A council is planting thousands of trees to replace those lost to a deadly disease.

More than 14,000 will be planted across Brighton and Hove are part of the city council’s work to regenerate woodlands that have been devastated by ash dieback.

Ash dieback is a fungal infection which, it is predicted, will kill between 80 and 90 per cent of ash trees across the UK.

Some trees may look healthy but can still be infected. The fungus grows inside the tree, eventually blocking its water transport systems and causing it to die.

Planting work began in Coldean yesterday. More than 2,000 tree whips will be planted there over the next week.

A tree whip is an unbranched young tree, which will be planted with 1m to 2.5m spacing and a wooden stake to support its growth.

“This stage of our regeneration plan is a promising and exciting development to ensure the longevity of Brighton and Hove’s green spaces and woodlands,” said councillor Elaine Hills, who co-chair of the environment, transport and sustainability committee.

This is part of Brighton and Hove City Council’s ash dieback regeneration plan, which hopes to restore key woodlands and enhance the city’s woods for the future.

Replanting will continue over a period of three months at sites across the city in Woodingdean, Moulsecoomb and Westdene, as well as Wild Park, Coney Wood and Abinger Woods.

The council was granted felling licenses from the government’s Forestry Commission last year to remove infected trees to minimise the impact and reduce the risk to both the public and property.

So far, around 10,000 infected ash trees have been felled from woodlands across and the council anticipates that many more ash trees will need to be felled over the next few years.

Cllr Hills added: “Our ten-year maintenance programme will ensure that our new trees are well cared for and given the best possibility of survival.

“It’s a huge positive to see that replanting has begun this week and that 2024 will bring an additional 70,000 tree whips to our city.”