Aiming to make Oldham the greenest borough

Oldham Council is looking to create a cleaner and greener borough - literally!

Councillor Arooj Shah, Leader of Oldham Council, recently pledged that Don’t Trash Oldham would be branching out and building on the successful environmental improvement work of the previous 20 months of the campaign.

One area the council is keen to grow is tree planting.

This year the council is looking at creating 2.5 hectares of new woodland, from saplings, when planting season starts in October.

Council staff will also be planting a minimum of 1,000 trees at sites across the borough.

Together with partners, the charity City of Trees, the council is documenting all the borough’s tree planting activity and looking for sites where they can increase greenery.

Since the council declared a climate emergency thay have planted more than 2,000 standard trees in parks, cemeteries, highways verges and other open spaces.

Staff have also planted nearly 15 hectares of new woodland, around 37,500 saplings, and committed to increase Oldham’s overall tree cover from 11.9% (2017) to 15% within a generation.

Councillor Arooj Shah, Leader of Oldham Council, said: “We have an ambition to be the greenest borough in Greater Manchester.

“Critics will say there isn’t a chance we can achieve that, but we are doing our bit.

“Everyone knows how important trees are to the environment but here in Oldham we can actually point out the positive impact they’ll have on future generations.

“A few months ago our teams planted trees around Elk Mill and Chadderton Way.

"It’s one of our schemes where we are trying to get trees between people and pollution to help improve the environment and residents’ health.

“When they are fully grown the trees will help form a buffer between Clayton playing fields and one of the busiest roads in the borough.

"The trees provide all sorts of benefits, including helping to trap dirty waste particles from car exhausts and brake dust.”

The council is aiming to do its bit to improve the green environment, and so can you.

That’s where you can come in - the council want landowners, schools, golf courses, farms and social landlords for example, to join them and plant trees.

You could even do it in your own garden.

Then extra trees will support and improve the environment and they also have added benefits like helping to stop flooding.

If you would like more information about how you could get involved, email: EnvironmentalServices@oldham.gov.uk

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