COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, November 12, 2012

QUESTION NO.15

QUESTION: Councillor D. Looney

To ask the Manager to provide electoral area level statistics for the numbers of trees pruned and removed in the 2011-12 Arboricultural Programme; to state if it is currently in the Council's plans for the 2013 Budget to maintain or increase the funding available for this vital work; to ask if the Manager believes there are particular areas of the County where tree pruning and/or removal is viewed as a particular priority; and to make a statement on the matter?

REPLY:

The Arboricultural Programme is organised, prepared and presented on an Area Committee basis. The 2012 Arboricultural Programme was presented to the Area Committees in November / December 2011 and commenced in January 2012 to be undertaken in two phases:

·        January 2012 to March 2012

·        November 2012 to December 2012

Progress reports for the Arboricultural Programme 2012, were presented to the April / May Area Committees earlier this year and further updates are being provided as part of the prepartion of the 2013 Arboricultural Programme. While the statistics requested are not immediately available on an electoral area basis, arrangements will be made to prepare a report on this basis for circulation to the Members.

Provision will be made in Division F of the draft Revenue Budget 2013 for the Arboricultural Programme. 

In relation to programming work on trees in the county, priority is 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. 
• Trees in conflict with overhead utility cables.

There are trees located all around the county which fall into one or more of these categories. However, as a general guide, the older parts of the county are associated with the oldest trees. These areas are also likely to have higher numbers of trees falling into one or more of the above categories. For this reason, the Arboricltural Programme has in recent years been more focussed on maintenance rather than new plantings. 

Aside from these categories, works are carried out to trees only where they are considered to be consistent with good arboricultural practice. Examples of this would include crown lifting (removal of lower branches), crown thinning (reducing the weight of large trees), formative pruning, which deals with issues like crossing branches, weak branch junctions, removal of suckers and epicormic growth and pruning to improve the shape of the tree having regard to its natural growth habit.