A community voluntary group believes it will plant the longest row of trees, over 100, in Ruddington (and potentially Rushcliffe) in memory of the late Queen.
Brookside Residents’ Action Group (BRAG) for The Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC) was newly formed last year to ‘plant a tree for the jubilee’ to mark a living legacy for Queen Elizabeth II.
Collectively we felt The QGC would go some way in replacing the loss of our Green Belt, which our neighbourhood overlooked, and we would gain from the environmental benefits of tree planting.
Bloor Homes East Midlands kindly gave BRAG permission to plant a row of trees on its land – on the southern boundary of the Fairham Green site off Wilford Road – in a strip of the wasteland created by the housing development, stretching about 223 metres.
Bloor also stumped up sponsorship to buy 106 suitable trees for the space. But the developer made clear it was not able to plant these trees, so residents agreed to organise this QGC – that’s how the collaboration began between Bloor & BRAG.
Bloor Homes East Midlands said: “We definitely would like to collaborate in a joint project. Unfortunately, due to planning, we’re unable to facilitate the planting of the trees on the southern border of the development. However, we will be able to contribute to this fantastic cause.”
BRAG’s volunteer lead said:
“Plant a tree to be part of The Queen’s Green Canopy initiative seemed to be a timely godsend.
“The QGC arose after planning permission was granted to build on the neighbouring Green Belt which was a national flood plain.
“The impact is huge, both on the environment and the wellbeing of villagers. We knew the importance of this Green Belt so, with its loss, a positive way forward to achieve a net gain for nature was to join The Queen’s Green Canopy.
“Also Plant Britain was on my radar to organise tree planting, on a large scale, to absorb carbon dioxide and additionally these new trees should help with the risk of future flooding.”
Research first started at The Woodland Trust – a partner of The QGC – as the group shortlisted suitable trees to form a proper canopy or row of trees (rather than a hedge) and also with Rushcliffe Borough Council to comply with guidelines about planting in our village. We are grateful for the support from everyone we liaised with about BRAG for the QGC; our Ruddington Borough Councillors, RBC Officers, local Parish Council, Ruddington Tree Warden who is part of the local Wildlife Trust, village-based horticulturists and gardeners, Mayor of Rushcliffe, and our MP for Rushcliffe. We’ve even written to His Majesty The King!
Now the residents’ wait is over! We look forward to creating a green vista to increase the biodiversity because Bloor gave the go-ahead this month for 106 trees to be ordered. Neighbours will start to plant the first few potted dwarf hornbeam trees to ensure we join The QGC map by The King’s extended deadline at the end of this month (31st March 2023). Currently labour-intensive work on ground clearing has begun by BRAG volunteers, aged from under 1 to over 90.
First to get their gardening gloves on were John and Jackie:
“We’ve been waiting and waiting this year for the developer to start erecting its boundary fence for us to then plant the row of trees on the other side of it.
“Fencing would mean them clearing the ground area to get the fence in, which would have helped us.
“But we learnt this month that Bloor could not give exact timings for their fencing so, given The QGC deadline, we needed to get on and are pleased to have made a start with clearing weeds at the back of our neighbours – wasn’t as bad as we thought!
“The idea is we’d all clear the strip or ‘void’ as Bloor calls it at the back of our gardens and help those who are unable to. Next time we’ll be at a neighbour who is housebound and elderly.”
Cath and her sons went out on Mothering Sunday. She said:
“We began clearing the space along the Bloor’s development in order to plant trees for The Queen’s Green Canopy. Great to have a chance to create a green space for the environment and wildlife.”
A long-term resident on Brookside Road said:
“This was a lovely stretch to walk along and a great place for wildlife. The QGC row of trees will provide a much-needed green-screen between existing and new houses and help to mitigate the potential flood risk which we are all concerned about.”
