COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, October 10, 2011

QUESTION NO. 1

QUESTION: Councillor C. Bond

To ask that the Manager please provide an update on the aboricultural programme?

REPLY:

The draft 2011 / 2012 Arboricultural Programme is nearing completion, having regard to the significant volume of requests received for work. It is expected that the Draft Programme will be ready for presentation to the Area Committees this month, starting with Tallaght Area Committee on 17th October. 

The Programme will again be focussed on tree maintenance works, rather than new plantings, in order to make best use of the resources available. Priority will be given to trees in the following categories:

• Dead and damaged trees.
• Trees in very close proximity to public lighting columns (less than 1.8m).
• Trees associated with lifting footpaths. 

Aside from these categories, works will be carried out to trees only where they are considered to be consistent with good arboricultural practice. Examples of this would be crown lifting (removal of lower branches), crown thinning (reducing the weight of large trees), pruning to deal with weak branch junctions, pruning to improve the shape of the tree and removal of suckers.

In order to optimise available resources, having regard to the Health & Safety and Traffic Management procedures that must be put in place, it is again intended to deal with trees on an estate by estate basis rather than on an individual request basis. Individual trees will generally only be dealt with if deemed to be a priority category or for some other exceptional reason.