Community street tree planting project
Published 26 November 2025
The Project
Trees are amazing! They have the power to cool us during heatwaves, they absorb water so help manage flooding and remove nasty airborne pollution and CO2 from the air.
Perhaps most amazing is the positive impact they have on our well-being. It is proven that people who live in a tree-lined neighbourhood have better levels of well-being than those who don’t.
In BCP we have secured over £64,000 in funding to plant 30+ street trees through a partnership between the council and the community. We’re planning this over the next few months and will be planting in winter 2026/27.
Street trees in Alderney, image by Anne Jaluzot
The initial funding, from the neighbourhood community infrastructure levy, supports this in Newtown and Heatherlands, Winton East and Poole Town wards. In these places we’ll develop a standard by which we can go out to other parts of BCP in the future.
We’ve picked these places as our starting areas because they have a low tree equity score.
About tree equity
We measure tree equity by bringing together data on current tree canopy cover, potential achievable target canopy, deprivation data, demographic data, surface temperature, access to nearby greenspace, to produce one score per ward. The scores show not only where existing tree canopy cover is low, but where the communities are that would most benefit from increasing urban tree canopy cover. The lower a neighbourhood’s tree equity score, the greater the need for trees.
Find your area's tree equity scores (TES) and targets
Taken from the BCP 2050 Urban Tree Strategy
- Read more about tree equity and our Urban Forest principles in the BCP Council | 2050 Urban Forest Strategy (pdf)
Be part of it
Please contact the Greenspaces team by email – greenspaces@bcpcouncil.gov.uk – if you’d like to get involved, help us water the young trees in the summer or have an idea of a location for a street tree.
We will be in touch as soon as we are able to act on your suggestion.
The Benefits of Trees, infographic courtesy of Treeconomics
Street trees in Poole High Street & in Bournemouth, images by Fred Ingarfield
Project details
Budget £64,538
Funding Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Neighbourhood Portion
Project Lead BCP Council’s Tree and Greenspace Development teams, alongside community tree champions
T. 01202 123123
E. greenspaces@bcpcouncil.gov.uk