Landscape Contractor Appointed

North of England based landscape contractor, Blakedown Landscapes has been appointed to deliver the Green Streets project around Four Acre St Helens.The work involves the excavation of over 80 tree pits and the planting of extra heavy standard trees of about 3-4m in height.

The trees, planted in pavements,verges and in the local park -King George V Playing Fields, will give a sense of instant impact to the streets.

Bright green guards will protect the trees from accidental damage from cars whilst allowing the clearance of litter or debris build up around the tree.

Residents will be encouraged to plant up around the trees with bulbs or small flowering plants.

The contract is estimated to take around 3 weeks to complete in readiness for spring bud break when trees burst into life!

Landscape Architect Appointed

Architects Ombler Iwanowski have been appointed by The Mersey Forest on behalf of St Helens Council to take forward plans to plant over 80 trees in the Four Acre and nearby Sutton Manor area linking residents to local shopping, neighbourhood services,schools and green spaces in the area.

Griff Evans of OI Architects (pictures left) said 'we have a wide range of experience of delivering this type of scheme in regeneration areas across the Mersey belt.I think this is a great scheme that offers an opportunity to bring a variety of colourful ornamental trees to this community and it will certainly brighten up the streets of south St Helens'

Your Questions answered on Street Trees

Click image to enlarge

Four Acres - Your streets with trees and a few flowers

For those around Four Acre who are being consulted on our latest round of planting here are some streets with trees using our software

www.visualise2d.com

Can you recognise where they are taken. Flower pots are not provided as part of the scheme but you can take part in planting events.

No prizes for spotting the elephant!

Green Streets Four Acre Sutton Manor and Lea Green plans announced

A visualisation using Visualise2D of how Jubits Lane might look with trees planted as you approach the Smithy Manor public house from the M62 Junction 7.

Here's a map of the delivery areas and some explanation of the work. Green Streets aims to link residential and business development areas to areas of the 'forest park' through using street trees as natural signposting to local green spaces.

The Mersey Forest has announced its ambitious plans for a Green Streets delivery across south St Helens in order to meet the ever increasing demand for street trees in the area.

To find out more follow this blog which will keep you posted of developments as they happen!!

Case Studies St Helens

Click on screen below to view


Four Acres St Helens

Open publication - Free publishing - More st helens

Images of Previous Delivery in St Helens

See how to apply for a grant at the bottom of the page!!

Here are some photos of the project recently delivered in and around Parr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenstreeter/3364117674/

and Four Acres in St Helens
http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenstreeter/3058509099/in/photostream/

Green Streets programme 2009 onwards in St Helens

What has been achieved to date?

The Mersey Forest’s Green Streets programme ran a successful delivery in the Bold Ward in 2007 and 2008, culminating in the delivery of 67 streets trees in pavement locations around the Four Acres estate.
The programme worked with a local group to apply for £6K from Bold Ward Committee and The Mersey Forest brought in additional external funding to deliver a £28K programme.

What are the local strategic reasons?

The key reason for this tree planting was the improvement of the publicly accessible open spaces around the Sutton Manor, Four Acres and Clock Face area. By planting trees the Green Streets programme would not only create local greenery for residents within their immediate neighbourhood, but this would create green linkages for them to walk and cycle to these open spaces and to local facilities like shops,the library and health facilities.

By planting trees, residents are:

· actively involved in taking ownership of their street tree
· in the decision making process (tree location and species choice)
· take pride in their local neighbourhood
· are more likely to get involved in active citizenship in the future

Why St Helens as part of The Mersey Forest wants to plant more trees

filter pollution from the air
help recycle water
prevent soil loss
create shade
give shelter from wind and rain
provide homes for animals
make food for humans and wildlife
provide an interesting, soothing, learning environment for children and your community
a more pleasant environment encourages inward investment in terms of jobs and spend in the local area
mitigate the effects of climate change i.e. by
Reducing the ‘urban heat island effect’ – warming in the winter, cooling in the summer Absorbing water to slow down run off and help prevent flooding

How will The Mersey Forest assist residents who apply?
Green Streets staff will guide the applicant through the full process and encourage involvement where possible through the following steps
· Feasibility study
· Assistance with applications
· Liaison with funders and stakeholders
· evaluation and consultation
. Contract management
· Residential involvement
· Project management
· Successful delivery

How many trees would £10K provide?

This amount may provide up top 20 street trees, or more; subject to location, tree size and type, the number of applications in any given year and the availability of match funding.
www.merseyforest.org.uk/greenstreets