WORK will begin planting thousands of trees in York on Wednesday - and new parents can mark their arrival by getting involved.

City of York Council has joined forces with the Rotary Club of York to launch a new scheme to plant trees on land owned by York St John University and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust in Haxby Road.

Every parent registering the birth of their child through York Register Office will be offered the chance to have a tree planted.

About 3,000 children are born in York each year. The trees planted in York are part of 47,000 that Rotary UK is aiming to plant across the country over the next 12 months.

The scheme is being supported by employee-volunteering charity York Cares, with volunteers from Benenden Health and Portakabin.

Georgia Everall, volunteering project officer, York Cares, said: “This is a wonderful initiative that will commemorate the birth of every child in York in the next 12 months and will also help to improve the environment in which those young children will live.

“We’re delighted to be part of the partnership that has joined forces to make it happen, and I know the employee-volunteers are looking forward to planting the first 840 trees on November 28 and 29.”

Parents can still send their in baby names in order to get a tree planted by visiting www.yorkrotary.co.uk/tree-partnership and a tree will be planted to commemorate their arrival at an appropriate time.