1. How many trees does the council currently plan to fell (recommended for removal) over the next 12 months so far and why does it plan to fell them?
Devon County Council’s Premises and Highways tree inspections are not undertaken with any planed objective to remove a specific number of trees. Instead, trees are surveyed by qualified arboricultural inspectors, either as a result of (currently annual) scheduled inspections, or on being called in for specific ad hoc inspections by Premises Managers or Highways Officers. The Council takes action on those deemed by the expert inspectors to be dangerous or causing a hazard. Inspectors are remunerated in such a way as to be under no incentive to report any tree works other than those deemed absolutely necessary. Reasons for felling are overwhelmingly to remove safety concerns on premises and along highways (especially, at present, those relating to Elm disease and Ash dieback), but a small amount of work may take place to prevent damage to buildings or obstruction of traffic, signage, and lighting etc.
2. Has the council carried out any public consultation on the removal of these trees or does it have plans to do so. If so, could you please provide any detail on the number of objections/votes of support this decision has had? Please provide examples of objections and support in document form if this is possible.
These works are carried out to alleviate damage obstruction and hazard, on the basis of expert arboricultural advice, on those trees for which the Council holds some legal responsibility. The public are not invited to amend those expert recommendations, and we have no plans to involve them.
3. Does the council plan to replace any of the trees, if so how many?
Very few of those trees felled in response to the safety inspections are killed as a result of felling, so the vast majority of those felled will re-grow from their rootstock in situ. Nevertheless, Devon County Council’s “3,2,1” policy requires that all trees felled are replaced. (with 3 for a large tree, 2 for a medium tree and 1 for a small tree). As the felling sites are frequently occupied by the regrowth of those trees felled, replacement planting commonly occurs away from the site of felling.
4. If the cost limit has not yet been reached for this request, please provide the number of trees felled over the previous two financial years (2022/3) and (2021/2). If this will breach the cost limit, please ignore this question.
Premises, including School sites
- 2021/2022 – 604 Trees felled (of which 126 were Dutch Elm Disease infected Elm and 368 were Ash Dieback Disease infected Ash)
- 2022/2023 – 309 Trees felled (of which 143 were Dutch Elm Disease infected Elm and 93 were Ash Dieback Disease infected Ash)
Highways including WSP works.
Highways Trees
- 2021/2022 – 2568 trees felled
- 2022/2023 – 813 trees felled