Liverpool residents are being encouraged to have their say on plans to create more woodlands in Merseyside and North Cheshire.
The newly updated Mersey Forest Plan aims to plant millions more trees across the local area, with long-term aspirations in Liverpool to plant urban trees, copses, and larger woodlands and improve their management for people and wildlife.
The plan has been created by The Mersey Forest Partnership which has planted 9 million trees since 1991. The partnership is made up of Liverpool City Council and six other local authorities, the Forestry Commission, Natural England, Environment Agency and local communities and businesses.
The draft document can be found at www.merseyforest.org.uk/plan, where residents can see proposals for their local area on an interactive map, and put forward their views until the end of April. All comments received by noon on Friday 22nd March will also be entered into a prize draw to win a selection of luxury Easter chocolates (full competition rules available at merseyforest.org.uk).
Printed copies of the plan are also in libraries in Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St.Helens, Warrington and northern areas of Cheshire West and Chester (call 01925 816217 for further details).
The plan has been backed by the Rt. Rev. James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, who recently led the Independent Panel on Forestry which has helped shape national woodlands policy. The Bishop said: “Our forests are nature’s playground for the adventurous, pleasure for the curious, hospital for the stressed, cathedral for the spiritual, and livelihood for the entrepreneur. There is no finer example of this than The Mersey Forest’s achievements of the past 20 years.
“I have no doubt this success will continue, and would encourage people to have their say on this new plan for the decades ahead.”
GIFT-T! (Green Infrastructure for Tomorrow – Together!) has contributed to the funding of The Mersey Forest Plan consultation. The Mersey Forest is working with partners in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands to share approaches and develop best practice between 2011 and 2014 as part of this EU Interreg funded
