Volunteer Tree Wardens’ activities can be summarised under the following headings:

• Promote             )
• Protect                ) trees (of the right type for their place).
• Plant                    )

Chichester Tree Wardens routinely liaise with residents and others to this end. Outreach is through the networks of individual Tree Wardens and is strongest in the areas of the city that we know best. The following includes some highlights from the past few months and some of what is coming up, originally intended to inform a verbal report to a meeting of the Community Affairs Working Group of Chichester City Council (our parish Council) held on Zoom on Monday 17th January 2022.

Promote

 The Chichester City Tree Trail now has a second revised online edition published in July 2021. This was updated by TW Brian Hopkins and can be downloaded as a pdf in booklet form or the text read with photographs on our website. There is no funding for a print edition.

Chichester Tree Wardens had a very successful stand at the Eco Festival on Saturday 6th November with constant interest and conversations throughout the afternoon.

 Around 1,000 people view our Facebook group, Trees in Chichester, every month.

 Articles are scheduled to appear in The Chichester Society’s newsletter in March and June 2022. The first focuses on the history of trees in Chichester; the second will look at current benefits and future opportunities for trees. (Past issues of the Society's newsletter are available to read as pdf files on its website.) 

We hope once again to offer an event as part of the Festival of Chichester, and are also exploring taking a stand at West’s Wood Fair in East Dean (18th/19th June). We continue to be represented on the occasional Green Hub stall at Chichester Farmer’s Market (organised by Eco Chi and Lavant WI, part of the West Sussex Federation of Women’s Institutes).

Protect

 Long-standing concerns for trees on Kingsham Road at the old High School site were brought to a head by the arrival on site of Portsmouth Demolition on Monday 20th September 2021. Working with others, we successfully persuaded Chichester District Council to protect them through issuing a Tree Preservation Order. Although the trees were unlikely to be felled, there was a high risk of root damage leading to future failure.

 TW Geoff King continues to make Tree Application recommendations to the Chichester Conservation Area Advisory Committee and The Chichester Society and was involved in both CCAAC’s and Whyke Residents’ Association’s contributions to the Chichester Neighbourhood Plan process.

 TW Lynne Friel has been in contact with Lidl resulting in replanting of some of the around 40 dead trees on its “new” superstore site and intends to follow up if the rest aren’t replaced shortly.

 Volunteers have been recruited to help St Joseph’s School maintain the trees it planted on the school field 2020/21. A self-sown sweet chestnut tree has been saved from the hedge trimmers at Bishop Luffa School with the School’s blessing. (Whether its future can be secured through the grounds maintenance contract has yet to be established.)

 We kept in touch with around 70 people who volunteered to water the new highway trees planted in November 2020, including producing leaflets explaining when and how to water and how this fits in with West Sussex County Council’s young tree maintenance programme.

Plant

 It is currently tree planting season (October/November to February/March).

 TW Ray Carter has worked with Summersdale Residents’ Association and Chichester District Council to plant 20 whips supplied through CDC’s free trees scheme on CDC land at each of Highland Road/The Broadway green space; Fordwater Road/Ferndale Road green space; Ferndale Road/Maplehurst Drive green space; and Croft Mead (adjacent to Summersdale Copse).

 TW Mary Turner has also worked with CDC in its partner role with DEFRA and as landowner of East Broyle green, where a “Miyawaki” mini-forest is to be planted towards the south-west corner (near St Paul’s Road) as part of the DEFRA project, and separately another area of trees with fruit for wildlife, and 100 whips to thicken up the woodland buffer to St Paul’s Road. 

Fundraising for highway trees in Parklands and Orchard Avenue enabled 6 and 4 trees respectively to be ordered from West Sussex County Council in July. Donations from local residents amounted to £2,000, including £470 proceeds from Parklands Residents’ Association’s Open Gardens event in June 2021. The trees were planted in December. 

Looking forward, Geoff King has liaised with CCAAC and the Chichester Society regarding the Queen’s Green Canopy and is awaiting CDC feedback on where it may be possible to plant, including The Bishop's Palace Garden, Florence Park and New Park Road.

 Following discussion with Chichester District Council, provision of a tree nursery plot was included in the planning permission for allotments at Whitehouse Farm. The approved Allotment Scheme for application reference 20/03167/REM  confirms that:
"The proposals include one plot in the NE corner (as shown on the plans and labelled as ‘this 209 sqm plot to also be offered as community orchard’) to be an allotment plot that can be offered as a community orchard for the planting of fruit trees for use by the community or alternatively as a community tree nursery, to provide space for the community to grow trees." 

IF SPACE CAN BE FOUND FOR ADDITIONAL COMMUNITY ORCHARDS, CDC still has funding for this 2021/22 financial year. Contact its Tree Project Officer at treescheme@chichester.gov.uk or call 01243 521161.

Volunteer News

Volunteer Tree Wardens Isla Duncan and Meg Owen have resigned after many years. We will miss their knowledge and support. Meg has secured a successor, also based in Summersdale, so Laura Eccott will be joining the team. 

The Tree Council published a suite of new Tree Warden training materials in Autumn 2021, suitable both for bringing new volunteers up to speed and refreshing existing TW's knowledge. We expect to participate in this training in the coming months.