Tree planting

The climate emergency poses a significant challenge, and trees play a key role in helping us to adapt to changing conditions. 

Planting new trees

We are committed to increasing the benefits of trees through increasing the canopy cover across the borough. In practice, this means planting more than we remove.

All our trees are planted in accordance with our sustainable planting tree policy. As much as we would like to be able to consult with the public and fulfil residents' requests to plant, relocate or remove new trees from outside their properties, it is not feasible to do so.

However, we do carefully position new trees with the aim of avoiding future conflicts with adjacent buildings and infrastructure and we carefully select species to support this aim.

Planting update

The planting season began at the start of November, and we will be planting over 800 trees by the end of March 2025. Some are replacements for felled or failed trees, while others will be planted in entirely new locations, in various parks and streets across the borough.

View list of planting locations for the 2024/25 planting season.

This schedule is largely made up of replacements. We are also collating sites for approximately 50 further trees, on top of the locations listed in the schedule. Once these have been finalised, the details will be added in. If you cannot find a location on the schedule, it will likely be included in a list of future planting locations, coming soon.

As of 11 November 2024, we have planted 91 trees and are on track to meet our target by the end of the season. This table gives a breakdown of the number of plantings per ward.

Number of trees to be planted in each ward

Ward	Target	Achieved so far
Barnes	32	5
East Sheen	26	5
Fulwell & Hampton Hill	62	4
Ham, Petersham and Richmond Riverside	71	0
Hampton	31	1
Hampton North	10	0
Hampton Wick and South Teddington	30	5
Heathfield	21	0
Kew	39	20
Mortlake and Barnes Common	51	7
North Richmond	53	15
South Richmond	30	1
South Twickenham	73	2
St Margarets and North Twickenham	38	1
Teddington	42	19
Twickenham Riverside	69	1
West Twickenham	59	5
Whitton	33	0
Total	770	91

Species selection

A list of species can be found in the planting list, which we will be adding to over the next few months.

Location selection

We have ambitious planting targets to meet, driven by the commitments we have made in The Corporate Plan and Climate Emergency strategy and action plan.

Tree planting location requests are not typically considered because we have stated aims to increase tree stock across the borough, with finite resources to do so. Therefore, it is important that trees are planted in a systematic way rather than haphazardly across the borough.

Tree roots

Many of our residents complain about tree roots damaging pavements, resulting in patch repairs. To tackle this, we now plant trees in bespoke tree pits that contain root-directing barriers to encourage roots to grow away from the pavement surface and minimise the potential for damage.  

Replacing removed trees

We are committed to replanting after tree removal, as part of the commitment within the Corporate Plan and in response to the Climate Emergency:

• When a tree is removed before 31 May, we aim to replace it in the next planting season, which runs from November of the year of removal, to March the following year 
• When a tree is removed after 31 May, we aim to replace it in the season after next, which runs from November of the year following removal to March of the year after that 
• Newly planted or young trees that fail or are damaged will be replaced in the next available planting season, regardless of the removal date

Please contact us if you have a query about replacing trees.

Tree stumps

After trees are removed the stumps and woody roots are removed, and either a new pit is created straight away, or the pavement is repaired and temporarily paved over until the new pit can be created, in preparation for a new tree. Please note, tree stumps are not removed immediately following tree removal. They are left in situ, at a specified height, so that they are obvious, and not causing a trip hazard.

Commemorative trees

Sadly, we cannot plant or allow the planting of commemorative trees. This is because we cannot guarantee that the tree is going to establish or be free from vandalism, the result of which can be very distressing for the families involved. 

We do however run a commemorative benches scheme. For more information view Memorial seats in parks.