Foreword

Trees and Woodlands are vital in maintaining and improving the quality of life for all inhabitants of the city.

They help clean the air we breathe, improve a community's health and wellbeing, create a calming setting for people to live and provide habitat for a wide range of wildlife.

Trees also create an attractive setting that helps to encourage economic investment, particularly important to a thriving City, such as Preston.

Preston's existing and developing tree and woodland resource will need continual management if it is to maintain its significant and highly visual status within the landscape. As public awareness of environmental issues becomes ever more prominent, there is an increasing need to focus attention on trees and their role in mitigating against climate change and loss of biodiversity.

This Strategy sets out the programme in which Preston City Council manages its tree resource, sets our policies to guide and improve its management and specifies the actions that need to be taken to achieve these objectives.

Councillor Freddie Bailey, Cabinet Member for the Environment and Community Safety.