PROPOSALS to raise awareness of the importance of trees and maintain Darlington's arboreal stock has taken a step closer to implementation.

Darlington Borough Council's cabinet was presented with a copy of the area's new tree strategy yesterday, and now it will be passed to a full meeting of the council for approval.

There are about 100,000 trees in the borough and the strategy is expected to be seen as a "best practice" document to be used in efforts to persuade other local authorities to follow suit.

Former Houghall Agricultural College consultant Andy Elliott has been appointed as the council's new tree officer, and hopes the strategy will also highlight the importance of trees.

Another part of the strategy will be to identify trees which are under most pressure and take steps to protect them.

Those under most threat are street trees, bombarded by pollution, struck by vehicles and fighting to survive in poor quality soil.

The strategy will also be used to tackle problems where people want trees to be removed because they are too large.