PRIMARY school children have helped to plant hundreds of trees in Hartlepool.

The Year 2 pupils from St Bega's RC Primary School joined other volunteers to plant around 500 saplings at Central Park on Hartlepool's Headland.

About 20 different varieties, including beech, birch and sweet chestnut trees, were planted beside a new access road serving the Marine Point housing development.

A similar number of trees were also planted on the site at an earlier community event attended by about 25 people during the Easter holidays.

The Friends of Hartlepool’s Wild Green Spaces group obtained the 1,000 trees after applying to the Trust for Conservation Volunteers (TCV) charity.

Volunteers from the group, along with staff and volunteers from Hartlepool Council’s Countryside Team, helped with the planting.

Deborah Jefferson, from Hartlepool Council’s Countryside Team who helped co-ordinate the tree planting, said: “I would like to thank everyone who turned out over both days. They all worked so hard, and I was particularly impressed with the young pupils from St Bega’s RC Primary School who showed so much enthusiasm.

“The trees have already helped to improve a prominent site on a main road in and out of the Headland and they will only look better as they start to grow.

“A key aim in developing and maintaining the whole Central Park area is to increase its bio-diversity and we hope to access more grant funding in the future to enable us to plant more trees across a wider area.”