Livability Holton Lee were pleased to welcome Sally Chivers (CEO) and John Robinson (Chair of the Trustees ) to a fun day of tree planting on site.

Flourish, Livability Holton Lee’s ecotherapy project and friends from Livability Victoria School in Poole enjoyed a day filled with sunshine, donkeys and trees!

The Holton Lee site will soon be developed to cater for Livability’s new post-19 Further Education College, called Livability Millie College, for young adults with disabilities, which will be part of a cluster of existing Livability services in Dorset.

As part of Livability’s pledge to connect people with their communities, a free delivery of 420 trees from the Woodland Trust, enabled the group to be part of two nationwide tree-planting projects:

• The Queens Green Canopy – marking the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II where everyone is invited to plant a tree creating a network across the UK and a green legacy in honour of The Queen’s service.
• The Big Climate Fightback – The Woodland Trust’s initiative to get the UK involved in planting 50 million trees to help combat the climate crisis.

After a walk with donkeys around the site, everyone had the chance to plant a tree. A row of trees was planted as a hedgerow alongside the carpark boundary by the Flourish group.

Sally and John planted two commemorative Wild Cherry trees to mark the occasion and to celebrate new beginnings at Livability Holton Lee. The trees were placed on grassland alongside existing mature Oak trees – in between the farmhouse and the barn. Emma Browning, Wellbeing Programme Manager of the Flourish Project commented:

‘The tree planting event was an excellent opportunity to bring different groups together who are supported by Livability. Through sharing skills, enthusiasm and a passion for environmental sustainability, we were able to diversity the Holton Lee estate and create new habitats for our precious wildlife population.’

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