£50k awarded to Wiltshire Council for community orchards
It's in celebration of the King's Coronation
Wiltshire Council has been handed £50,000 to fund a community orchard as part of a new Government tree planting initiative, celebrating the coronation of King Charles III.
The funding has come from the Government’s Coronation Living Heritage Fund, which a £2.5m pot backing local tree planting projects across the country.
£50k is the maximum available sum for community orchards and the council aims to allocate funds to communities, in the hope of sprouting as many community orchards as possible.
HM Lord-Lieutenant of Wiltshire, Mrs Sarah Troughton, said she was pleased the council has secured the funding: “This is a terrific initiative honouring the Coronation of HM The King, and I look forward in time to seeing apples, pears, plums, even cherries perhaps, harvested from the orchards.”
The funding will back the purchasing of trees, protection measures, establishment costs and commemorative signs.
It’s expected that the trees will be planted in the Autumn of next year, affording the council plenty of time to plan the orchard appropriately, which can be on public or private land, so long as there is involvement of the community.
Cllr Nick Holder, Cabinet Member for Environment at Wiltshire Council said the funding would help drive forward their tree planting targets.
“It will make a real difference up and down the county. We remain an ambitious council and when funding like this becomes available, we jump at the chance to apply as it complements the already great work we’re doing in this area.
“We’ll have more information on how this will be allocated in due course, but we’re looking forward to working directly with communities and continuing our work of enhancing trees and woodlands throughout Wiltshire.”
As it stands, Wiltshire has a combined tree canopy coverage of 14%, with the long-term aim of the council being to improve this to 17%, in line with national targets.