Street Trees - a disappearing asset?

Following growing concern that more trees were disappearing from Chichester's streets than were being replaced, a Freedom of Information Act request was made on 7th February 2020 to West Sussex County Council (WSCC) to establish quantitative and qualitative data on trees lost/planted on highway land each year since 2016/17. You can see the request and WSCC's response here and our table summarising the data to the right.

An easy way to help

For a number of years WSCC has offered the option for individuals to donate a tree to be planted in a highway verge beside their home. You can find details of the scheme here. The deadline for donating is the end of July each year. This helps WSCC order the trees in good time (giving the best chance of its supplier, Barcham, having the stock they need).

In 2020, the required donation was £150 per tree, approximately half its cost to WSCC once planning, planting and early-years maintenance is factored in.

Whyke leads the way

Chichester City Council had been planning a Chichester Tree Summit to take place at the start of April 2020 and preparations included the intention to launch Chichester Tree Wardens' Mind the Gap project then. The logo was already prepared.

Covid-19 controls caused the event to be postponed and disrupted regular volunteering. We were faced with a winter of next-to-no highway tree planting unless someone did something (depending on how things went, potentially next-to-no tree planting at all).

Having previously, pre-lockdown and with the help of Chichester Tree Wardens Jenny and Geoff, organised meet-ups and walks to engage local residents with tree ideas in her community of  Whyke, Sarah Sharp, District and City Councillor for Chichester South Ward, decided to take action. Whyke's Mind the Tree Gap

fundraiser was launched on 16th June 2020 with an initial target of raising £900 (enough to donate 6 trees) and bringing some cheer. 

Helping hands

Alongside the fundraisers, every day brought a conversation or a message of support from local residents. Feedback included:

• “would there be a chance we could plant fruit/nut trees? Walnuts, figs, pears, mulberry trees etc?”;
• a challenge to plant two long-lived large native trees (in a Parklands setting, that meant finding spaces for oaks); and
• a donation which stipulated a winter-flowering cherry, but didn’t mind where it would be planted.

We walked the two estates with WSCC’s really helpful Tree Officer to identify opportunities to plant, based both on the feedback we received and the “gaps” we could see on the ground. He advised the types of tree which could be considered for different locations. We knocked on doors and checked if nearby residents would welcome each tree, any preference for type of tree, and if they would be willing to help water it once planted.

In July, charity Trees for Cities agreed to help by funding 16 additional trees in those parts of the estates where data from the Office for National Statistics show higher levels of deprivation.

We juggled feedback and funding to choose which tree should be planted where in order that as many people as possible in our communities would benefit from the new trees. In one small street, residents had a whip-round so they could be allocated two trees rather than one.

Orchard Street residents don't hang about

It's 24th July, the Whyke and Parklands fundraisers are going well, and the deadline for confirming tree donations with WSCC is the end of the month. An Orchard Street resident, arriving home from overseas wants to know what she can do to get more trees planted in her road; WSCC's Tree Officer confirms possible locations for 3 trees and the third, and final, highway tree GoFundMe for 2020 goes live: target £500 (3 trees).