On Friday, November 5 an exciting tree planting ceremony took place on Market Street in Brecon.
Present were Mayor John Powell, Councillor Liz Rijnenberg, Chair Brecknock Gardening Association Ellie Hughes, Vice Chair BGA Trish Fretten, Treasurer BGA Colin Greengrass, BGA Committee member Sally Palmer and BGA member Liz Jenkins.
Also present from Powys County Council Highways Department were Derrick Hopkins, Phil Manning and Mahadev Thapa. Mr Thapa recently successfully scaled Pen y Fan 60 times in 45 days to raise money for Welsh Air Ambulance and Sunrise Primary School in Nepal.
The decision to replace the dead rowan trees in Market Street as part of the Brecon town tidy-up initiative was agreed between Councillor Liz Rijnenberg, a member of BGA, and BGA in July 2020.
Following this the then Chair Liz Fretten liaised with South Powys Highways Manager Lyn Parry and PCC Contracts and Programmes Manager Brian Price. Mr Price suggested replacing the dead trees with white berried Sorbus Cashmiriani to provide a pleasing contrast to the existing red-berried Sorbus Sheerwater trees on Market Street.
There was a long delay in implementing the scheme due to the collapse of a nearby chimney stack and the cordoning off of the area for safety reasons. Safety barriers were finally removed in September this year and all parties agreed that the three trees should be replaced on November 5.
Mayor John Powell expressed his delight at Brecknock Gardening Association’s generous donation of the trees to help improve the town environment.
Councillor Liz Rijnenberg thanked BGA and also thanked the PCC Highways staff for their hard work preparing the planting holes and planting the trees. Trish Fretten stated that the project felt like a fine example of cooperative teamwork. She thanked the Town Council and Powys Highways for bringing the project to fruition and hoped the trees would bring both physical and mental benefits to visitors and the residents of Brecon for years to come.