In October,  Sally Anne Cook and I, on behalf of ECCO, attended an online information session organised by the Trees for Streets, a national charity.   The charity is funded by the government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund.  Croydon Council has partnered Trees for Streets in order to make it easier for residents to fund tree planting in streets and parks across the borough.

Individual residents can sponsor the planting of a tree or groups of residents or businesses can do so.    Recently,  People for Portland Road clubbed together to raise enough money to plant 14 trees in their highly traffic-polluted street.  You can choose to make a donation to have a tree planted in the street outside your house, or to sponsor a tree in one of the local parks as a dedication to a loved one or to mark a special occasion.

The cost of sponsorship is £350 if you want the Council to look after the tree,  or £200 if the sponsor is willing to look after it.   The Council will do the planting,  and in the fulness of time will undertake heavy-duty maintenance such as pollarding.  The Council will need to agree with a proposal of sponsorship.   There will be street locations which are unsuitable for tree-pits for all sorts of reasons.    But the Council will approve a sponsorship request wherever it is reasonably possible.  Sally and I were told that the Council will be continuing to plant trees through the winter,  so we infer from that that it is not too late to sponsor a tree which will be planted in the early months of 2023.

ECCO residents will need no persuasion of the merits of tree-planting.    But just to remind ourselves:  trees reduce air pollution, absorb carbon, improve mental and physical wellbeing and generally make an area much more pleasant to live in.

If you are interested in sponsoring the planting of a tree or trees in Croydon,  please use the following link: https://www.croydon.gov.uk/environment/trees-and-hedges/sponsor-tree

Jerry Fitzpatrick
ECCO Clean and Green Street Champion
jerryfitzmsp@gmail.com

Street trees also help to cool the environment. The map below was published on the BBC website in July 2022. The ECCO area is in its centre. Some of its streets are amongst those in the country most likely to experience high temperatures in hot weather.