COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, September 22, 2014

QUESTION NO.34

QUESTION: Councillor D. O'Donovan

To ask the Chief Executive how many requests for tree pruning and tree removal the Council have received over the past three years and how many trees have been pruned and removed throughout the area during the past three years?

REPLY:

The Council receives requests for tree maintenance work from Public Representatives and members of the public via the Council's Customer Care Contact System.  The following is an analysis of tree enquiries received over the 3-year period August 31, 2011 to September 1, 2014. 
 

ANALYSIS OF TREE ENQUIRES ON CUSTOMER CARE CONTACT SYSTEM 2011-2014
	Aug 31.2011 -Sept 1.2012	Aug 31.2012 -Sept 1.2013	Aug 31.2013 -Sept 1.2014
Total Requests	1596	2113	4220
Tree Planting	85	99	147
Tree Pruning	852	1309	2882
Tree Removal	659	706	1191

The increasing number of requests for tree maintenance work is a reflection of the increasing maturity of the street tree population in certain parts of the Council's administrative area such as the long established neighbourhoods of Rathfarnham, Terenure, Templeogue, Clondalkin, Palmerstown and Lucan, coupled more recently with public reaction to the unprecedented storm damage to trees early in 2014.  It is however important to recognise that not all of the requests for tree maintenance received by the Council require action and that not all trees require management intervention during their lifecycle.  Priority for tree maintenance work is given to trees that are dead or damaged, in very close proximity to public lighting columns (less than 1.8m), trees associated with lifting footpaths or in conflict with overhead utility cables.

The following is a summary of the annual figures for trees pruned or removed from 2012 to date: 

Tree Maintenance Works Completed 2012-2014
	2012	2013	2014 to date
Total no. of trees pruned or removed	954	1148	1528

The additional numbers achieved during the current year are largely attributable to the deployment since May 2014 of a tree maintenance crew, assembled from staff within the Public Realm Section, to undertake street tree pruning and removal works on a year round basis.  This crew is opertating in addition to the seasonal tree maintenance crews who operate over a 4-month period between November to February. 

The Tree Maintenance Programme for the latter part of the 2014 and 2015 is currently being compiled in tandem with a review of the Council's approach to tree management to ensure increased productivity of our tree maintenance operations in line with the increase in requests for tree maintenance works.