COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, June 08, 2015

QUESTION NO. 27

QUESTION: Councillor D. O'Donovan

To ask the Chief Executive how many tree pruning and removal requests has SDCC received over the past 12 months, broken down by electoral area please and how do these figures compare to the previous 12 months?

REPLY:

The Council’s Customer Contact System is usually the first point of contact for enquiries and complaints from the public, including those relating to trees. All enquiries are logged into the system and all tree-related requests are assigned into one of 3 categories: tree pruning, tree removal and tree planting. The system does not currently have the capacity to assign enquiries to electoral area or to interrogate data based on electoral area. The following is therefore an analysis of all tree-related enquiries received for the South Dublin administrative area for each 12-month period between June 1, 2013 and May 27, 2015: 

     Analysis of Tree Maintenance Requests June 1, 2013 – May 27, 2015
 Period  No. Tree Pruning Requests  No. Tree Removal Requests No. Tree Planting Requests  Total Tree-Related Enquiries 
 June 1, 2014 – May 27, 2015 1950  1328  164  3442
 June 1, 2013 – May 31, 2014 1811  1154  159  3124
 Difference  + 139  + 174  + 5  318
 % Difference  + 8%  + 15%  + 3%  + 10%

Requests for tree maintenance has increased over the period as shown. This is partly reflective of an ageing and maturing tree population, particularly in long established neighbourhoods of Rathfarnham, Tallaght, Terenure, Templeogue, Clondalkin, Palmerstown and Lucan, where tree maintenance is required in order to sustain the health and viability of these trees into the future. It has also been prompted by a growing public awareness and concern with regard to trees arising from damage to trees during the severe storms of recent times and associated perceptions that all trees require regular maintenance. In addition, the obligation on property owners to pay Property Tax is concentrating increased demand on Council services including tree maintenance. 

It is important to note that while the above figures indicate the nos. of tree-related enquiries received by the Council, when these queries are subsequently inspected by Council staff, not all of the requests require follow-up tree maintenance.