AN Aberystwyth councillor has won support for his call for Aberystwyth Town Council to plant more trees in the town.

Cllr Mark Strong had asked the council’s general purposes committee to support a motion calling for the council to increase the number of trees it plants each year from two to four.

Under the proposal, two wards each year would have two new trees planted, with wards being selected on a rotation basis.

It will now be put before the full council with a recommendation from the committee to accept the proposal.

The initiative comes a week after the town council came under fire over plans to fell several trees at the rear of Cambridge Terrace, Queen’s Road following claims the roots may damage nearby houses.

Cllr Strong said the move to plant more trees would mean that six trees would be planted in this municipal year as the two trees the council would normally plant have not yet been planted.

He said he had decided to put forward the idea after the town council had received letters from youngsters urging the authority to do more to protect the environment.

Cllr Strong said: “The reason I’ve done this is because of climate change. We’ve had a lot of letters from schoolchildren about the environment and the protection of the environment.

“I wanted to do something so that in the future, I can’t be accused of standing by and doing nothing.”

Costs for the proposal are not fully known, with Cllr Strong saying the cost of work to plant trees can be up to £1,500 depending on the work and infrastructure required.

He said the town council would now consider possible locations for trees, saying that he hoped it would be possible to plant trees where they had been seen historically.

Cllr Strong said: “Part of it is historical reasons. In Penparcau especially there are a lot of avenues, which are called avenues for a reason, but it became cheaper for the local authority to cut the trees down and concrete over them.

“The first priority, if possible, is to get those avenues replanted.

“One of the issues is the highway authority and whether there are services at the site or if there are traffic problems, but where we can overcome that we will try to.”

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