AMBITIOUS plans to plant around 250,000 trees across Wokingham have been unveiled.

People in Wokingham will be offered some of those trees and encouraged to plant them in their gardens.

Wokingham Borough Council is now drawing up a ‘Tree Strategy’ which outlines the plans to plant thousands of new trees and protect existing ones.

The council wants Wokingham to attain Tree City of the World status, so it can join the likes of Washington, Turin, Paris, and Birmingham.

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To achieve that, the council will need to draw up an effective-long term plan for tree planting, set rules and an annual budget for tree management and hold an annual celebration of trees.

Councillor Gregor Murray, the council’s executive member for resident services, said:  “As part of the proposals to deliver this number of new trees and maintain our existing tree stock, we propose to develop a Wokingham Tree Strategy.

“This would set out how Wokingham could maximise the wide range of benefits that trees and woods can deliver in relation to health, amenity, climate change, and water management.

“It will also explain how the council could protect and maintain council-owned trees.”

His comments came at a meeting of Wokingham Borough Council’s Executive on October 29.

The Conservative councillor added: “Planting on existing green land is the easiest option, but urban trees and urban forests provide some of the greatest benefits.

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“They provide shade, they provide wind protection, they reduce our peak temperatures, they improve our air quality, they absorb carbon, they reduce noise and they reduce the risk of flooding.

“They also look quite nice.

“As part of our plan to plant 250,000 trees, there is a commitment to plant more urban trees.

“We’re calling it the ‘Garden Forest Project’ and a proportion of our 250,000 trees are being set aside for residents to effectively plant in their own gardens.

“In the near future, I’m looking forward to announcing plans on how we will deliver that.”