Town receives £1.8m grant to plant more trees

Blackpool has been estimated to have one of the smallest tree canopies in England

A £1.8m grant from United Utilities will pay for new trees to be planted in Blackpool, the town council said.

Jane Hugo, cabinet member for climate change, said: "The first wave of these trees will be ready for the 2025 planting season."

She said funding from the water company would help create "a greener and healthier future for residents".

Thousands of trees have already been planted in the Lancashire resort as part of a 10-year programme which runs up until 2030.

Of those, however, about 1,300 have been dug up and stolen to be sold commercially.

More than 2,000 were damaged between 2020 and 2021.

A year later, it was also revealed that it had cost £174,000 to plant six trees in Edward Street and build an underground system to nurture them.

A response to a Freedom of Information request said traditional methods of digging a pit and filling it with soil "almost always resulted in failures of the trees".

It said a tree "really requires a full grass verge with deep top soil to give space and medium for roots to grow" - particularly in windy and dry conditions.