IN YEARS to come Mike Stephen will have been outgrown by his ambition.

It has always been his wish to see a tree planted for every child living in Redcar and Cleveland Council's district.

This week he helped youngsters to sow the first batch of a total of 24,000 tree seeds to be planted.

Coun Stephen was the district's mayor in 1999, his civic year coming to an end in May, this year, by which time 11,000 seeds had been gathered. That figure has more than doubled since then.

The seeds are being planted in an enclosure at council nurseries near Redcar. In two to three years' time the young saplings will be uprooted and planted out at sites across East Cleveland.

The two main areas to benefit will be the Marshall Drive playing field at Brotton and Whitecliffe Woods near Loftus Bank, where trees were lost due to major engineering works.

Coun Stephen, who inaugurated a family wood at Redcar when he was mayor, said on Wednesday: "I admit I always thought it was a bit ambitious, but it just shows the residents, and particularly the children of the borough, really care about the environment."

ICI sponsored the Year of the Tree project during Coun Stephen's civic year. The Tees Forest and North York Moors National Park are partners in the seed planting project.