I would like to know the following, for over the past 10 years:
1. The locations of trees removed by your authority due to property or infrastructure damage, ideally accompanied by their species and the date of removal where possible (locations via GIS data, What3Words, OS coordinates, or addresses as you find easiest).
2. How many of/which of these trees were removed due to claims or requests from insurance companies.
3. How much the council paid to remove each tree (if this can be attributed per removal, or how much the council spent on tree removal each financial year if not).
4. How much the council paid out in insurance claims for tree damage to properties (individual claim values preferred, but an aggregate value may be acceptable if the council considers the individual values to be exempt from disclosure).
£12,200.3 has been paid in compensation over the last 10 years. The individual breakdowns are as follows:
£261.6
£519
£1,987.5
£2,545.2
£6,887
5. The number of trees where removal has been requested, but was either refused, an alternative solution found, or the situation is still ongoing; any breakdown that can be provided (similar to above, e.g, species and location) would be appreciated.
For questions 1, 2, 3 and 5, compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate cost limit under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time. We would have to check 1,800 records to retrieve this information and at least a minute to check per record, this would be 30 hours of work and over the 18 hours of officer time.
Under the Act, there is a duty to provide advice and assistance as to how a request can be refined to fit within the appropriate limit. Unfortunately, due to the way the data is held, this is not possible for this request.