Axe may land on free tree scheme

Free fruit trees will have been given out to 1,700 people in South Staffordshire this year, it emerged today.

But the district council may scrap the £10,000-a-year project from April after 15 years to save cash. The council had offered residents trees to boost the rural character of the district.

The cost works out at around £6 per apple, plum, cherry or peartree, which are given out as "standards".

They are larger than saplings but not fully mature trees, and are available to people who fill in the application in the council's magazine at one per household.

But that scheme is now facing the axe as council bosses prepare for an expected drop in government funding whichever party wins the general election.

Finance director Phil Cooper said it was not right to continue to offer the free trees at a time when the council needed to make budget cuts.

He said: "It was a wonderful scheme.

"But times are hard and this is not really our core business, which we must be able to focus on."

The council is looking to save £4.1 million up to 2015.

Council spokesman Jamie Angus said: "The free fruit tree scheme started in around 1995/96 to support the creation of the Forest of Mercia and originally just covered a small number of parishes in the north east of the district.

"It was then extended to other nearby parishes in 1997/98 and then went district-wide a year or two later on ."