Keighley and Ilkley MP Robbie Moore was invited by local Community Interest Company YORgreencic to plant their last tree of the 2020/21 planting season at Keighley Cricket Club. Over 60,000 trees were planted by the group over the last year. Six Silver Birch trees were donated to Keighley Cricket Club, one tree for every 10,000 trees planted by YORgreencic, with the last tree planted by Robbie.
YORgreencic is a Community Interest Company registered in Keighley, West Yorkshire and covers Northern England with a particular focus on Yorkshire.
YORgreencic supports communities to create and manage green space to help meet future demands through multi-functional land use. They combine without creating conflict, different functions in one area of green space: bioenergy and food supply, biodiversity and natural flood management, all the while helping to build social capital and opportunity for enterprise.
Their current projects include:
- White Rose Forest - helping to create the Northern Forest
- Rivers Stewardship Company - helping to control Invasive Non-Native Species [INNS]
- Yorkshire Wildlife Trust - helping to mitigate flooding through Natural Flood Management
- Bradford Metropolitan District Council - helping to increase woodland cover and achieve the aim of Forest of Bradford.
Commenting, local MP Robbie Moore said: ““It was an honour to be invited to Keighley Cricket Club to plant the last tree of the 63,000 already planted this year through Yorkshire. I know YORgreencic have undertaken an amazing feat, working with a variety of partners across the North, and ensuring that the planting is multi-purpose in its environmental impact - in the case of Keighley Cricket Club, to help alleviate flooding problems at the ground. I look forward to working with YOGreencic in the future to promote further opportunities in the constituency to alleviate flooding and raise land capacity.
“Many thanks to Keighley Cricket Club for inviting me and discussing the proposals for improvements at the ground and outlining the opportunities for opening the club as a wider community resource in the coming years. I will certainly look forward to being part of their annual charity event in the summer”
Shaun O’Hara from YORgreencic said: "A high percentage of the planting done this season contributes to the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme 2. The multi-agency project is delivering natural flood management, planting, and traditional engineering to help reduce flood risk. Creating new woodland particularly within the River Aire catchment will reduce the amount of rainwater going into our rivers and increase land capacity resulting in ground which will be able to hold more water during floods as well as establish new wildlife habitats and help reduce the impact of climate change.
"We have not been in a position to involve the many volunteers we normally enrage with due to government restrictions, but moral support has not withered. We are incredibly grateful to all or supporters who identify potential sites, share our stories on social media, fund raise and grow on trees from seed for future planting schemes- meaning woodland is created with trees of local provenance.
"Thanks to Robbie for helping us wrap up the season at Keighley Cricket Club. Robbie is very supportive of environmental enhancement across the region and with a background in Land Management and Stewardship understands the sector and the issues we face and the solutions we provide".
