COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF RATHFARNHAM/TEMPLEOGUE-TERENURE AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

MOTION NO.1

MOTION: Councillor A-M. Dermody

"That the Chief Executive with the aid of a report provide an overall assessment of the arboricultural programme delivered to Councillors in 2014, with confirmation as to how much of the anticipated work was completed. Please also explain how the Chief Executive decides what works are to be done by its staff and what works are to be contracted out. Please confirm the total County budget for tree removal/pruning and of that budget what percentage was spent in Rathfarnham and whether or not these works fell within the budget allocated. Please can a monthly report feature as a headed item at all meetings going forward so that progress can be tracked."

REPORT:

A detailed progress report on the 2014 Tree Maintenance Programme listing locations where tree works had been completed was presented to the Rathfarnham Area Committee in April 2014. This report included a significant volume of additional works carried out during the programme period mainly as a result of severe storm damage in January 2014. The report also included a list of outstanding works to be undertaken when the programme resumed in November 2014. During the period from April – November, crews who undertake tree maintenance during winter and early spring were reassigned to grass cutting in keeping with the practice of previous years. In order to address this gap in the provision of a year round tree maintenance service and to enable continuity of progress with the annual Tree Maintenance Programme, a new initiative was introduced in 2014 whereby a dedicated tree crew was established from within the existing staff resource to undertake tree maintenance on a year round and county-wide basis. This crew has been operational since July 2014 and have completed a significant volume of tree pruning and removal works on whole estate basis in Knockcullen, Ashton and Templeroan estates. Within these estates, every tree was inspected and tree maintenance implemented as considered necessary. In this regard, the trees in these estates should require no further intervention for at least 5 years except in emergency situations. Since its establishment, the year round tree crew has also been implementing works on individual trees as listed in the 2014 Tree Maintenance Programme.

In November 2014, the Tree Maintenance Programme for the last 2 months of 2014 and for 2015 was presented to the Rathfarnham/Templeogue-Terenure Area Committee. This programme included the outstanding works as per the progress report in April 2014 with the addition of commitments given high priority for action during 2014 and tree works committed for 2015. The programme is ongoing with a number of crews progressing tree pruning and removal of individual trees and hedge cutting as listed. The Council’s tree stump removals crew is scheduled to move into the Rathfarnham area within the next 2-3 weeks to progress the removal of stumps and dead trees as listed.

In general, the Council engages the support of arboricultural contractors only when the skills required to deal with a particular tree issue are not available within its own staff resources.

In 2014, a total of €1.5m was committed to the tree programme. The final figures for expenditure on the programme in 2014 will not be available until the end of January. The approved budget for the Tree Programme in 2015 is €1.78m. The Council’s Financial Management System is not equipped to produce a breakdown of expenditure on the Tree Programme by electoral area. The ability to produce such a breakdown is further limited by the operational arrangement whereby crews undertaking tree maintenance work frequently work on a countywide basis in order to optimise and achieve efficient use of the staff skills and equipment available.

A statistical report on the Tree Maintenance Programme will be produced on a monthly basis and will form part of the upcoming Monthly Management Reports to the main Council meetings.