedgerow and fruit trees at Flora Court, along with PCH staff and local residents.
Joe Berryman, Arboriculturist at Plymouth Community Homes, said: “Throughout the planting projects carried out this year, we identified a number of sites where we were able to plant not only small trees, but vast amounts of saplings.
“We usually plant saplings with the intention of them becoming individual landscape or amenity trees in contrast to the small trees we usually plant. They can be planted close together and in bigger quantities, which is favourable for PCH where the selected site is otherwise costly to visit and maintain on a regular basis.
“By repurposing previously bleak pieces of land, we can create an almost self-sufficient, low maintenance and urban-wildlife and biodiversity promoting area, which is excellent news for all.”
Calum Gordon, Sustainability Lead at Plymouth Community Homes, said: “This is a fantastic achievement that has been made possible by a strong partnership with Plymouth & South Devon Community Forest. Having trees and other green spaces near our houses provides proven substantial benefits for our residents’ mental health, as well as improving air quality and can keep us cool in the hot summer months.”
Councillor Tom Briars-Delve, Cabinet Member for the Environment and Climate Change, said: “Via the Plymouth and South Devon Community Forest, the Council have had a really successful tree planting season so to be able to bring on board Plymouth Community Homes, one of the city's biggest land owners, is crucial to our long term success.
“By working in partnership with the community forest and PCH, Plymouth gained over 4,100 trees in winter 2023/2024. We are already looking forward to next year, and would like to thank PCH, and everyone else for playing their part in making Plymouth a greener place.”
