Community Tree Planting
“When our Ops manager announced we had nearly 1000 trees being delivered the week before February half term and that he wanted to get the community to help plant them I must admit I thought it would never work”
Our Community Engagement Manager Kat was happy to be proved wrong this week as both the community and corporate volunteers came out in force to plant trees (including hawthorn and oak) at 3 locations in the Parish: Little Hatts Recreation Ground, Boorley Green Sports Pitches and Botley Rec.
On Tuesday afternoon the skies were blue, and families came out in force at Little Hatts. It was lovely to hear the excited chatter of the children as they got stuck in planting trees and writing labels to hang on the bamboo canes so they can check their progress over the coming months. Even when the trees were all planted the fun continued as picnics were eaten and the playpark was full.
We were also grateful to our corporate volunteers from Tilbury Douglas who took time out from the building of the new SEN school at Boorley Gardens to come and help.
Wednesday saw two events, one in Boorley Green and one at Botley Rec and the weather was back to normal – it was cold, wet and windy. We had a few brave families come and join us and our Community Engagement Manager roped her children in for the afternoon, but it really was our corporate volunteers saved the day.
Dan from Portsmouth Water, A team from ISC (who are part of the team building the bypass) and representatives from Hampshire County Council who are also part of the team working on the Bypass. They got well and truly stuck in and ensured that all 950 trees were planted across the 3 sites.
The council team also deserve a shout out, James (our ops manager), David, Luke, Justin and Alisia our grounds team and admin officer Christine (who has only just warmed up). Cllr Hayley King attended all 3 events and Cllr Dan Simcock joined us at Botley Rec and even dragged one of his colleagues along to help. It truly was a team effort.
Thankyou to everyone who took part in this amazing community event. We hope you had as much fun as we did and didn’t get too muddy!
We have another delivery of trees due next month so if you missed out or enjoyed it so much you want to do it again then get in touch. Email comms@botley-pc.gov.uk and we will let you know when they arrive.