Three Shoreham streets selected after residents put out a plea for more trees

Transition Town Shoreham has ordered trees for Stoney Lane, Wilmot Road and Mansell Road and these will be planted between November 2024 and February 2025.

Seed funding of £2,500 from the National Lottery Community Fund came through Transition Together, following a successful Shoreham Street Trees pilot project last year.

A series of consultations saw local people being asked in person what they would like to see more of in Shoreham and the most popular answer was to have more street trees.

The successful pilot project was run by a member of Transition Town Shoreham, resulting in five trees being planted through West Sussex County Council’s Donate a Tree scheme.

The community movement then looked at the areas around Shoreham where trees were needed and where there were people committed to the ongoing watering needed.

Transition Town Shoreham said: "We reviewed data about Shoreham showing streets with indices of multiple deprivation and walked around those areas that seemed to have less tree cover. We also looked for areas, such as blocks of flats, where water butts could potentially be fitted for communal use to aid tree watering.

"Through speaking to the local community, we decided on the following locations to support with our funding - Stoney Lane, Wilmot Road and Mansell Road.

"We would also like to support the addition of several water butts to blocks of flats close to the planted trees. We will also be looking at further ways to collaborate with the tree planted areas, for example food growing, energy conservation and composting."

The Donate a Tree scheme is currently the recognised way to plant trees on council-owned verges. Each tree costs £257, which covers inspection of the site to agree suitability, advice about tree type, tree planting, annual maintenance visits for three years and supply of a hardy standard tree, stakes and water pipe. Watering the trees is the responsibility of the local community.

To help decide where the seed funding would be targeted, Transition Town Shoreham delivered leaflets to several streets with low tree cover seeking support, ran market stalls and followed up by visiting several areas, door knocking and talking to local people. The positive response and support was 'wonderful'.