COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, December 08, 2014

QUESTION NO. 28

QUESTION: Councillor D. O'Donovan

To ask the Chief Executive what criteria was used by the council when choosing which estates with written confirmation of their inclusion in the tree pruning programme, would be excluded from this years's amended tree pruning programme?

REPLY:

The Tree Maintenance Programme for Winter 2014 / 2015 as presented to the November meetings of the four Area Committees represents the completion of outstanding works from 2014 with the addition of commitments given high priority for action during 2014 and tree works committed for 2015. Priority in 2015 is particularly being given to completing tree maintenance works on individual street trees where commitments have been outstanding over a prolonged period. As outlined in the recent presentations to the Area Committees, when the backlog of outstanding commitments for tree maintenance of individual trees has been addressed, the Council’s aim is to move towards more efficient, cost effective proactive management of the County’s street tree population. The focus of tree maintenance works will be on advancing a programme of planned cyclical tree maintenance on an estate by estate basis rather than reacting to isolated individual requests. Individual trees will only be dealt with if deemed to be a priority category or emergency situation.

In compiling the Tree Maintenance Programme for 2015, a review of the lists of individual trees and of whole estates outstanding from 2014 was undertaken having regard to the reality of available resources. Within the Terenure/Templeogue, Rathfarnham and Tallaght Central electoral areas, there is a particularly high number of commitments for tree maintenance on individual trees. The whole estates prioritised for inclusion in the 2015 Programme for all electoral areas were those where there is a concentration of individual trees requiring maintenance. In consideration of available resources and the Health & Safety and Traffic Management procedures that must be put in place to undertake work on individual trees, the completion of tree maintenance in an entire estate where there is a number of existing commitments for works on individual trees, represents a more efficient use of the Council’s tree maintenance resources. In the context of the above, there were a small number of estates outstanding from 2014 which have not been carried forward and prioritised for pruning in 2015. These estates will be prioritised for tree maintenance in line with the Council’s planned move towards completing trees on an estate by estate basis as soon as the outstanding commitments for maintenance of individual trees as listed in the Tree Maintenance Programme for 2015 has been completed.