Sunday 11 March 2012

Kirkburton Parish Councils 1000 Fruit Tree Project begins


Parish Cllr Robert Barraclough with the first tree. 999 to go!


It's started. 25 fruit trees in (well 6 Pear very shortly) and 975 to go. This morning myself, Parish Cllrs Richard Burton, Robert Barraclough and Alison Munro joined residents from the Stocksmoor Village Association to plant the firs trees. It was a beautiful morning, spirits were high and there was a good turnout to tidy the area of brambles and dig the holes ready for the first plantings. We had a good mixture of cherry, apple and plum trees with pear to go in early next week. We've found a good supplier for the initial trees so we are hopeful we should be able to complete the project well under budget. It is a win, win project  that ticks many boxes. Growing local food, helping bee populations and wildlife generally, involving local people, helping local businesses all of these are helped by this project. It is a 4 year project to boldly plant fruit trees all across the Kirkburton Parish to leave a lasting and valued benefit to local people. Engaging community groups is a must with schemes such as this to make sure they are planted in the right places and that the community has stake in the project over time. There was talk of jam and wine making using the produce when the trees mature and start fruiting. All really good stuff and exactly the sort of thing the Parish Council should be doing.

We're producing a google map of the scheme to map progress as we go along and here's a link


Local residents get stuck in planting
 
Yours truly wih members of the Stocksmoor Village Association

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