New street trees in the Borough funded by Mayor of London

Southwark is to gain 122 of the first 1500 street trees funded by City Hall.

Two of the 20 London neighbourhoods chosen for the first batch of trees – Camberwell and Borough – are in Southwark.

The area designated as 'Borough' for the purposes of the tree planting scheme has a curious boundary, stretching from The Cut in the west to Chamber's Wharf in the East.

The Mayor planted one of the first trees in Islington on Thursday.

During his election campaign Mr Johnson pledged efficiency savings – including cash saved by axing The Londoner newspaper – would be diverted to fund 10,000 street trees.

"I have made it a top priority that we make our city a more attractive place to work, live and visit and reversing the decline of street trees is one way for us to do this," says Boris Johnson.

"I cannot think of a more uplifting way to usher in the spring than the arrival of these brand spanking new trees.

"This is just the first phase of my programme to make our communities leafier by, during my term of office, planting over 10,000 street trees in areas that have the least."

The Mayor's street tree programme is managed by the Forestry Commission and is an expansion of their existing London Tree and Woodland Grant Scheme.

The Forestry Commission is working in partnership with the Waterloo-based environmental charity Groundwork London to manage the scheme.

Councils, community groups, tenants' associations, businesses and social landlords were invited to apply for funding for tree-planting last autumn.