COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF RATHFARNHAM / TEMPLEOGUE / FIRHOUSE / BOHERNABREENA AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

MOTION NO. 2

MOTION: Councillor Carly Bailey

To ask the Manager to give the committee an update on motions I put forward in relation to five year tree planting programmes for Greenhills, Perrystown and Walkinstown areas of Dublin 12, including an evaluation of the tree pit pilot conducted on St. Josephs Road.

REPORT:

To date the tree planting programme has been prepared and presented to the area committees on an annual basis.  It is proposed to continue to do so due to the large amount of detail required to be included in the programme such as precise locations for tree planting as well as tree species at each location.  Each location must be inspected on site to determine if there are any on-site constraints such as available width of the grass margin, the potential for conflict with domestic entrances etc.  There is also a need to examine services and utilities maps to establish if there is any possible conflict with watermains, sewers or other utilities at the locations chosen for tree planting.

It is proposed that the tree planting programme for 2023 will be presented to the area committees at the meetings in November.  As well as a detailed planting plan for 2023 the report to be presented to this area committee will include an outline plan for the years 2024 to '27 indicating the roads and estates to be included in those future years. It will only be possible to include detailed locations and tree types for 2023 at this time,  the detailed plan for future years indicating location and tree type will continue to be provided on an annual basis as has been the case to date.

The planting of 5 trees in specially constructed tree pits at St Joseph's Road is considered to be successful.  The main issue that this approach presents however is financial, the costs associated with the project were in the region of €10,000 per pit and these costs would increase substantially in the current climate.  This level of expenditure would equate to the planting of approximately 50 trees in normal tree planting conditions where no pit construction is required.