PEOPLE across Colchester will be able to get their hands on 15,000 trees which will be given away for free this month.

Colchester Council's annual Trees for Years event is back for 2022.

The event, now in its 15th year, had to be postponed last year due to Covid restrictions.

This time the event will see a number of changes aimed at making it easier for residents to collect trees and shrubs and reduce crowds.

Instead of just one location there will be five venues and six events in February.

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Residents can request up to three trees online before arranging a location and time slot to collect them.

The venues and dates are:

• Highwoods Country Park - Thursday February 17

• Highwoods Country Park - Sunday February 20

• Marks Tey Village Hall – Wednesday February 23

• Hythe Community Centre – Thursday February 24

• St Anne’s Community Centre – Friday February 25

• Tiptree Leisure World – Saturday February 26

Trees available include silver birch, holly, hazel, beech, red stem dogwood and yellow stem dogwood.

For residents with less garden space, there will be a variety of shrubs including blackcurrant and raspberries.

All trees are bare-root and range in height from 50cm to 1.2m.

Simon Crow, the council’s environment boss, said: “We’re delighted to be able to run the event this year, after last year’s event had to be postponed due to Covid restrictions.

“We hope the new way of registering for and collecting trees will make this initiative even more accessible to residents across the borough.”

The scheme has been made possible thanks to £2,000 sponsorship from idVerde.

The trees are only available to borough residents, who will be asked to provide a valid postcode when filling in the form and email confirmation when collecting.

Residents should also bring their own bags. 

To select your trees and book a collection time visit www.colchester.gov.uk/trees-for-years/.