Give us your views on our draft West Northamptonshire Tree and Woods Strategy

Overview

We would like your views on the West Northamptonshire Tree and Woods Strategy. 

West Northamptonshire Council is now in the final stages of developing a comprehensive tree and woods strategy to help us manage trees more effectively, as well as to set our vision and action plan for the future treescape of West Northamptonshire. This follows previous engagement that was carried out over winter 2023/2024, and ensures that local issues and priorities from this have been considered.

We would like to offer our thanks to the many residents, partners and organisations who have already helped to shape this draft strategy.

Introducing the draft Strategy 

The draft Tree Strategy supports the goals of the Council’s Corporate Plan and provides a clear framework for strategic and operational decision making that will:

• Maximise the benefits of trees to people, biodiversity, and achieving net zero.
• Maximise the wider benefits of trees, including for nature recovery, flood risk management, and contributing to the character and quality of urban streets and new developments.
• Help further the understanding of trees, their function and role.

The Strategy provides baseline data on current tree canopy cover and a vision for expanding tree canopy cover across West Northamptonshire up to 2045.  Under five key themes, the strategy sets out how we will protect existing trees, manage trees in public ownership, plant new trees and engage with local communities.   

The strategy is supported by an action plan that the Council intends to carry out.

As things will change during the delivery of the strategy, a new action plan will be developed every five years.

Related documentation

• West Northamptonshire Tree and Woods Strategy (PDF 932KB)
• Appendix A - Wider Strategic Links (PDF, 128KB)
• Appendix B - Action Plan (PDF, 311KB)
• Appendix C - The Benefits of Trees (PDF, 187KB)
• Appendix D - Case Sudies (PDF, 971)
• Appendix E - Capital Asset Valuation of Amenity Trees (PDF, 83KB)
• Appendix F - Tree Management Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (PDF, 212KB)
• Appendix G - Canopy Methodology (PDF, 214KB)
• Summary document on the vision and themes (PDF, 92KB)

Have your say

We want to hear the views of our residents and various stakeholders to ensure we gain the right intelligence and views to inform a final version of our Tree and Woods Strategy. 

You can tell us your views by completing the following questionnaire, you do not have to answer every question or give feedback on every section. 

If you have any queries or comments about the survey or would like the survey in another format, please email: parks@westnorthants.gov.uk

The deadline for completing this questionnaire is midnight Sunday 13th October 2024. 

For information about how your responses are managed please see the Consultation and Engagement Privacy Notice.

Drop in sessions

The consultation period includes a number of in-person drop-in sessions, where you can share your views and feedback on the draft strategy. The details of these are as follows: 

We are also holding a Virtual Event through MS Teams on Monday 30 September 2024. There are different times to attend, but each will contain the same detail.

What happens next? 

The feedback we receive will be collated and analysed and will help to shape the final Tree Strategy which will then be presented to the Councils’ Cabinet in December before looking to adopt the strategy in January 2025.