The Lib Dem’s latest leaflet suggests they are going to plant 160,000 trees in the borough over the next few years.
Here’s a picture capturing one tree that survived the one Horton Heath tree cull, and approx 200 newly planted trees.
Does anyone see a misleading problem with glorifying this high number of trees being planted right now?
I personally think they need calling out on the fact that they have ripped that number,if not more mature trees down. During their time in charge of Eastleigh
That looks more like a new hedgerow to me. It’ll be interesting to see where the new trees actually end up, whether hedges count towards the total, and if 160,000 is the number expected to survive (unlikely but perfectly normal) or the number being planted (more likely).
The hedgerow trees do count towards that number, as do dead and failed trees… so even dead trees count towards the number of trees planted.
@fosh90 is a bit more of a tree expert and tells me at least 50% of new trees will die!
I also agree with @LoudEFC , I wonder how many have been destroyed / removed!
Here’s more of the count! Think this covers about 1,000! It kind of highlights that 160,000 really isn’t that many…
It’s a bit hard to tell whether 160,000 is a good number without any context. I wonder how it compares to other areas, and whether the county council will also be planting trees in Eastleigh as well.
Maybe Eastleigh needs a tree strategy as well as a headline number. Could be a good policy for the Eastleigh Manifesto if anyone is up for it 
Not sure Eastleigh needs a tree strategy - I’d just like the Lib Dems to stop cutting the existing mature trees down. I suspect the environmental benefit of one large mature tree far outweighs the 6-7 saplings that have been planted in the pictures.
I’m not convinced leaving tree planting to chance is particularly helpful.
With a meaningless headline target and no sensible strategy you just end up with useless, or worse, cycle lanes painted on random bits of road, just as another example off the top of my head.
Having a proper strategy could improve the value for money and outcomes, compared to just bunging a few trees in the ground here and there. Maybe Eastleigh even has a strategy already, although I couldn’t find it if there is one.
