Walsall Arboretum fruit trees will create juice for school pupils

Fruit trees being planted at a Black Country park will be used to create juice for thousands of school pupils, it was revealed today.

Apple, pear and plum trees arriving at Walsall Arboretum Extension later this year will be harvested and their juices distributed to schools across the borough. The 4,000 trees will be planted in the park by tree wardens, residents and pupils in December as part of a project to create an "agroforest" at the site.

Another 1,000 fruit trees donated by the Tree Council are expected to be planted at the same time.

Some of the trees, a number of which have been donated by The Woodland Trust, will be planted on the former Grange golf course which closed in January.

It was today announced that the former municipal golf course will be launched as a country park.

Ian McDermott, Walsall Council's principal arboriculturalist, has revealed plans to turn the fruit harvested from the trees into juice which would be given to schools.

He said: "The community will benefit.

"The crops will be redistributed in the community.

"We are hoping to introduce a fruit juicing project and we could give the juice to schools.

"It will help reduce the carbon footprint if we can grow food locally because it doesn't have to be transported as far." Walsall Council leader Mike Bird welcomed the move and said cabinet bosses would now be looking into ways of maintaining and developing the country park for the future.

He said: "We have to look at how to maintain the trees or replace them if they are damaged or die in the future."

Council chiefs were losing £36,000 a year on the golf course at the Arboretum Extension.

The nine-hole course was planned to close in summer 2009, but the council agreed to keep it open longer to find a successful business plan.

A number of suggestions were put forward to secure its future, including increasing green fees of up to 40 per cent.

But the plans were eventually scrapped under a savings programme to claw back £11.2 million.