Barnet Council has joined our national scheme! This partnership enables local residents and businesses to get directly involved in getting more trees planted in their local area through sponsorship.

Trees for Streets is the national street tree sponsorship scheme from the urban tree charity Trees for Cities, funded by the government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund, City Bridge Trust, and People’s Postcode Lottery. We’re also supported by the Mayor of London.

We’re on a mission to fund the planting of more than 250,000 additional street trees nationwide over the next 10 years, and Barnet is the latest local authority to come on board.

Barnet is renowned for being one of the greenest boroughs in London, with more than 2000 acres of green space, and around 30,000 street trees, and the council is committed to planting many more trees in its streets and parks, which will help improve air quality, and provide much-needed shade.

Thanks to match funding from the Mayor of London, for every tree sponsored by a resident or business in the borough between now and March 2023, another tree will be planted in a priority location.

Simeon Linstead, Founder and Director of the Trees for Streets project explains further

“We’re delighted to have Barnet Council on board, and look forward to people getting involved with the scheme. The additional injection of funding from the Mayor of London means even more trees can be planted to benefit local residents.

There’s something special about having a new tree planted in your street, and we want local communities to benefit from everything that street trees can offer.

Simeon Linstead, Project Director of Trees for Streets

Why are street trees important?

Street trees do so much for us:

• improve air quality by acting like natural filters
• capture carbon dioxide and produce oxygen
• absorb air pollution
• improve our health and wellbeing – both physically and mentally
• provide a home for wildlife
• protect us from flooding
• create shading and cooling – so important in towns and cities
• make the neighbourhoods where we live that bit nicer

Our online app makes it easy for anyone to sponsor a tree in their neighbourhood by making a request to their local council, empowering people to take an active role in greening their streets.

Residents can choose to sponsor a tree in their street, or in their neighbourhood. The council then checks if the location is suitable, and if it is, arrangements are made to plant a tree the following winter: the best time to plant young trees to ensure they grow and thrive.

STREET TREE SPONSORSHIP IN THREE EASY STEPS

01

Decide on the location

As part of our simple application, you drop a pin on to our online map to show where you’d like your new street tree. We ask a few questions about your chosen spot – to help determine whether it is possible to plant here.

02

Your local council confirms

We pass your sponsorship request to your local council. One of their tree officers will check the location you’ve requested, and if it’s suitable your tree will be approved for planting.

03

Your tree is planted

Once your sponsorship is confirmed, we’ll confirm back with you, and take your sponsorship payment. Most councils plant their new trees in late Autumn. We’ll drop you a line when this is happening.

People can also sponsor Celebration Trees in one of the borough’s parks and green spaces, where everyone can benefit. 

Celebration Trees can be sponsored for all sorts of reasons: as a lasting and sustainable memorial to a loved one, to mark a special occasion, as a unique and meaningful gift, or just because you love trees and want to give something back to your community.

Beyond sponsoring a tree, there are lots of other ways for people to get involved. Once each street tree is planted, it will need watering every week throughout the summer for 3 years to give it the best chance of survival, and any litter or weeds will need removing too, to make sure it thrives.