Mason Moore | Hinckley Reporter | 3 November 2023

LEICESTERSHIRE COUNTY Council have extended the deadline of their ‘free trees’ scheme, giving landowners, farmers, schools, and groups the chance to plant trees and hedges in order to help renew and restore existing woodland and vegetation.

The trees and hedgerow packs are being given away by the County Council in partnership with the Woodland Trust. As well as renewing and restoring existing woodland and vegetation, the packs will also replace trees which have been directly affected by diseases such as ash dieback, and encourage more tree planting locally.

The deadline has now been extended to Thursday, 30 November, meaning residents have around three weeks to sign up. Successful applicants will be able to collect the packs from Beaumanor Hall on Wednesday, 21 February 2024.

Each tree pack includes 50 native trees – a mix of oak, wild cherry, crab apple, field maple and hazel, as well as tree guards and stakes.

The hedgerow packs are made up of 250 native trees and shrubs, including a mix of hawthorn, hazel, field maple and oaks to plant at regular intervals along the hedgerow. Each hedgerow pack is enough to create a 50m-long hedge at five plants per metre.

For larger areas of land, the scheme will also help advise and support the creation of new areas of woodland planting over half a hectare through the MOREwoods scheme.

In a statement seen by the Hinckley Free Press, a spokesperson for the county council noted that last year, 50,000 trees were planted from this, and other similar schemes. It is being hoped that this year’s will prove ‘even more successful’.

Anyone who would like to apply for a free tree or hedgerow pack is asked to register by emailing lcctreepacks@woodlandtrust.org.uk, with your name, email address, phone number and planting location (postcode or grid reference), before the new closing date of Thursday, 30 November.