Mitford Castle

NEWS

21 October 2025

Free trees available from Northumberland County Council

 

Free tree scheme is back for another year

Northumberland County Council’s free tree scheme is back again with individual saplings and packs up for grabs.

The Council is once again inviting businesses, residents, schools, community groups and town and parish councils across the county to take part in this year’s free tree scheme, and this year more businesses are being encouraged to apply. 

Apply for your trees at - https://nland.cc/freetrees25

In a bid to help protect and enhance the natural environment, the Council is making 15,000 tree saplings available, to make Northumberland a greener and cleaner place to live, work and visit.

Applicants can choose from a variety of species. Schools, community groups, town and parish councils, and businesses can apply for packs of Hedge, Copse, and Native Harvest. 

For those with limited space, Box or Wild Privet will be available, for small gardens, Crab Apple or Holly are available, for medium gardens, Rowan or Silver Birch are available and for large gardens, English Oak or Wild Cherry are available.

Once ordered, applicants will receive confirmation and details of their collection point prior to the pick-up date, with collection locations spread across the county.

The trees provided are small cell-grown plants, UK-sourced, and come complete with a shelter guard and cane. Detailed planting and aftercare instructions will be emailed out after collection. 

Cllr John Riddle, Cabinet Member for Environment, Rural and Farming at Northumberland County Council said: "We want to encourage as many people and groups as possible across Northumberland to apply for their very own free tree. 

“We are particularly keen for businesses to apply this year too so that we can help them towards their own net zero targets. 

“Tree planting not only gives back to the environment but is a fantastic way to bring communities together, create educational opportunities and improve mental wellbeing.”

Last year thousands of saplings were distributed across the county contributing to improved air quality and further moving Northumberland towards net zero.

Any free tree saplings obtained through this scheme must only be planted on land you own unless you have an agreement with a private landowner.


 

Case study videos

Riding Mill Outdoor Primary School https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAZJrG0Ej8g

Benefits of cattle and trees https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPkIQLnkdHY&t=2s

Cresswell Pele Tower https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDfVv4-Ud_A

The Mullet Family https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WRu2qWLILs

Valley park community tree planting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPiDyVcT-tU

© Mitford Parish Council


© Mitford Parish Council


03 September 2025

Traffic Lights

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Paul Jones
Date: Tue, 2 Sept 2025 at 17:37
Subject: Re: Mitford Road Closure
To: Cllr Glen Sanderson

Hello Lesley,

Thank you for your further response re also monitoring the situation and providing feedback on any emerging safety issues - which is appreciated.

For reassurance I can also confirm that it will be our intention to install the traffic lights on the narrow section of St Leonard's Lane from Monday (as we head into the 1st full week back at school and traffic levels are expected to pick-up) and to monitor how these are working in practice.

Kind Regards  

Paul Jones
Director of Environment and Transport
Place and Regeneration Directorate 
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth
Northumberland  
NE61 2EF
Web site: http//www.northumberland.gov.uk
 
====

From: Paul Jones
Sent: 02 September 2025 11:23 AM
To: Cllr Glen Sanderson ; Lesley Russell
Subject: Re: Mitford Road Closure 
 
Dear Lesley,

Thank you for raising concerns over traffic flows on St Leonards Lane. The Council has made provision to enable traffic lights to be installed on the narrow section of St Leonard's Lane but has held off from implementing this during the holiday period when traffic flows are much lighter as it wasn't considered necessary to do so from a road safety perspective and would cause additional unnecessary disruption.  The route has been checked this morning in response to your concerns and whilst there it was noted that the traffic flow has increased there was still relatively low traffic volumes on the route and it was considered that traffic lights aren't needed right now but we will continue to routinely monitor this on at least a weekly basis.  There is a 30mph restriction in place along the route.

Please be assured that we will be flexible with the traffic management arrangements in place which will be adapted and amended as appropriate during the works. 

Kind Regards
Paul Jones
Director of Environment and Transport
Place and Regeneration Directorate 
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth
Northumberland  
NE61 2EF
Web site: http//www.northumberland.gov.uk

© Mitford Parish Council


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