Park live

Tindle News

04/02/2025

Transcript

00:00Good morning, once again, people of Somerset. It's Daniel Mumby, your local democracy reporter.

00:08Welcome to Lingford Park, in the centre of Taunton, on a blustery day in Somerset's county

00:13town. I am standing at the southern entrance to the park, just off Lingford Road. You can

00:18see the church just in the distance there. It's very, very windy, so I apologise if I'm

00:24having to shout to be heard over the tiny microphone on my iPhone. And I thought we

00:28would just take a little stroll around this green haven in the centre of Taunton, not

00:32far from the new homes that are being built up at Pryor's Wood as part of the Wooloway

00:37redevelopment scheme. But we're not here to talk about housing today, we're here to talk

00:41about green spaces, and in particular, trees. Now, the reason we're talking about trees

00:47today is that Somerset Council have recently received a very generous grant to provide

00:53new trees, hundreds of them, across Somerset's green spaces, of which the lion's share will

00:59be coming to Taunton parks like this. Now, the money has come from the Urban Tree Challenge

01:05Fund to the tune of £500,000, and that will be spent over the coming months on planting

01:12nearly 700 new mature trees in green spaces like this, which means that there'll be much

01:21more tree cover throughout these green spaces, particularly important in areas of Taunton

01:27like this. We are, like I say, in the Pryor's Wood area, which is one of the more deprived

01:31parts of Taunton. You can see that the weather has taken itself out on these trees a lot

01:39of the time, so the trees that are going to be planted here are at least three years old.

01:44They are going to be protected with that funding for three years in terms of their maintenance

01:48and upkeep rather than just being planted there and left to the will of God. It's really

01:55encouraging to see so many more trees being planted. What I've been provided with by Somerset

02:00Council is a breakdown of how many trees will be going in each of the green spaces in Taunton,

02:06so I thought that I would provide that to you now. So, a total of 403 of those new trees

02:15will be coming to Taunton's green spaces, of which 59 will be planted at Taunton Green,

02:2649 at Lesley Avenue, 48 on the Galmington Recreation Ground, not far from Musgrave Park

02:32Hospital of course, 42 at Penny's Field, 49 at Victoria Park, 43 at Hamilton Park, 52

02:42at Lingford Park where we are now, just pan around as we head further along the cycle

02:47route. We're going to loop back round and do a little, it's a figure of nine rather

02:51than a figure of eight, you'll see where I'm going with this. A further 46 at Pryorswood

02:57Football Field and 15 on Higher Hallway, 403 all together. And of that, 321 will be native

03:07broadleaf trees, 28 will be edible fruit trees and 24 will be non-native species. In terms of

03:16the remainder of the trees, 74 of them are going to Castle Carey for the cricket ground and fair

03:23field within the neighbouring parish of Ansford, Crewe Kern will be getting 15 of them at the

03:28Bath Street Recreation Ground, 33 are going to Collet Park in Shepton Mallet, 46 are going to

03:34the Recreation Ground in Somerton and 100 trees will be split between Oak Tree Park,

03:41Yew Tree Park, Milford Park and Lower Milford over in Yeovil. And like I say, those will all

03:48be planted within the coming weeks and months so that by the summer all of these parks,

03:54especially Lingford here, will have a larger amount of tree cover for you to enjoy, to take

03:59shade and in some cases you might be able to enjoy the fruits that they bear as well. We had

04:05a statement provided through as I looped back round off Fig Tree Road from Councillor Graham

04:12Oaks who is Somerset Council's portfolio holder for public health, the environment and climate

04:17change and here's what he had to say. We are thrilled to have secured funding for the Urban

04:23Tree Challenge Fund allowing us to plant more trees in urban green spaces across Somerset.

04:29This initiative is another step towards enhancing our green spaces and a significant move towards

04:35ensuring cleaner air and a healthier environment for our communities. As part of our 10 year Somerset

04:41Tree Strategy we are committed to investing in a greener more sustainable future for Somerset.

04:46The Somerset Tree Strategy is something we have touched on before, you might remember a live

04:52stream that we did out at Chard Reservoir in my neck of the woods, ha ha, where essentially the

04:58aim is to increase the amount of Somerset which is covered by trees from its current level of

05:04around 8% to around the national average of 13% within a 10 year period and the urban tree planting

05:11that will be going on here in Lingford Park and elsewhere across Taunton is one small part of

05:17that and just to reiterate the Urban Tree Challenge Fund, it's not coming from council tax

05:24precepts, it's not coming from business rates, it is a separate fund entirely so when you get your

05:30council tax bills coming through in the next few weeks it will not be taken straight out of that,

05:36it is separate entirely so we are getting the benefits of both funding for our public services

05:41and new trees in our green spaces. I'm just taking a stroll around Lingford Park today,

05:47obviously it's quite quiet because it's a school day, there's not too many people running around

05:51and obviously we're not going to get too close to the schools for obvious reasons

05:55but even with this little circuit, imagining all these extra trees that are going to be planted,

06:0052 of them in this location alone and the dozens that are going to be delivered elsewhere in

06:05Taunton, it is going to make such a difference. Green spaces like this, we talk about the long

06:12term effects of the Covid pandemic and how important it came, we realised how crucial it

06:19was to have this kind of green space on our doorstep and we need to look after these as best

06:22we can and planting more trees not only helps with leisure in terms of providing shade but it

06:29also boosts biodiversity and as we look at the Lingford Stream, what I believe is the Lingford

06:34Stream flowing through here, it's also critical for flood prevention, allowing more water to be

06:40absorbed and retained especially with periods of inclement weather that we've just experienced.

06:47So there we go, you've got a lot more green cover and foliage to look forward to

06:52here in Lingford Park in Taunton, across dozens of other locations elsewhere in Somerset and they

06:59will all be coming on stream in the coming weeks and months so keep an eye out for people in

07:04high-vis jackets in your parks planting beautiful new trees and who knows, we'll be following up

07:10with that in the summer if you'd like to sing the praises of a particular location.

07:16Anyway, a nice short and sweet stream for you this morning but hopefully that's given you a little

07:19boost as we head further into Tuesday and I'll be back with another live stream on Saturday where

07:25I'm hoping to be in Yeovil talking about the improvements to the Riles Park Medical Centre

07:31which I've proposed. But in the meantime from Lingford Park in the heart of Taunton

07:35it's Daniel Mumby, your local democracy reporter and have a smashing day. Bye for now.

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