I had a great morning planting trees on the wide green verge on Ring Fort Road, Orchard Park. This was a lovely example of community problem solving.

Knocking on doors a few weeks ago a local resident told me that a dead tree had been removed and the grassy area was being used as a short cut for cars.

I raised this with the community council the following morning.

The community clerk had to go away and do some land searches to identify land ownership.

At the same time the 6 free trees the District Council had given Orchard Park were looking for a home.  So Andrew Chan, the Community Council chair and I hatched plan to solve the problem of cars driving over green space with creative planting.

When the land ownership was confirmed a group of us were able to go to the bank and spend a morning planting trees.  Neighbours to the site got really involved; planting the trees and agreeing to water them and look after them.

I look forward to the trees establishing and providing shade, shelter and space for nature.  The Community council organised planting materials and tools and a number of Community Councillors lead the session, which was lovely. Next step is a wildflower bank.

It was a lovely morning with particular thanks to Andrew Chan and Julija Hmeljak from the community council.