02
May
2023
|
12:57
Europe/Amsterdam

Heroes return to Sherwood Forest as volunteers plant 700 trees

Openreach engineers have joined forces with The Sherwood Forest Trust as they swapped their usual fibre broadband tools for shovels and spades.

More than a dozen engineers volunteered to plant more than 700 trees in Maun Valley Park, near Mansfield, which is part of the Sherwood Forest, the legendary hideout of Robin Hood and his Merry Men.

The tree-planting initiative is a joint project aimed at helping combat climate change and preserving the beauty of Maun Valley – a popular beauty spot for local people.

Maun Valley Park Local Nature Reserve covers 17 hectares of protected habitats alongside the River Maun, comprising ancient oak woodland, grassland, water meadows, riverside and wetland habitats.

The river has historically played an important role in the development of Mansfield as a town, as it supplied the waterpower for local mills.

Fibre Team Leader, Ben Coales, who led Openreach’s work, said: Our team can spend a few days each year volunteering and we all agreed it would be a good use of our time to support the Sherwood Forest Trust. They’re carrying out important conservation work at Maun Valley Park, an area that many of us know well. Being a local team, we wanted to put something back into our area, and we look forward to watching the newly planted trees grow in years to come.

“We’re spending a lot of time in and around Mansfield at the moment as we build our new full fibre broadband network, covering most of the town. It’ll not only bring faster speeds, but also greater reliability. If you live in the town and want to know when full fibre reaches you and is available to order, visit our website and enter your postcode into the fibre checker.”

Mansfield MP, Ben Bradley, visited Openreach’s local exchange earlier this year, ahead of the new Ultrafast Full Fibre build starting. In recent months, engineers have been busy working there and in nearby Chesterfield, Newark, Nottingham and Worksop.

Full fibre offers speeds reaching up to 1 Gbps, meaning everyone can enjoy lightning-fast downloads, crystal-clear video calls, and seamless movie streaming in high resolution.

With full fibre, everyone can be online at the same time, streaming, gaming, or making video calls, without any interruptions.

Openreach plays an important role across the East Midlands with more than 1,600 of our people living and working in the region.