It’s emerged a large proportion of the million trees planted beside the A14 upgrade in Cambridgeshire have already died.

Cambridgeshire Live quotes a report for Cambridgeshire County Council’s highways and transport committee on which says, “Whilst there has been one million trees planted as part of the scheme, a large proportion have died off and are currently being replaced by Highways England’s contractor.”

It says Highways England told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that for every plant that has “failed” it will be planting a new indigenous species. It says it removed around 400,000 trees and shrubs when carrying out the A14 roadworks.

Cambridgeshire Live adds that HE says it then replanted 866,000 trees from a range of native species, “replacing the trees removed for the roadworks at a ratio of approximately two to one”.

(Picture – Highways England/gov.uk)