Councillor Glen Sanderson the head of local services and all matters green at Northumberland County Council department has been awarded through the Forestry Commission’s Urban Tree Challenge Fund £265,000 for a new two-year tree planting programme.
The initiative will involve 633 trees being planted at 29 locations across Cramlington, Seghill, Seaton Delaval,
The project aims to improve the county’s urban tree cover, improving the landscape and making them more appealing areas for recreation and for wildlife. The extra trees will also make a contribution to carbon capture.
His statement in his recent press release reads as follows: Councillor Glen Sanderson, Cabinet Member for Environment and Local Services, said: “We’re delighted to have secured this funding. After declaring our climate emergency earlier this year, we must do everything we can to reduce our carbon footprint.
This unbelievable level of expenditure per tree shows a vital difference between Northumberland Labour Party’s ‘Green Credentials’ and that of Northumberland Conservatives.
During 2015 the Council unanimously supported the introduction of a tree management policy that was an element of its planning core strategy planning activity, an activity that was completely halted by the incoming Tories in 2017.
The policy allowed an application to Government by a private landowner to plant 600,000 on Doddington Moor,
That reduction will be further enhanced by the planting of 1,000,000 trees by the Forestry Commission themselves designed to capture 200,000 tonnes of carbon each year on 500Ha spread over three sites in the County that will help the County reach its carbon neutral target over the next 10 years.
The Forestry Commission although making a huge investment in their growth plans will not be spending at the same level as Councillor Sanderson which would cost them £419,000,000, as their whole national budget to manage all of Englands tree stock in their estate is only £52M per year, clearly illustrating Councillor Sanderson is another of the Tory wasters sitting in their about to become ‘Crystal Palace’ in Morpeth when its new £16M Conservatory is finished.
For a Council showing an £11M underspend in its accounts that pulled the plug on its sure start schemes supposedly due to a lack of cash through austerity, Cllr Sanderson’s spend on trees is savage amusement indeed.
£419 per tree is an abomination and he should hang his head in shame forever, the Forestry Commission have a list of approved growers who sell Councils saplings of the mighty oak for 32p each.
With the money he received in the latest award he could be planning to plant 828,000 oak saplings on highways and Council owned reclaimed land which when combined with the Forestry Commissions ambitious plans shift the County carbon footprint into a negative position or share the measure across the whole of the North of Tyne combined authority area and when unified with North Tyneside and Newcastles recently enhanced planting program bring the whole North of Tyne very close to being carbon neutral by 2030 an initiative championed by Ashington Labour Councillor Lynne Grimshaw and one we hope the Mayor of the Combined Authority will support her green ideals.
Notes:
http://www.doddingtonnorthforest.com/home
https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/News/2019/Oct/Hundreds-of-new-trees-to-be-planted-in-county.aspx
http://www.treesplease.co.uk/product/quercus-robur-english-oak/
https://3fatpigs.co.uk/fruit-trees-bushes/
Beechwood tree nursery where the most expensive tree is £72.
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