HIGHWAYS Agency staff across Lancashire are getting ready for a busy Autumn as they prepare to plant thousands of trees alongside the county's motorway and trunk road network.

Since 1958 the agency has planted nearly 50million trees and shrubs and is planting these further trees as part of National Tree Work, which starts today.

Highways Agency principal environment advisor, Roger Wright, said: "The agency is the major planter of indigenous broad-leaved trees and shrubs in England. We welcome National Tree Week as a way of alerting the general public to the importance of trees and shrubs to our environment."