Harrogate – Members of Harrogate Local Government branch of UNISON will plant a new Community Pocket Wood on The Stray as part of National Tree Week.
On 30 November, members of Harrogate Local Government UNISON branch are planting a new Community Pocket Wood on The Stray. This community initiative, coinciding with National Tree Week, will create a new, compact woodland environment on the historic Stray, providing lasting, carbon-capturing, green habitat in the heart of Harrogate and a community resource to be enjoyed for generations.
Members of the public services union UNISON, have proposed and planned the project, and, in collaboration with Harrogate Borough Council, are funding it from the Harrogate Branch reserves.
Sam Perry, UNISON branch environment officer, said:
UNISON recognises that the climate crisis represents an existential threat to our members’ (and everyone’s) way of life, and that we must raise awareness and act now before it’s too late. We’ve been working closely with Harrogate Borough Council to ‘green’ Council operations and ensure that environmental matters are top of the agenda. Our new Community Pocket Wood is a gift to our wider community in Harrogate and an invitation to all who see it to grow more green spaces in the world and more green thinking in their minds.
David Houlgate, UNISON branch secretary, said:
We wouldn’t have been able to do this without the generosity of our members and without their commitment to environmental action. UNISON in Harrogate and across the country is leading the green transition.
Harrogate Borough Council, along with six other District Councils, is set to merge with North Yorkshire County Council in April 2023 to form a new Council for the whole of North Yorkshire. This Community Pocket Wood is set to stand as a lasting testimony to the work and contribution UNISON and its members have made over the decades at HBC.
