COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, November 09, 2015

QUESTION NO.26

QUESTION: Councillor D. O'Donovan

To ask the Chief Executive how many trees will be planted throughout the County in the coming Tree Programme, broken down by each electoral area.

REPLY:

In recent years, due to an increasing demand for maintenance to be carried out on the c. 60,000 existing trees, the Council has focussed the use of its resources on tree pruning and removal activity.  

As stated in the recently adopted Tree Management Policy "Living With Trees", the Council aims to identify an annual target and budget for tree planting to re-establish its commitment to a countywide programme of tree planting.  Over the coming months, it is planned to prepare a tree planting programme for spring and late autumn 2016, an additional 50,000 Euro has been provided in the 2016 Budget to provide for the planting of an extra 1,000 trees next year.  The extent of the tree planting programme will be determined by areas where trees have been removed or where there is an identified need to increase the overall tree cover.  Requests from Council members and local residents for new trees in their streets or areas will also be taken into consideration within the planting programme. Individual requests will be prioritised according to the number of trees already on the street, including those in front gardens and on adjacent land.

Details of a proposed tree planting programme in 2016 will be presented to meetings of the Council's Area Committees early in 2016.