Milton Keynes Council will plant 500 trees in celebration of HM The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, including a new community orchard on a historic town centre site.
The Queen’s Green Canopy initiative asks people around the UK to ‘plant a tree for the Jubilee’ to create a living, green legacy.
Many of the new trees will be planted in partnership with parish councils to make sure they are positioned to best effect.
For the new community orchard, the council is working with local volunteers to help plant fruit trees including apple, pear, plum and cherry on the ancient Secklow Mound.
The flattened mound was once an important meeting point for Anglo-Saxons to organise land and discuss other legal matters and will now become a community fruit orchard that the council hopes will become a place of calm and natural beauty for local people.
Dozens of trees have already been temporarily planted at Station Square as part of the Modernist Glade public art project.
The council will also be replacing some trees in poor health on Milton Keynes’ central boulevards.
Trees benefit the environment as they produce oxygen, improve air quality and create habitats for wildlife.
Studies have also shown that being around trees can lower a person’s blood pressure and decrease stress levels.
Commenting, Milton Keynes Council’s Cabinet Member for the Public Realm, Councillor Lauren Townsend said:
“We know local people love and value MK’s trees and green spaces and we’re delighted to celebrate Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee by planting 500 trees in Milton Keynes.
“It’s also part of our vital work to plant trees as both a symbolic and practical step towards tackling climate change for future generations.”
The new trees will add to the 22 million trees that are already in the borough.
