With help from Cantref Primary School’s eco club, Abergavenny’s Bailey Park now has five brand new English Oak trees and five Copper Beech trees, which have been dedicated to Her Majesty the Queen for the Platinum Jubilee under the Queen’s Green Canopy project.

After inspections of Bailey Park’s green infrastructure, a number of the trees in the park had to be removed for safety reasons. To compensate for the loss, 21 trees have been planted this year. Working well as a team in some challenging weather, Cantref Primary School’s eco club gave a helping hand to the council’s grounds staff with the planting of ten of the new trees, five English Oak and five Copper Beech. The Friends of Bailey Park have also planted wildflowers during the winter and plans to improve the park’s green infrastructure will be developed this summer, including a review of the brook and a long term tree management and planting plan.

Grants from Welsh Government, through the Gwent Green Grid Partnership (GGGP), have allowed the council to improve and develop green infrastructure in Monmouthshire, with Bailey Park being the latest beneficiary. The GGGP is a three-year project running from March 2020 to March 2023.

The GGGP aims to improve and develop green infrastructure – a term used to describe the network of natural and semi-natural features, green spaces, rivers and lakes that intersperse and connect villages, towns and cities – as well as providing green job opportunities within the area.

A spokesperson for Monmouthshire County Council said: “Improving our green infrastructure is so important to our green spaces. The Gwent Green Grid Partnership aims to improve green infrastructure in the Gwent area, providing real benefits to local communities. Green infrastructure has a crucial role to play in addressing nature, climate and health emergencies. It is wonderful to see the enthusiasm of local school children planting trees in Bailey Park to improve our natural environment, and their local park.”

Monmouthshire County Council, working with Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Newport and Torfaen councils as well as Natural Resources Wales, Forest Research and the Severn Wye Energy Agency, leads the GGG Partnership. The organisations will work together to ensure that the area’s natural resources are healthy, resilient to pressures and threats and thereby better able to provide vital health and well-being benefits for current and future generations.

This project is supported by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe Investing in Rural Areas and is funded by the Welsh Government’s Enabling of Natural Resources and Well-being Grant.