Our commitment to improving green spaces - The Meriden Tree Committee

When the Tree Committee was first set up, its main focus was to identify areas within the Meriden area where we could increase the number of trees. However, due to the unbidden enthusiasm of our group members, the group’s focus has quickly widened to include a number of sustainable conservation initiatives that will improve green spaces across the Meriden as part of the wider economic and social regeneration of the estate.

One of the considered initiatives is the creation of an urban orchard as part of a Watford-wide project to plant 10 mini orchards across the town.

Watford Chamber of Commerce is running a scheme that helps the community to support and establish an orchard, creating a shared space to nurture and harvest fruit. We are helping to fund Urban Orchards – Feeding our Future. This project is designed to help tackle social isolation and re-connect the community with food production and help people appreciate that food is a precious resource, not a commodity to be wasted.

This is a fantastic scheme that will support other sustainable and environmental projects that are happening across the Meriden already such as the Random Café.

Watford Chamber of Commerce is also offering other opportunities to plant trees on a wider scale and make the area greener as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy (a nationwide tree planting project in honour of Her Majesty’s 70 years of service to the nation).

To support this venture trees will be donated by The More Trees campaign, and a local arborist, Nikki Holtom, will train the community on how to look after the trees.

We’re so excited about the range of positive opportunities on the horizon and the Tree Committee would like to pass on special thanks to Julie Hughes (Tree Manager at Watford Borough Council) for her immense contribution to the project.

Watch this space for regular updates on our progress!