Norfolk council quietly drops million trees by 2025 target

Council leaders have revealed they are ditching the pledge they made in 2019, after admitting they are yet to reach half that number with little over a year to go.

So far, just 486,000 trees have been planted since the launch of the One Million Trees for Norfolk.

Norfolk County Council has admitted it will not hit its tree planting target by 2025. Credit: Ian Burt

Leaders conceded they will miss the one million target next year, and are instead aiming for a "sustainable pace" of planting an average of 150,000 trees a year until the million milestone is reached.

At a meeting next week, where the council's climate action plan will be discussed, councillors are due to agree to ditch the target.

The council previously blamed the coronavirus pandemic for the lack of progress, saying that had affected how many trees could be planted as community groups were not able to gather to get digging.

At one point Conservative-controlled County Hall even considered buying up land to create a new country park where the trees could be planted, to try to meet the target.

Steve Morphew (Image: Archant)

And Steve Morphew, leader of the Labour group said: "Even allowing for Covid, they’ve not even managed two thirds and lost trees don’t even feature. That’s way off target.

"Along the way they have proposed gimmicks, conveniently lost in the long grass, like a country park.

"Less cynical massaging of the figures would encourage the community collaboration we need to improve our environment and help tackle the climate crisis."

James Bensly, Norfolk County Council cabinet member for environment and waste (Image: Norfolk Conservatives)

James Bensly, the council's cabinet member for environment and waste, said the council would have planted 600,000 trees by next spring.

He said the council was working with farmers to plant trees and hedgerows, had sold subsidised tree packs to people and secured money from businesses to offer grants to help community groups.

He said: "Our team works with residents and landowners so the trees are planted in the right place, where they can survive and flourish.

"That means going at a sustainable pace, planting an average of 150,000 trees a year until we hit our million-tree target.

"Our dedicated team is currently working on projects across the county, including our popular subsidised tree scheme which launches later this month."