Environmental Information Regulations 2004
Information Request 10936357
Please confirm the number, size and species of trees felled, (and reason for removal) or subject to a canopy reduction in excess of 25% by area of trees on Devon County Council land within Exeter City between November 2019 and January 2021
For County Estates:
Type and Amount of Trees Felled County Estates
In general, the reason for felling will come from a tree inspection and 2 years of premises tree inspections, that meet the criteria for felling. eg overwhelmingly cutting down re-diseased suckers of elm disease infected elm.
The first table slightly overstates the amount of felling because some 2019/2020 season works will have been carried out before November 2019.
It is worth noting Devon County Council are not actually killing most of these trees. It is rare to remove a stump, and, except where the tree has died for other reasons, they will usually regenerate. For this reason, it is often difficult to find unoccupied locations to replant replacements on some premises.
For Highways Felling:
The total number of trees felled between 01/11/2019 and 31/01/2021 is 329
The total number of trees that have had some form of crown reduction between 01/11/2019 and 31/01/2021 is 40
Some of the trees included in these figures will not be on Devon County Council land. But, the council will have taken action when unable to trace the owner, using powers under the Highways Act.
Specific reasons for the works carried out to each tree cannot be provided. But, all works will have been carried out for highway safety reasons, or because the tree was in Devon County Council ownership and a risk to private property.
To obtain size and species information for all trees, would require manual checking of each record. It would be unreasonable for the Council to do this, and as such the “manifestly unreasonable” exception applies to this information, as stipulated under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. For more information on this, visit the ICO’s website:
Manifestly unreasonable requests – regulation 12(4)(b) (ico.org.uk)
Please also confirm the number, size and species of all new trees planted on Devon County Council land within Exeter City between November 2019 and January 2021
The only tree planting undertaken on Devon County Council owned land in Exeter for which records are held, is a small planting scheme undertaken within County Halls grounds in November 2019 as a demonstration event with representatives of the Devon Youth Parliament and a few pupils from St. Leonards School. This involved the planting of 9 mixed broadleaves.
It is highly likely that some Exeter schools will have undertaken their own tree planting within relevant Devon County Council owned premises, but there is no centralised record of this.
The main tree planting that Devon County Council is supporting financially is being undertaken through the Saving Devon’s Treescapes project which is being led by the Devon Wildlife Trust on behalf of the Devon Ash Dieback Resilience Forum. Records of any Exeter sites where planting has been undertaken will be held directly by the Devon Wildlife Trust.
Homepage | Devon Wildlife Trust
Ash dieback in Devon | Taking action together (devonashdieback.org.uk)