10 September 2007

World's first living advert takes root in the North West

The Northwest has become home to what is believed to be a world’s first - the Green Billboard - a new and natural alternative to billboard advertising that can reduce noise pollution and boost tree coverage.

Made from a living, growing hedge of native willow trees, the Green Billboard has been planted at Birkenhead’s new community woodland in Bidston Moss – a 68 hectare site developed as part of multi-million pound Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and Forestry Commission (FC) regeneration scheme, Newlands.



From left to right - Allan Jardine, Green Barrier general manager, Cheviot Trees Ltd, Richard Tracey, Land Regeneration Manager, NWDA and Keith Jones, Regional Director, Forestry Commission.

Measuring 30m long by 2.5m high, the Green Billboard is located on the site of a former Mersey Waste Disposal Authority landfill that has now been transformed into a community green space with the aid of £2.7 million regeneration fund.  Alongside a wide range of environmental improvements that have taken place on the site, the Green Billboard boosts the area’s environmental credentials and creates a visual highpoint for the local community.

Visible from the M53 motorway (junction 1), the sustainable billboard displays a message from the NWDA and Forestry Commission to the thousands of motorists who use the major transport route to and from Liverpool.

The message states:  One tree every ten seconds – every ten seconds a new tree is planted in England’s Northwest, helping to deliver a greener region.

This reflects the commitment of the NWDA, Forestry Commission and wide range of regional partners to deliver increase tree planting and other environmental improvements across the region.

Unlike traditional outdoor advertising mediums, the Green Billboard offer advertisers a low-carbon option that enhances the local landscape, can be applied as an aesthetic medium to screen development works and be used to confine noise levels.

Welcoming the Green Billboard to the North West, Peter White, Executive Director of Development at the NWDA, said:

“Bidston Moss has already been transformed as part of the Newlands scheme and the billboard will be a welcome addition to an ongoing programme of improvements to the site. The site’s reinvention as a community woodland has already been helped by a pioneering commitment to recycling – with pathways, fishing lodge boardwalks and even the soil which covers the site all coming from recycled materials so it is appropriate that the new billboard fits with the environmental theme that has underlined our work.”

Keith Jones, Regional Director of the Forestry Commission added:

“What better way to mark the enthusiasm and professional workmanship of the Newlands partners and the communities it serves than with a world’s first environmentally-friendly outdoor advertisement, designed and created in the Northwest, to celebrate our achievements.”

The Green Billboard was made possible with the assistance of Mersey Waste Disposal Authority and Wirral Council.  It was funded by the NWDA, and will be managed by the Forestry Commission. The design for the billboard was created by a partnership of Manchester-based communications agency, Creative Concern, in partnership with fellow design agency Modern Designers and Cheviot Trees Ltd.

- ENDS –

For more information, please contact
Claire Rajah or Faith Ashworth at Creative Concern, Manchester
Tel: 0161 236 0600

NOTES TO EDITORS

- Cheviot Trees Ltd and Creative Concern on behalf of the Forestry Commission and NWDA produced the Green Billboard.

 - Newlands stands for New Economic Environments through Woodlands, which is working to regenerate 900 hectares of brownfield land across the North West into community woodland. The £59 million land regeneration scheme for the 21st Century aims to encourage economic growth and simultaneously create new opportunities for leisure and recreation through intelligence-led land regeneration. To date, Newlands has been working to deliver regeneration across the Mersey Belt and North Manchester.

 - The Newlands long-term investment for Bidston Moss is £2,767,538

- Newlands sites will be transformed into community woodlands through a unique partnership of the NWDA and Forestry Commission as well as a range of delivery partners, which include MWDA, Wirral Borough Council and Groundwork Wirral.

 - Woodland cover across the North West currently stands at just 6.5 per cent compared with the national average of 8 per cent and a European of 33 per cent.