Funding for planting of 33,000 trees in Sleaford-area

GRANT funding will help to provide a greener environment for several projects in the Sleaford area.

Money has been donated to four landowners in North Kyme, one in Evedon and another in Martin Dales through the Hedge and Small Woodland Grant scheme.

Through the scheme, run by the Lincolnshire County Council's environmental management team, 33,000 new trees will be planted county-wide during January 2013, an increase of 7,500 on last year. They will be funded through 34 grants, amounting to 7.8kilometres of new hedges and 1.8 hectares of small woodlands.

LCC provides a 50 per cent grant of up to a maximum of £2,000 towards the cost of trees and protection.

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In North Kyme, Greg Grimwood is planting around 1,200 mixed native species hedging plants.

Mr Grimwood said: "We have a paddock that came with the house which we purchased which was sectioned off from a field so we are going to put some boundary hedging around that.

"The native mixed hedging will include hawthorn, buckthorn and beech – standard English hedging plants.

"The scheme is very useful, it's a significant cost saving rather than having to buy and source the plants ourselves. The process was very simple, I completed the form online I think and the chap came out to have a look and did some calculations as to what trees were required."

The grant scheme aims to address a dramatic decline of hedgerows in the UK – particularly in the eastern counties – since 1945. In Lincolnshire, a county council study compared field boundaries on aerial photographs between 1971/2 and 1993/4, and found that some areas of Lincolnshire lost more than 100m/square km of hedge – up to a quarter of the total length.

Executive Councillor Eddy Poll said: "I am really pleased with this year's scheme which is resulting in 33,000 trees being planted across Lincolnshire.

"This is a huge number of new trees and hedges which will make a significant and noticeable improvement to our landscape and wildlife, as the scheme has already done for a number of years."

The 2013/14 grant is now open to anyone who owns or manages land within the county of Lincolnshire. For guidance on eligibility, or for a free advisory visit on applying, contact Lincolnshire County Council's Environmental Management on 01522 552349 or visit www.lincolnshire.gov.uk