A PARISH councillor says his village is eager to plant more trees and improve the environment – but is being held back Cheshire East Council ‘bureaucracy’.

Cllr John Clowes, vice-chairman of Holmes Chapel Parish Council, spoke out at last Thursday’s full CEC meeting.

It comes after the parish council identified 88 locations along the village’s roads where trees could be planted back in a report back in July 2018 and handed it over to CEC.

But almost 18 months later, the parish council is still yet to plant a tree.

Cllr Clowes said: “In May and October this year, this council called for action on climate change. I would like to know what is the point of CEC making environmental statements and then stopping people plant trees?

“We have allocated funding to plant trees at the rate of at least 10 per year, and we look forward to working in partnership with CEC.

“Yet, instead of welcoming the report, we received the mixed messages from CEC about whether we could plant any new trees along highways.”

Cllr Clowes told councillors that the latest advice received from CEC suggested the parish council could plant the trees – provided it has a licence to maintain them.

However, he added that ‘no one can tell us what this licence is, who issues it or whether there is a cost attached to it’.

Cllr Clowes said: “How much is the bureaucracy costing the council? Surely we have done enough to make sure maintenance costs are negligible.

“We believe the sensible thing would be that the trees are adopted and dealt with in the normal CEC maintenance schedule.

“Please can we ask the council members to talk to your officers and help us make Holmes Chapel a greener and more climate friendly place.”

Cllr Sam Corcoran, CEC’s Labour leader, told Cllr Clowes that his question was ‘very well-timed’ and that he hoped the two councils could ‘sort something out in the new year’.

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Following another question about tree planting near Crewe, Cllr Corcoran added: "I do wish to see a change in policy at this council to enable us to tackle climate change better and to plant more trees."