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Thousands of trees are being planted across Derbyshire now the second planting season of the county’s ambitious Derbyshire’s Heartwood Community Forest is well under way.
 Derbyshire’s Heartwood Community Forest is a long‑term programme we lead to increase tree cover across eastern and southern Derbyshire and Derby.
Tree planting helps to improve biodiversity, prevent flooding, provide soil stability and shelter for livestock, and create healthier, greener places for people to live, work and visit.
Through a government-funded grants scheme, landowners, farmers, schools and community groups can apply for 100% funding toward woodland creation, hedgerow planting and ongoing maintenance for up to 15 years.
We're already lining up sites for our next planting season from October with free Government grants to cover costs of tree-planting and more in our hassle-free scheme. So if you have land available in the east, north east or south of the county, we want to hear from you.
📸Councillor Carol Wood, pictured centre, surrounded by newly planted trees at Silverhill Farm in Tibshelf with landowner Cat Howourth, right, and woodland creation officer Iaian Stafford.
We’ve approved new funding to help Derbyshire residents improve their digital skills and get more people online.
We’re giving £200,000 to Rural Action Derbyshire over the next two years to:
- Supply new or second-hand laptops and computers to voluntary and community groups to support people to access online services
- Train ‘digital champions’ to upskill residents so they can access online services, such as booking GP appointments, getting energy advice or managing their finances
- Raise awareness of scams and online safety.
Support will be targeted at residents who are older, vulnerable, on a low income, have chronic health conditions or disabilities.
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If you use the A5012 Via Gellia you'll be interested to know that average speed cameras are in operation.
The cameras have been installed to reduce the number of collisions on the road, and have been funded by the Government through the Safer Roads Fund initiative.
As well as average speed cameras on the A5012 we have carried out a range of safety measures, including speed limit changes:
- from Ryder Point to Grange Mills the limit is unchanged at 50mph
- around the Grange Mill crossroads the limit drops to 40mph on each approach and then goes back to 50mph from just after the crossroads to Newhaven, having been reduced from 60mph.
The cameras will clock a vehicle entering and leaving each speed zone and compare the average speed against the speed limit in that particular area.
Motorists caught speeding by the cameras should expect to hear from Derbyshire Police.
Are you part of Derbyshire’s advanced manufacturing sector?
We're offering support to high-tech manufacturing firms across the county to develop their supply chain and understand how they can benefit from offering apprenticeships.
Our series of workshops and webinars continues with the next event taking place online on Tuesday 17 March, focussing on ‘Digital Transformation for Advanced Manufacturing SMEs’.
Steps to help nature and wildlife thrive have been set out in our first ever biodiversity report.
The report details work we carried out in a number of key areas to improve biodiversity including:
- Tree-planting initiatives such as Million Trees and Derbyshire’s Heartwood Community Forest
- Providing more opportunities for children and adults to learn about biodiversity at Lea Green and Whitehall outdoor education centres and through our Derbyshire Adult Community Education Service
- New policies and procedures to conserve and enhance biodiversity on roadside verges and other council property.
The report also sets out actions we are planning to take over the coming years to improve biodiversity.
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