A $1 million grant to Penrith City Council under the NSW Government’s Greening Our City program will see 5,000 new street and park trees planted across the municipality.
The trees will be planted in Penrith’s eastern most suburbs, identified by heat mapping as priority areas, and also due to having low canopy levels and greater numbers of residents particularly vulnerable to heat.
Penrith Mayor, Karen McKeown OAM said that the funding would be matched by $1 million from Council.
“These combined funds mean that we can undertake even more vital work to increase canopy levels across our Local Government Area, as part of Council’s Cooling the City strategy,” Mayor McKeown said.
“Trees funded under this program will be planted in St Marys, North St Marys, Colyton, Oxley Park, St Clair, and Erskine Park. Council wants to help make these areas greener places to be, with streets and parks that include more trees, to create better liveability for local residents.”
Member for Penrith and Minister for Western Sydney, Stuart Ayres said the Greening our City program had funded 110 projects across Greater Sydney with more than $25 million in grant funding for tree planting and urban greening projects.
“Quality green and open public spaces are important to everyone. More trees mean better air quality, cooler local temperatures, better places for people to be active and connected and vital habitat for our unique birds and local wildlife,” Mr Ayres said.
“We’re already more than halfway to meeting the NSW Government’s Greening our City Premier’s Priority to plant one million trees by 2022, and every tree planted from this program gets us one step closer.”
The street tree planting program is scheduled to commence in late February next year.
