Shurlock Row site for Queen's Jubilee Wood

Shurlock Row in Waltham St Lawrence is to be the site of a Royal Borough Jubilee Wood to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne.

The new wood will be created on a council-owned site and planting of 6,400 saplings will get under way in autumn next year.

The borough's tribute, agreed by cabinet on Thursday 15 December, will be done in partnership with the Woodland Trust which is spearheading the national Jubilee Wood project. The trust will pay for the tree planting and the council is proposing, after local consultation, to use £40,000 of developer contributions to provide access and amenities such as a small car park, walkways and seating.

The borough launched a search earlier this year for suitable Jubilee Wood sites and the suggestion for the Shurlock Row scheme came from the chairman of Waltham St Lawrence Parish Council, Cllr Clive Scott-Hopkins.

Cllr Simon Dudley, cabinet member for adult and community services, said that creating a Jubilee Wood was a council priority to mark the Queen's very special year.

He said: "I am delighted by the suggestion put forward by Cllr Scott-Hopkins. This grassland site will allow us to work in partnership with the Woodland Trust and provide a wonderful new amenity for borough residents.

"The project also gives us another Big Society opportunity through the Trust's plans for involving parish councils, community groups, local residents and schools in the tree planting and development of the new woodland.

"It is an ideal way of ensuring the Royal Borough benefits from a Jubilee Wood that local people will enjoy for generations to come."

The Royal Borough bought the 13-acre site, currently used for grazing, in 2009 to protect local residents from the potential unauthorised development of a travellers' site.

While cabinet agreed that one acre of the site off Pool Lane should be retained in case it proves suitable for an extension to the adjacent settled travellers' site, Cllr Dudley underlined the council's commitment to protecting local residents from unauthorised encampments.

He said: "We fully appreciate the problems experienced by Waltham St Lawrence residents in the past couple of years and, by purchasing this land in the first place, the council demonstrated its determination to take decisive action in support of the local community against illegal incursions by travellers.

"That support has not diminished and any future proposals for creating additional traveller sites, wherever they might be across the borough, would always be done in full consultation with local communities."

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