Greening the grey in Luton: dozens of trees planted to mark National Tree Week

Thirty-one trees have been planted in and off the streets of Luton in Chatham as part of a partnership between local organisations to mark National Tree Week. Species planted include pear and birch trees in the Castle and Listmas Roads with a selection of Ginkgo Biloba in the Maida Road area, the trees will now take a period of time to settle before reaching full maturity.

Next steps will include the local community, with support, looking after their future maintenance and care to help ensure they thrive in their new homes. Community group Arches Local with Medway Plus a local charity worked together with the UK's largest independent social landlord, mhs homes, to plant the trees with their estates team led by Rhys Dejersey.

Stephen Perez, Arches Local Coordinator, said that best time to plant these trees was 15 years ago, the second-best time was now and by working together, that’s what we’ve achieved. We now look forward for many generations to come within our community to reap the benefits of this planting.

The trees have been carefully placed in a part of Medway that is either within or next to what is classified as an Air Quality Management Area, due to it experiencing poor air quality. These newly planted trees will not only help combat climate change globally, but locally clean the air by locking up carbon, help cool the area and improve the visual aspect of the area.

This work in part has been made possible by an award from People’s Postcode Trust, a grantgiving charity funded entirely by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. We will look to further recognise them and our other supporters through various different methods, including bright tree labels pictured below which are coming soon and will be attached to each tree.  Keep an eye out for them as they will give more information on fun ways on how to get involved and details on the type of tree it is.

The Luton Urban Trees Project was delivered thanks to a combination of funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, Orchard Community Energy, PostCode Local Trust, and Local Ward Councillors. National Tree Week is the UK’s largest annual tree celebration, marking the start of the winter tree planting season (November to March each year) Arches Local was formed as part of the Big Local initiative, funded by the then National Lottery, to improve areas across England, including central Chatham, ending in 2026.


Arches Local Community Art Together Celebrates Black History Month 2020

October is Black History Month in the UK, an event that has been celebrated nationwide for more than 30 years. The month was originally founded to recognise the contributions that people of African and Caribbean backgrounds have made to the UK over many generations.  Now, Black History Month has expanded to include the history of not just African and Caribbean people but black people in general.

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20 years of Luton Millennium Green... Let's Celebrate!!

This year marks 20 years of Luton Millennium Green which is definitely something worth celebrating. Back then in September 2000 the youngsters had a message for us asking, "for the people of Luton to look after our Millennium Green".

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Active Arches Fit and Fed Summer 2020

We been very busy trying to get our Fit and Fed program up and running over these Summer Holiday and adhering to all the Covid 19 restrictions that are or were in place.

This led to us having to limit the numbers of young people that could attend to a maximum of 30 each day, which is very disappointing given on average we had more than double that amount the previous summer. Though unfortunate very necessary given the global pandemic and ensuring the safety and good health for those young people and their families who were able to take part in our summer program.

 

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Friends of Luton Millennium Green?

We are looking for people who care about our local park and green space, to help us form a Friends of Luton Millennium Green Group.

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Looks like Victory… Arches Local and Network Rail mural brightens up Luton Arches!

Arches Local has worked with Network Rail and artist Lionel Stanhope to brighten up a corner of our Big Local area, under local railway landmark the Luton Arches.

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Have your say on the future of our Big Local area here!

Have your say on the future of our Big Local area here by completing this survey https://t.co/oGBDB13KaY?amp=1 put up by Arches Chatham Neighbourhood Forum to feed into their Neighbourhood Plan for the area.

Some of the initial responses have indicated that people were overwhelmingly in favour of walkability, street trees, community infrastructure and terrace/low rise housing. Most people saw blank elevations, non-residential ground floor, enclosed spaces and high rise housing unfavourably.

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Try our #TreeTrail Walk

Using the ticl.me app we have created a Tree Trail walk through Luton Millennium Green and beyond for anyone to enjoy. Along the Tree Trail we have marked species of Trees, other fauna and points of interest for you to check out.

We plan to keep updating and adding more to the trail but please have go of the walk and tell us what you think? We hope you enjoy doing it as much as we did making it!


We Need You! for our Partnership!

We Need You! for our Partnership!

We’re looking for new partnership members to join us helping influence how we bring about local change. Our partnership is made of up local residents and businesses who live and work in our Big Local area which covers parts of Chatham Central.

Being on the partnership isn’t a full-time job, we really value your time and you can get involved as much as you choose. We generally meet up every other month to discuss what’s happened and make decisions on future plans for our area.

If you’re interested like us in making a difference and playing a role in changing our community for the better, or want to know more please get in touch!


IMPORTANT NOTICE

Due to the ongoing #covidー19uk situation we are disappointed to announce that all our #BigLocal activities and events will be placed on hold until further notice. We feel this is inline with government outline in managing the spread and keeping people from risk.