As part of National Tree Week, Mayor Andy Burnham will “Plant a tree for the Jubilee” and unveil Greater Manchester as the first QGC “Champion City” in Stockport on Saturday 4th December.

Greater Manchester is the first place to be unveiled as part of The Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC) “Champion Cities” programme, which has been launched to celebrate some of the nation’s outstanding cities which have trees as a central part of their plans for green spaces.

Mr Burnham will plant a tree to reflect Greater Manchester’s ambitious target to plant three million trees and become carbon neutral by 2038. Greater Manchester has developed strong green infrastructure plans and projects across the 10 districts, where over one million people live in areas among the 20 percent most deprived in England.

The Mayor will plant the tree and launch the QGC “Champion Cities” initiative at a community event at Gatley Hill in Stockport hosted by the City of Trees, in partnership with Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Tree planting in Gatley Hill is particularly important for helping to intercept rainwater and increase infiltration into the ground, helping to reduce the volume of water entering the site’s adjacent brook – a known cause of flooding downstream in Gatley Village.

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said:

“We all take pride in the fact that Greater Manchester has been named as a Queen’s Green Canopy Champion City. It is recognition of all the work partners across the city-region have been doing to plant even more trees where they will bring the most benefit for our communities and our environment. We’re planting a tree for every citizen of Greater Manchester through our City of Trees movement, and I would encourage everyone here to get involved in whatever way they can.

“National Tree Week has been a reminder of the importance of nature and biodiversity. Trees can help our residents breathe cleaner air, reduce the risk of flooding, and store carbon, helping us meet our climate ambitions. They are a vital part of our wider plans to improve Greater Manchester’s natural environment, which include the creation of a new public park in Mayfield, restoration of our peatlands, and adopting nature-based solutions in our urban areas to help us adapt to climate change and recover nature.”

Local residents and volunteers who are interested to get involved in tree planting in Stockport on Saturday 4th December are invited to register here: https://bit.ly/3ruYwlX

The launch will be followed by an event to celebrate Leicester on Sunday 5th December. Other UK cities which have been awarded QGC “Champion” status so far include Belfast, Cardiff, Chester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Preston, Swansea, Southampton, Worcester and York.

The QGC looks forward to hosting events to celebrate each Champion City in due course.