VOLUNTEERS and staff from a local charity were joined by workers from an energy firm and a local MP to plant 50 trees at a York nature reserve.

The recent tree planting event at St Nicks Nature Reserve, in Tang Hall, was part of Octopus Energy’s wider initiative launched earlier this year to plant 1,000 trees in community spaces and schools across the country.

York Central MP Rachael Maskell joined staff and volunteers from the St Nicks charity and workers from Octopus Energy to plant the trees.

The nature reserve and community project is located on a former landfill site which closed in the 1970s and was capped with tonnes of clay more than 20 years ago.

Octopus Energy provided 50 Hazel, Holly, Hawthorne and Maple hedge-sized trees to St Nicks, which manages the transformed site and wants to develop an understory beneath the top canopy of taller trees.

Jonathan Dent, St Nicks Nature Reserve manager, said: "As an Octopus Energy personal customer, I was inspired to contact them about St Nicks when they emailed me about their tree planting initiative. We are in the process of developing our woodland habitats which include John Lally Community Woodland planted by the local community. Our improvement works include introducing coppicing regimes and planting a range of understory and ground flora species to provide a wider range of habitat and food sources for wildlife within the woodland."