Orchard town dream for Hartlepool - call to plant fruit trees to help fight poverty by offering healthy food for free

Council chiefs have a three-year tree-planting strategy for the town, and have agreed to look into making more of them fruit trees after councillors highlighted the benefits.

Coun Amy Prince said along with planting trees it would provide a free source of food and help with issues such as poverty.

Coun Marjorie James said the council had previously agreed to plant fruit trees where appropriate, but she was not aware of any planted by them over the past three years.

She said: “It seems to have been dropped off as a priority and it needs to be brought back to the forefront.

“Fruit trees, nuts, whatever else we can get into the mix because they are naturally our trees in Britain, they are naturally occurring trees that are part of our mix yet we don’t plant them and I think that we should where it is appropriate.

“We really do need to include fruit and nuts in the mix of trees that we plant.”

The calls came as Hartlepool Borough Council’s Neighbourhood Services Committee approved the town’s tree strategy for 2020-2030 which looks to plant more trees in the town.

A plan indicating areas suitable for tree planting is also being developed, to assist in supporting community groups who may have access to trees, and find the most appropriate places for them to be planted.

Council officers noted as part of this plan they could look at what kind of trees should be planted and include fruit trees.

They also noted in recent years the council has planted more trees than it has have removed.

Coun Sue Little called for shrubbery and hedgerows to be involved in the plan, but raised a concern over fruit trees.

She said: “I love the idea of fruit trees but I have one concern about it, we’ve spoken previously about antisocial behaviour.

“That’s the only concern I’ve got that we might have a massive increase in antisocial behaviour with people throwing the fruit off the trees at people’s houses and cars.”