Islington Council is the latest London borough to join our national scheme. This partnership makes it easy for local residents and businesses to get directly involved in getting more trees planted across the borough through sponsorship.

Match funding = even more trees

Islington will also benefit from 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.

Cllr Rowena Champion, Islington Council’s Executive Member for Environment, Air Quality, and Transport, said:

“The launch of COP27 provides an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to tackling the climate emergency, and to creating a cleaner, greener, healthier Islington that’s more equal for all.    

“We’re on a mission to make Islington’s streets more resilient to climate change, by planting more trees and by enabling fantastic community-led initiatives through our Islington Greener Together programme. Supporting an empowering local people to make environmentally-friendly changes in their communities is key to achieving net zero carbon status by 2030, and joining Trees for Streets supports this.  

We hope communities will come together to help create a cleaner, greener, healthier borough, by getting more trees planted in our streets.   

Councillor Rowena Champion – Executive Member for Environment, Air Quality, and Transport, Islington Council

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

The Trees for Streets 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.

Celebration Trees in parks

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.

We’re delighted to have Islington 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

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.

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.