Controversial plans to spend millions of pounds to create a new Norfolk country park, to help a council hit its tree-planting targets, have stalled.
Norfolk County Council leaders have confirmed the proposal, which would involve County Hall buying about 800 acres of land, is currently "under review".
A year ago, the Conservative-controlled council, which recently agreed £42m of cuts and savings, said it intended to buy land, using taxpayers' money, to create the country park.
A new country park could be built in Norfolk
The council said 500,000 trees could be planted on that land, to help hit its aim of planting one million new trees by 2025, which the authority set in November 2019.
But the proposal came in for criticism from opposition councillors, who branded it a "desperate bid" by Tory leaders to avoid the embarrassment of failing to hit its tree-planting target, rather than a carefully considered proposal.
Labour county councillor Chrissie Rumsby (Image: Labour Party)
At a recent meeting of the council's cabinet, Labour county councillor Chrissie Rumsby, who represents Norwich's Mile Cross division, questioned what had happened to the plan.
James Bensly (Image: Norfolk Conservatives)
James Bensly, the council's cabinet member for environment and waste, said: "The case for woodland creation in Norfolk is a strong one, not only to help fulfil our commitment to plant one million trees across the county but to help provide important benefits such as carbon storage, biodiversity, and areas for recreation.
"The country park proposal is currently under review to explore new funding models and to look at various partnerships and new approaches which could help the council fulfil this aim."
A location has not been identified, although officers favour finding a site in south Norfolk.
The cost has not been revealed, but council documents stated the project had "significant financial implications".
Norfolk County Council's County Hall headquarters (Image: Mike Page)
Norfolk has planted 465,291 trees towards its one million trees target.
Council leaders blamed the coronavirus pandemic for delaying its tree-planting efforts.
The council recently put forward a bid to create new woodland in Norfolk and Suffolk - but missed out on money.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is running a multi-million-pound grant funding competition to identify a new Forest for the Nation.
One overall winner who will get up to £10m towards the project - but Norfolk's bid did not make it past the first round.
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