Family roots honoured by new trees planted on Worthing’s Sompting Avenue

The initiative is the result of a partnership between Worthing Borough Council and Trees For Streets[1], a charity that helps individuals and businesses sponsor the addition of new trees to their local communities.

Increasing the number of trees in towns and cities has a wealth of benefits for residents, local wildlife and the wider environment. But as well as breathing new life into the streets of Worthing and enhancing the environment, the trees sponsored by Roffey Homes have personal unique significance. Located on Sompting Avenue in the north of the town, the site for the new trees was specifically chosen by Managing Director Ben Cheal for its important role in his family’s heritage.

Sompting Avenue was where Ben’s parents had their first home together and was also where Ben’s grandfather Reginald Cheal laid the foundations for the Roffey Homes business, by developing his first couple of houses and starting to turn what was originally a cul-de-sac into the avenue it is today. Reginald established Roffey Homes in Worthing in 1960, and the company has remained family-run and firmly embedded in the local community ever since. The business still operates from its original office in Cheals Mews in the town centre – which itself was constructed by Ben’s great-grandfather (also named Ben) in the 1930s.

Ben states: “My father has a long history of secretly planting acorns in and around Ferring, and so when we saw a press release on the partnership between Worthing Borough Council and Trees for Streets, a national tree sponsorship scheme and charity, we decided to donate. When they included Sompting Avenue in the list of possible streets to plant the trees, we jumped on it due to the close history we have with this Avenue as well as the visual impact it will have as people enter our town. We look forward to seeing Sompting Avenue turn into a tree-lined avenue!”

According to a 2019 report by the European Environment Agency[2], enhancing green spaces in urban areas offers a “triple win”: improving the well-being of residents, boosting biodiversity and improving habitats for local wildlife, and encouraging people to come together and spend time outside. In hot weather, trees provide extra shade and produce a cooling effect as water evaporates from their leaves. Increasing tree cover also has particular benefits for seaside towns; air pollution tends to rise during the summer as tourists head to the beach for their holidays, but trees remove pollution from the air by catching particles on their leaves.

Roffey Homes’ trees were planted at the end of April 2024 and are ‘instant impact’ trees – every tree in the scheme is aged between 5 and 7 years old when it is planted, so sponsors and residents can see the results of the initiative immediately.

Beyond their immediate environmental and community benefits, these trees serve as a living legacy: honouring the past while contributing to a greener, more beautiful Worthing for generations to come.

[1] https://www.treesforstreets.org/

[2] https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/healthy-environment-healthy-lives