COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF LUCAN AREA COMMITTEE

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

MOTION NO. 7

MOTION: Councillor G. O'Connell

Cathaoirleach's Business

"As a follow-up to the Tree Management Report at the November meeting that the Manager responsible bring forward a report specifically relating to trees in this LA that are the subject of local concern and that have been reported by councillors or residents as requiring attention (some may have found their way onto the programme, some not) and that a discussion take place on how such complaints are dealt with, leading to a realistic time frame for dealing with them."

REPORT:

The pruning, removal and planting of street trees is currently undertaken under the Council’s Annual Arboriculture Programme. The programme for the year ahead is normally presented to meetings of the Council’s Area Committees in November. The development of the Annual Arboriculture Programme has largely evolved each year in response to requests for tree maintenance works received from members of the public and public representatives via the Customer Care Contact System. 

The Council’s Customer Contact System is usually the first point of contact for all enquiries and complaints from the public, including those relating to trees. Details of the customer’s name, address, contact details, nature of the enquiry and location of the enquiry are logged into the Customer Contact System. Tree-related enquiries are then referred to the Council's Public Realm section for response. Any tree-related emergencies are referred for immediate action in accordance with the Council’s emergency procedures. An emergency is defined as a tree that is in immediate danger of collapse or a tree that is causing an obstruction requiring urgent attention. 

For non-emergency tree enquiries, wherever a site inspection is not required, customers will be informed of the Council's relevant policy as soon as possible after receipt of an enquiry. Where a site inspection is considered necessary, we are endeavouring to inform customers that such a site inspection will be undertaken after which the customer will be notified of what action, if any, is considered appropriate. 

In order to make most efficient use of the Council’s staff resource who undertake tree inspections, non-emergency inspections are normally undertaken when there is sufficient number of tree inspections listed for undertaking within a particular geographic area.  Priority for inspection of requests for tree pruning or removal will be given to those that comply with the criteria for tree pruning removal works as specified in the Council's Tree Management Policy 'Living With Trees'.  During 2015, additional staff resources have been applied to tree inspections and progress is being made to reduce the timeframe for tree inspections and revert with a response to the customer.

Each inspection involves an assessment of the tree’s health and condition, and identifies if any work is required, having regard also to any issues raised in an enquiry that has been received in relation to a specific tree.  Following inspection, where it is identified that tree works are required, they are categorised and will be included for attention in a future Tree Maintenance Programme.  The timeframe for action will be in accordance with a priority based system as outlined in the Council's Tree Management Policy 'Living With Trees'. 

Occasionally, following inspection, the response to a tree-related customer enquiry is not in line with the customer's opinion and this is sometimes interpreted as lack of action by the Council.  This particularly occurs where trees conflict with people and infrastructure which creates objectives and unwarranted pressures for trees to be pruned or felled. The Council recognises that trees under its ownership/management may be implicated in causing damage to nearby built structures but is also aware that this is not always the case and that nearby trees often get blamed for damage before a thorough investigation is carried out. Some other reasons for structural failure are inadequate foundation design, general structural failure, poor quality construction, nearby excavations or major works to adjacent properties.  Property owners will be expected to provide evidence that a particular tree is causing damage to the property and that all reasonable engineering alternatives have been explored before felling will be considered.  Similarly, where trees are considered to be in conflict with infrastructure or the built environment on land in public ownership, the removal of healthy trees will only be considered as a last resort when the prevailing issue cannot be otherwise mitigated.

This approach to the handling of customer enquiries relating to trees is in effect reactive rather than planned.  However, it is widely accepted that having regard to available resources and to the Health & Safety and Traffic Management procedures that must be put in place, this reactive approach to tree maintenance is not an efficient use of resources to maintain trees in a safe and healthy condition.

The Tree Maintenance Programme for 2015 is primarily based on reactive responses and represents the completion of outstanding works from 2014 with the addition of tree works committed for 2015.  Following presentation of the 2015 Tree Maintenance Programme to meetings of the Council’s Area Committees in November 2014, it emerged that there were commitments for tree maintenance outstanding from preceding years.  A number of elected representatives notified these commitments to the Council and these have been incorporated as additions to the 2015 programme in order to clear the backlog of commitments given. 

One of the factors identified as contributing to the backlog of tree maintenance commitments from successive years has been pressures to accommodate additional requests for tree maintenance works within the approved annual programmes without application of additional resources.  In order to ensure that this factor does not continue to be perpetuated, no further new additions have been made to the 2015 programme with the exception of emergency situations as defined above. 

From 2016, in line with the Council's Tree Management Policy 2015-2020 "Living With Trees", the focus of the 2016 Tree Maintenance Programme will be on entire roads or whole estates. This represents a move away from reactive pruning of individual trees on a one off basis to a planned programme of maintenance. The objective of this approach is to increase the efficiency and productivity of the tree maintenance crews and to advance a proactive programme of cyclical pruning that is targeted at priority locations where intervention is most needed to yield wider community benefit.  Having a planned approach also reduces the risk of tree failure and nuisance to residents, and will help to pre-empt complaints and meet the majority of customer requirements for tree works.

The estates which will be prioritised for tree maintenance in 2016 will be those outstanding from the current year's programme and those where there are significant clusters of individual trees that have been surveyed and a requirement for works has been identified.

It is of course acknowledged that there will always be a need to carry out reactive or emergency tree works on isolated individual trees, although the quantity of this work should reduce over time as the cyclical work is embedded. Reactive or emergency works will be carried out primarily to manage risks to the public and will include felling dead trees, removing hazardous branches, clearing obstructions to sightlines and infrastructure and undertaking works as necessary to storm damaged trees.

The 2016 Tree Maintenance Programme of whole estates will be presented in spring 2016 following completion of outstanding commitments from the 2015 Tree Maintenance Programme for individual tree pruning.  The 2016 Tree Maintenance Programme will be published and regularly updated on the 'Trees' page on the Council's website www.sdublinccoco.ie where elected members and members of the public will be able to readily access and follow progress of the programme.