COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, September 10, 2018

QUESTION NO 19

QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor

To ask the Chief Executive if he appreciates the number of enquiries being received by Councillors and indeed directly to the Council in respect of Trees throughout the County; will he understand that there is concern in many of our communties that more urgent action is required in respect of many of the calls rather than referring the matter to the Maintenance Programme which prevents immediate attention, will he give assurances and make a statement.

REPLY: 

In line with the Council's Tree Management Policy 2015-2020 "Living With Trees", the focus of all future Tree Maintenance Programmes is on entire roads or whole estates. The objective of this approach is to increase the efficiency and productivity of the tree maintenance  and advance a proactive programme of cyclical pruning targeting priority locations where intervention is most needed.

The application of this more strategic and planned approach to tree maintenance commenced in the 2016 Tree Maintenance Programme.

In addition to the planned whole estate and road programme, reactive and emergency works will continue to be carried out on individually located trees as necessary in order to manage risks to the public. An emergency is defined as a tree that is in immediate and present danger of collapse or causing an obstruction requiring urgent attention. Emergency and reactive tree works will normally take priority over the planned programme of tree maintenance works in estates and it must be recognised that there is consequent impact on progress with the planned programme.

In order to further increase efficiency in planning and delivery of the Council’s tree maintenance service, a 3 Year Rolling Programme of Tree Maintenance is proposed for 2017, 2018 and 2019. This 3 year programme demonstrates further progress in developing a more strategic and planned approach to tree maintenance. The programme is informed and prioritised based on increased knowledge of the health and condition of our trees across the county and on cluster analysis of customer care enquiries as they relate to trees.  The proposed 3 year Programme of Tree Maintenance is a rolling programme to be reviewed annually and is published and regularly updated on the Council’s website www.sdcc.ie where it is can be accessed by elected members and members of the public.  

 The tree maintenance statistics for the last 3 years shows a year on year improvment in the level of tree maintenance.

 

2016

2017

End July 2018

Trees pruned

1616

1766

1160

Trees removed

706

1032

538

Trees planted

426

606

1469