SCHOOLS, residents and councillors across Swindon have been putting down roots in 2012 – all in aid of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

As part of the Jubilee Woods project, more than 4,700 trees will be planted in and around the town to celebrate the Queen’s 60 years on the thrown.

The scheme, sponsored by the Woodland Trust, set down more than a million trees across Britain in February alone and is aiming to plant six million throughout 2012.

Among those organisations getting into the patriotic spirit is Wanborough Parish Council, which planted more than 400 trees on Church Meadow last month, with help from 40 volunteers.

“It’s a proper memorial, a long-term benefit to celebrate the jubilee,” said Coun Andrew Bennett.

“It’s in the right location and it’s quite prominent on the hillside. It’s something distinctive to mark the event.

“It has reinforced some old planting that had decayed so it has strengthened and improved the whole area. Without the impetus of the Jubilee Woods project people wouldn’t have come out.”

The 420-tree pack is the largest on offer, with another 105-tree option and a 60-tree package for schools. They all include a special Royal Oak sapling grown from an acorn gathered on Royal estates such as Sandringham or Windsor.

“It’s smaller than a pencil when it’s planted, but when it’s big enough it will have a marker and a bench under it. It’s only a little twig at the moment though,” said Wanborough parish councillor David Hayward.

Coun Hayward was pleased Swindon will be well represented in a new royal record of jubilee tree planting, which will be published online at the end of the project, and a hard copy gifted to the Queen and the British Library.

The original Royal Record of Tree Planting can be searched online and it captures in detail the plantings undertaken by thousands of schools, parishes, organisations and homeowners in 1936/7 to commemorate King George VI’s coronation.

There is only one small entry for Swindon, showing a single cedar tree presented to the town by the council and planted in the grounds of the civic offices by then deputy mayor, Alderman Mrs M George.

But this time, the record will feature more than 50 planting events across Swindon, all provided free by the Woodland Trust thanks to support from IKEA and ibuyeco.

For more information about the Jubilee Woods project and to view the royal record, visit www.jubileewoods.org.uk.