'We need to consider ‘urban canopy cover’ for the health and wellbeing of our residents"

Newbury Town Council is backing a plan to increase tree canopy cover in the town.

It is urging West Berkshire Council to increase the canopy cover as a matter of urgency.

The town's full council meeting heard that on July 19, 2022, the highest temperature ever recorded at Heathrow airport, approximately 45 miles away from Newbury, was 40.2ºC.

Sarah Slack, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, said data revealed that a number of streets in Newbury, including Bartholomew and Northbrook Street, recorded an average tree canopy cover of only 13.8 per cent.

"This is below the minimum tree canopy cover of 20 per cent recommended for most towns in the UK," she explained.

"The Newbury Town Centre Masterplan revealed that 45 per cent of survey respondents would like to add more planting and green space to the town centre.

" We are proud to have a policy of planting two new trees for each mature tree we have to remove due to disease, damage or demise.

"In 2019, 48 trees were required to be removed from one of our green spaces and so, we planted approximately 100 new ones to replace them."

"I believe, that we now need to consider ‘urban canopy cover’ for the health and wellbeing of our residents and that this will help Newbury’s adaptation to climate change."