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Dunstable Town Council is supporting biodiversity and developing green spaces by planting 40 trees to celebrate 40 years, thanks to funding from The Tree Council’s Branching Out Fund.
Branching Out provides grants ranging from £250 to £2,500 in value to community groups, schools, small registered charities, and Tree Warden Networks seeking to establish trees, hedgerows, and orchards throughout the winter planting season.
This year, Dunstable Town Council successfully secured grant support through the Branching Out Fund and has planted 40 trees for 40 years across all five wards of Dunstable.
“This project is a wonderful way to celebrate forty years of Dunstable Town Council. It captures the essence of what the Council stands for; working together with our community, investing in our environment, and making Dunstable a place we are all proud to call home.” Town Mayor of Dunstable Cllr Sally Kimondo
The trees were planted throughout the five wards of Dunstable with volunteers from Dunstable in Bloom, students from Central Bedfordshire College, students from TCHC training, local businesses, ward councillors, and Dunstable Town Council officers.
Watch the newly planted trees grow at these locations.
Central: Bennett Memorial Recreation Ground: 9 native trees
North: Olma Road Recreation Ground: 8 Bedfordshire varieties of apple tree
East: Ridgeway Avenue Recreation Ground: 9 native trees
South: Downside Road Recreation Ground: 9 native trees
West: Mentmore Recreation Ground: 5 native trees
Now in its 18th year, Branching Out has supported hundreds of projects in communities throughout England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, delivering new habitats for wildlife, and a green living legacy for residents and visitors to enjoy, from Cornwall to Carmarthenshire, and Fife to Fermanagh.
The focus is on planting a variety of tree species, bare root, with cardboard or bioplastic protection.
Comprehensive advice around the types of trees to plant and the tree protection needed is provided by The Tree Council as part of the application process.
“Branching Out presents a fantastic opportunity for schools and community groups large and small to get their spades in the ground and start establishing life enhancing and biodiversity boosting trees, hedgerows, and orchards in their neighbourhoods. “We’re so thrilled for all our successful applicants, especially Dunstable Town Council!” The Tree Council Grants Officer, Geraldine Creaven
To find out more about The Tree Council’s Branching Out Fund, please visit https://treecouncil.org.uk/grantsand-guidance/our-grants/branching-out-fund/
40,000 Bulbs for Forty Years
As part of the same 40th Anniversary planting project the Council also planted 40,000 Spring bulbs across four wards of Dunstable. Our officers planted Crocus beneath the Yew trees on Cemetery Crescent, and we have also been joined by enthusiastic pupils and teachers from Beecroft Academy, Queensbury Academy, The Vale Academy, St Augustine’s Academy, and Ardley Hill Academy to help plant Daffodils across Dunstable’s parks to ensure that every ward across the town is blooming this spring.
