Westhoughton: Tree planting takes place to create greener town

Westhoughton councillors joined forces with Bolton Council and City of Trees to plant trees across the town.

They replaced trees which have been taken away due to disease – hoping to restore the 'balance of nature' within Westhoughton town.

Cllr David Wilkinson, Cllr Gillian Wroe and Cllr Ollie Younge worked alongside volunteers, Bolton Council and members of the Greater Manchester initiative City of Trees.

Cllr Wilkinson said: “Hopefully the new planting of trees will make a difference.

“We have lost hundreds of trees, and this was the first opportunity to plant new ones.

“There are also some heavy-duty standards going in the park along the fence and once they have taken it will allow some poorer quality trees particular behind Central Drive to come out.

• Also read: Tree planting in Bolton continues to tackle climate change

“At the moment on Central Drive there is some really very poor specimens of trees, and they are a nuisance for residents who live on Central Drive and when I was chairman of the steering group we went in the park, and I said we could plant some newer trees.

Cllr David Wilkson (Image: Cllr David Wilkinson)

“And that’s what’s happened at the park, the trees are further away from residents, and it means that those poorer ones can come out.

“The tree planting came from Bolton Council who have done a package with City of Trees which is the tree charity across Greater Manchester, and they are looking at planting three million trees of various sizes.

• Also read: Fall in love with this marvellous home which boasts some amazing views

“It is a 15-year programme, and they will come out and look at them on a regular basis every couple of years to see if anything has died and they will replant.

“In 15 years’ time hopefully we will have some reasonably sized trees on the way.

“It will help because we are losing trees not only through development but also unfortunately from Ash Dieback.

“At least 18 have been removed in the last couple of months due to Ash Dieback which is a shame but hopefully the new trees will go some way to offset that.

“We’ve lost too many and if we can create a small woodland pocket, it is better than nothing.”