New woodland to be planted in housing estate

A woodland of 1,000 trees is to be planted at a housing estate in north Devon as part of a nature recovery plan.

Devon County Council will fund the tree-planting at the Gatefield amenity grassland at the Londonderry Estate in Bideford.

The project follows a consultation with people at the estate who use the grassland.

The county council has previously given its support to a recovery plan that aims to plant 10,000 new trees on urban public land by 2025.

Torridge District Council, which owns the land, reduced the number of proposed trees by 500 and took out footpaths after residents requested a larger open space, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

There were concerns over the proximity of footpaths to properties in the area.

The council said feedback from a consultation was "mostly positive", with the main concern being over the size of open space.

Councillor Peter Hames, lead member for climate change, said it was a "significant number" of new trees even though there would be fewer trees than the original plans.

"Three quarters of the world's wildlife has disappeared over the last 50 years," he said.

"It is an absolute crisis, so well done on this project."

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