Consultations - Green Spaces and Tree and Woodland Strategies

As Britain’s first new town, Stevenage was designed with a great deal of emphasis on green space and its importance in helping to create a thriving community. Existing features such as hedgerows and lanes, ponds, woodlands, and veteran trees were retained and used to create open space and wildlife corridors, and to provide an immediate sense of place, and many of these features still exist today.

We have written a Green Spaces Strategy and a Tree and Woodland Strategy. These are 10-year plans to help ensure the delivery of a network of well used, well-loved and well cared for spaces that can be enjoyed by the whole community.

During the last year we have spoken to residents and young people to understand what you think of the trees and green spaces in Stevenage, and what you want from them now and in the future. The feedback received has helped to identify the issues that we need to focus on, and this has informed the draft strategy documents.

Now we would like your feedback on the draft strategies before final versions are adopted later this year. We want to hear from as many people as possible including Stevenage residents and people who work in or visit the town.

These consultations close on 23 February 2025.

After the consultation closes all responses will be analysed. The feedback will be used to develop an updated version of the Green Spaces Strategy. The strategy will be presented to Stevenage Borough Council’s Cabinet for approval later this year.

Green spaces strategy

Good quality green space significantly contributes to the health, wellbeing, environmental resilience, image and identity of a town.

This strategy sets out objectives for the way green spaces in Stevenage are maintained, managed and improved to ensure that they are safe, accessible and sustainable meeting the needs of our communities and environment today and in the future.

The green spaces strategy focusses on:

• Allotments
• Cemeteries and churchyards
• Commons
• Open spaces
• Parks and public gardens
• Play areas
• Local wildlife sites; and
• Woodlands

For more information about the strategy and what the categories above cover you can download the draft strategy below.

Please use the link below to feedback on the draft Green Spaces Strategy.

Tree and woodland strategy

The town continues to benefit from the foresight of the original architects who retained and protected many of the existing landscape features, such as hedgerows and lanes, woodlands and veteran trees, to create the varied green infrastructure, wildlife corridors and sense of identity that residents and visitors enjoy today.

This strategy sets out objectives for the way the town’s tree stock, including amenity trees, woodlands and ancient hedgerows, are managed and developed to ensure that they continue to contribute to an attractive and healthy environment for people and wildlife now, and in the future.

For more information about the strategy you can download the draft strategy below.

Please use the link below to feedback on the draft tree and woodland Strategy.