The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
South Holland has the lowest tree cover in the country – less than half the cover that the City of London does, it’s been claimed.
After The Voice revealed last week that South Holland District Council was set to announce a project to look to create woodland in every settlement in the district, charity Friends of the Earth has stated that just 2.1 per cent of the land in the area, has trees.
By contrast, 4.4 per cent of the City of London has trees in the data released as part of National Tree Week which started on Monday.
The nearby district of Boston is second lowest with 2.1 per cent of tree coverage but is ranked as higher than South Holland after planting five hectares of new trees between 2010 and 2018.
In South Holland over the last eight years just one hectare has been planted.
The top place for tree cover was Surrey Heath with 40.6 per cent.
Last week leader of the district council, Gary Porter told The Voice that the authority was working with the Woodland Trust on a bid to create woodlands in South Holland: “Hopefully we’ll be able to get land and woods in every single settlement, every large settlement anyway”.
He continued: “Ideally we’d be able to plant many hundreds of the trees so there’s places throughout the district to walk in and enjoy.”
Emi Murphy, trees campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “The UK is facing a critical shortage of trees. It’s unforgivable to see that these areas with the lowest tree cover haven’t seen significant tree planting for years.
“Even places dense with buildings or farmland can increase their tree cover and must do so if we’re going to stop climate breakdown.
“Recent tree-planting pledges from political parties are a start but we need to see more from them.
“This National Tree Week we’re calling on all political parties to commit to doubling tree cover.
“This is one of the key solutions to solving the climate crisis but has been neglected for years.”
Last week’s page one article ‘Project to create more woodland’ incorrectly stated that a 23-acre site was being given to Moulton Parish Council.
Only a portion of the 23 acres will be donated to the parish council for a children’s play-area. It’s hoped the rest would be used for woodland.
