Funds available for community planting as Coronation Living Heritage Fund open for applications

Published 18 April 2024

Wiltshire Council's Coronation Living Heritage Orchard Fund is now open for applications. The £50,000 grant was awarded to the council to fund the planting of community orchards as part of a new Government tree planting initiative to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III. This grant money is being distributed among eligible projects across the county.

Applications to plant a community orchard are invited from parish councils, schools or other organisations with management control of land that is open to the public. The orchards can be on private or public land as long as there is community involvement.

The fund will support the purchase of trees, protection measures and establishment costs as well as commemorative signage. Planting will take place in autumn/winter 2024-2025, allowing plenty of time to plan the orchard appropriately.

The council aims to use this opportunity to develop green skills including orchard maintenance and traditional wood craft techniques, as well as to encourage orchard celebrations such as wassails and apple pressing days.

Cllr Dominic Muns, Cabinet Member for Environment, said: This is a very exciting project to be a part of and I would encourage people to apply for the funding so we can have as many community orchards across the county as possible.

It will be great to see our community come together and I look forward in time to seeing what fruits will be harvested from the orchards.

A key priority in our business plan is taking responsibility for the environment and one of our long-term aims is to increase our tree canopy coverage to 17%, in line with national government targets.

For more information about the Coronation Living Heritage Fund, people can visit Trees and woodland in Wiltshire

For full details of Wiltshire Council's Business Plan, Climate strategy, and Green and Blue Infrastructure strategy can be found at Green and blue infrastructure

Topics:

• Environment news

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